Lysa Karell

 THE ARTIST

Lysa Karell situates her work within the continuity of demanding studios, where the precision of drawing meets the discipline of painting. Portraitist, painter, illustrator, naturalist and anatomist, she works with pastel, black stone, graphite and oil paint, maintaining a constant attention to the accuracy of forms, values and textures.

Her practice rests on a simple principle: everything begins with the gaze. Each portrait is born from the eyes, the first gesture on the surface, the first breath of presence. When the gaze comes alive, the image becomes inhabited; the rest of the face or body is then built with method, rigor and patience, until achieving a likeness that is faithful, living and precise.

This search for soul aligns with what nourishes her: the calm of the ocean, the strength of silence, and her attachment to an intimate Italy made of studios, marble, and immemorial winds.

She also carries the memory of Irish, Franco-German and ancient Indigenous roots, an interlacing of cultures and lands that inspire her vision, between Celtic breath, European rigor and the wisdom of the First Nations, in a profound respect for life and for balance between beings and the earth.

Her art is anchored in observation, patience and fidelity to reality: a body of work where every line seeks the truth of the model, and where painting, like drawing, becomes an act of presence.

THE HUMAN PORTRAIT

At the heart of her work stands the realistic human portrait, a place of study, precision and truth. Lysa Karell strives to translate as faithfully as possible the likeness of the model while conveying the light and the presence unique to each being.

Her approach is based on a meticulous observation of forms, values, volumes and balances, with constant attention to anatomical accuracy and proportion. Each portrait is built with method and patience: the balance of masses, the transitions between shadow and light, the harmony of tones and the discipline of the drawing.

Nothing is left to chance: composition, structure and light converge until the face comes to life precise, inhabited, faithful. In this art of absolute attention, every line becomes a promise of truth. For Lysa Karell, the portrait does not imitate; it recognizes. It reveals the dignity of the subject and turns realism into a form of homage to life itself.

THE ANIMAL PORTRAIT

A turning point came with the arrival of Daividh Gilmour, a Shetland with heterochromatic eyes and unwavering companionship. Originally from Scotland, Daividh became for Lysa Karell both artistic and symbolic catalyst: through him, realistic animal portraiture imposed itself as an evidence, naturally extending her exploration of presence and the truth of living beings.

The name Daividh, written in Scottish Gaelic, evokes both David Gilmour of Pink Floyd—whose notes seem to rise from the sea and Michelangelo’s David, timeless figure of sculptural perfection. This double reference, musical and artistic, embodies the meeting of two worlds dear to the artist: vibration and composition.

In her animal portraits, Lysa Karell gives the utmost attention to the expression of the eyes, to the accuracy of volumes, and to the texture of the coat, worked with meticulous care until depth and natural light emerge. Each piece requires hours of observation and layered work: study of values, control of transitions, coherence of modelling.

Under her hand, every four-legged muse becomes memory, presence and reflection of the soul a tribute to the silent bond between human and animal.

INFLUENCES

The star around which everything revolves is Sandro Botticelli, first love and source of revelation. The Venus embodies for Lysa Karell the birth of the gaze an alliance of grace, truth and creative strength. It is in this light that she anchors her own practice, between classical discipline and living presence.

Around this central star stand the masters who sharpen her vision: Fra Angelico, for sacred light and purity of gesture; Caravaggio, for the dramatic tension of chiaroscuro; Leonardo da Vinci, for the science of detail and anatomical thought; Albrecht Dürer, for the rigor of the line, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, for naturalistic perfection, the poetry of light, and the science of the vegetal, Gustave Moreau, for symbolic power, Alexandre Cabanel, for the nobility of classical faces.

To these pictorial lineages corresponds a more contemporary graphic vein: the narrative vitality of Walt Disney, for his ability to breathe movement and life into drawing, and the dark elegance of Charles Addams, for the beauty of strangeness and the poetry of contrast. Two complementary poles one solar, the other nocturnal between which her hand finds its balance.

Her imagination grows in a dialogue between painting and sculpture, but also between matter and mystery: fascination for ancient statues, marble faces, the memory of silhouettes fixed in stone, and a deep attraction to cultures where death becomes light.

New Orleans and its myths, Mexico and its calaveras, the Day of the Dead where the skeleton becomes a symbol of joy and continuity. Between these worlds, Lysa Karell explores transition, the silence of matter and the voice of spirits, the stillness of gesture and the dance of remembrance. Everything converges toward one aim: to capture the soul of what lives whether it breathes in flesh or in the memory of the dead.

