Art & Life with Sydney Lumbreras Clifton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Lumbreras Clifton.

Sydney, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I come from a lot of places and have had an abundance of amazing experiences and opportunities which have nourished my art spirit. I was born into a military family and grew up in Texas before moving to Georgia. In Georgia I grew up in Cobb County. Around the time we came to Georgia I borrowed a little book about Degas from my older sister and fell in love with his 14-year-old dancer sculpture. It made me want to be an artist. At the end of middle school my then art teacher recommended me to be in a high school art magnet then called North Atlanta School of the Arts and I was accepted.

I was lovingly and painstakingly trained by awesome teachers and artists. They trained both my mind and my hand. I then went to UGA and pursued a BFA in painting. UGA was amazing and helped me grow even more, I got to go to Italy with them and I discovered religious icons which changed my life and my work deeply. In them I found inspiration to combine my interest in figure, portrait and my love of pattern and spirituality. I have lived in Athens since and now work as a Spanish teacher as well, but art is an has always been who I am and what makes me unique, thoughtful and observant of people and the beauty in them.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I paint and draw people mostly. I combine figure or portrait and pattern. My work does have religious undertones, due to my upbringing and my artistic influences from religious icons. The majority of my work celebrates the beauty and strength of women. On a day to day basis, right now, I come home from teaching and then open up a pad of paper and start drawing a person, then I will begin to wrap and weave a pattern around them. When I oil paint, I choose a subject, photograph them, do an underpainting in acrylic and then paint on top in layers of colors in oil. My visual work is inspired by my interest and love for people and their uniqueness and how we connect to them. I think I draw and paint mostly women because I am a woman, and I understand their experience the most. I like using my work to help people look more closely at the intricacy of life that surrounds us and lives inside of us. I hope women feel beautiful and good about who and how they are when they look at my work.

Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
My advice would be to keep working at what you love. Every drawing makes you better and teaches you something.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My work is available to view online in a couple of places.

My art Instagram is: @luisaluminosa

My art website is: sydneylclifton.squarespace.com

My Tumblr is: sydneylouiseclifton
of colors and words

My etsy: SydneyCliftonArt

My writing blog: ofcolorsandwords.blogspot.com

Contact Info:

• Website: sydneylclifton.squarespace.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @luisaluminosa

 Image Credit:
Photos of my work courtesy of Leslie West Photo

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