Interview with Visual Artist Chayim Shvarzblat

An artist and professor by vocation, Chayim Shvarzblat from Lakewood, New Jersey, has managed to capture a great diversity of feelings and ideas through his brush. He considers art as his life, since he dedicates most of his time to creating original works, where he manages to transmit his emotions and thoughts.

His unique expressionist-abstract style has allowed him to position himself in important and well-attended exhibitions in cities around the world, since his talent cannot avoid being admired by art lovers. In addition, Chayim Shvarzblat has also dedicated himself to sculpture with the wise management of various materials.

Spontaneous and fun is the essence of this brilliant artist, who, in an exclusive interview talked about his history, inspirations and techniques of his greatest passion: painting.

How was your artistic passion born?

Chayim Shvarzblat: Naturally, intuitively, formatively and professionally. As a child, I spent hours and hours drawing as a natural gesture, and the interest grew in my formative years when I started painting at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Being a professor has also encouraged me to research and experiment.

Tell us a bit about your style: what stages have made you the artist you are today?

Chayim Shvarzblat: Fauvism and expressionism are the stages that I investigated in my training, those that I took as a reference and those that marked me in the evolution of my own eclectic style.

What is your work process when creating a new artistic project?

Chayim Shvarzblat: Drawing plans and sketches are the first steps that generate an idea for the narration of the painting. Until not long ago, it was the composition process that generated the forms and elements in a surrealist evolution exempt from any previous phase. A direct confrontation with the blank canvas.

Who is your artist role model?

Chayim Shvarzblat: There are many artists that I like, especially those from the last century. But, if I had to pick a few, Matisse for the strength of color, Picasso for his stroke and De Kooning for his heartbreaking brushwork.

How do you turn your fantasy into art, where do you find your inspiration?

Chayim Shvarzblat: In the own pleasure of drawing and being in contact with the materials. Ideas arise spontaneously. Generally the narrative is articulated later, except in commissioned works where the images win in narratives but seek not to lose spontaneity.

Has it ever happened to you to put something very personal in your work and prefer that nobody see it?

Chayim Shvarzblat: Very few times, right now I only remember two personal works that I kept for myself.

What are the works that you recognize as the most representative of your art?

Chayim Shvarzblat: It is one of my first works, from when I was studying Fine Arts. Perhaps the most fluid work for different reasons, for disinhibited by the creative space and for being the bearer of my first style.

If you had to describe to yourself, as an artist, what adjectives would you choose?

Chayim Shvarzblat: Spontaneous, colorful, fluid and expressive.