TRAINING

Lysa Karell’s practice was shaped through a balance between formal learning and self-directed exploration, at the crossroads of recognized institutions and freer paths. An academic and international trajectory where the rigor of line meets the creative freedom of a rebellious spirit, carried by wind and instinct.

Drawing and Painting (academic). Her training was built under Canadian, American, French, Lebanese, British, Brazilian and Cartagena teachers, refining her discipline in line, value and pictorial technique.

Art History. Advanced programs followed at Sorbonne University (Paris) and UQAM (Montreal) nurtured an approach both historical and sensitive.

Sorbonne University: a transversal study of major cultural areas and periods, from Antiquity to contemporary times, with a focus on the Italian Renaissance, its symbolism and its influence on modern and contemporary creation.

UQAM: training focused on Indigenous arts and contemporary cultural dialogues, broadening reflection on the plurality of artistic heritage.

Specialized courses at the RMN–Grand Palais and the Centre Pompidou, consolidating a rigorous methodological foundation and a symbolic reading of artworks.

This trajectory revives the spirit of the bottega: a place where study and transmission elevate the gesture, and where knowledge transforms into pictorial emotion.

LA BOTTEGA DEL VENTO

The heart of Lysa Karell’s practice, this space is inspired by the Italian Renaissance workshops (botteghe) and perpetuates a model of study based on rigor, transmission and technical mastery.

It is here that Lysa Karell conceives and develops her portraits, anatomical studies, naturalist drawings and symbolic creations. La Bottega Del Vento functions as a workshop of research and creation, where experimentation relies on the discipline of drawing and the deep understanding of form.

Lysa Karell has taught drawing and painting there, transmitting to students the precision of line, the study of values and the observation of anatomical structures. She now dedicates herself entirely to the production of her works and the refinement of her methods.

La Bottega Del Vento remains a demanding workspace, faithful to the spirit of past ateliers: a place where technique supports thought, and where every piece arises from thorough study.

ATROPA PARCAE · DEL VENTO — GRAND GALLERY

An extension of La Bottega Del Vento, Atropa Parcae offers art editions and symbolic creations: myths, talismans, vévés, signs and icons. It reveals the singular universe of Lysa Karell her taste for black and white, for cinema, for mythical figures and ancient symbols, as well as her attraction to bestiaries and marine worlds, where sea, shells and the memory of water meet the depth of matter.

Del Vento — Grand Gallery links the artist’s hand to contemporary dissemination: a bridge between tradition and modernity, where each print is conceived as an art edition faithful to the original works.

Through this work, Lysa Karell explores the pure, timeless essence of drawing. Her creations are rooted in the iconography of Byzantine icons and medieval engravings, where the strength of line reveals the invisible.

Atropa Parcae thus appears as a house of symbols, where the black line becomes an inner language, heir to a visual tradition that Lysa Karell reinvents with singular vision.

CHRONIQUES D’HISTOIRE DE L’ART · LA DERNIÈRE VÉNUS

 In continuity with her pictorial practice, Lysa Karell devotes part of her work to the study and writing of art. Her Art History Chronicles explore the gaze, the construction of images, and the dialogue between centuries. They seek to understand how artworks continue to speak to those who contemplate them, and how the discipline of an old master can still sustain contemporary creation.

The Last Vénus, inspired by the figure of Simonetta Vespucci, defines their visual and intellectual direction. It opens a space where analysis meets sensibility, where the language of images becomes reflection and legacy. These chronicles, currently in preparation, carry the same pursuit of truth and depth that guides all of her work.

CHRONIQUES LITTÉRAIRES · DE SHAKESPEARE À SENÉCAL

Born from a deep interest in reading, the psychology of characters and human truth, these chronicles extend Lysa Karell’s curiosity for human nature. She writes about the works that move her, past or present, with the same attentive gaze she brings to her portraits. Whether it is an ancient narrative, Dante Alighieri, or a contemporary novel, Freida McFadden, she reads to uncover what runs through all writing the human truth, inner tension, and that pulse that remains once the book is closed.

COMMITMENTS

Lysa Karell’s art is grounded in an ethics of respect and responsibility. Sensitive to biodiversity and animal welfare, she supports organizations such as WWF-Canada and Maison d’Ariane, which assists women and children in precarious situations.

To date, she has donated more than a hundred illustrations to Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital, during the holiday season, in homage to the resilience and strength of young patients.

Every work, every project carries this attention to dignity, protection and remembrance. At the heart of her approach lies the conviction that to create is also to care for the world, for form, and for the mark we leave upon it.