Faculty of Design

Illustration

Alexandra Sevazlian

(01) babcia and brother

An oil painting of an old family photograph of my grandmother and her brother in the 1980s. One of two oil paintings displayed at Youngplace Hallway Galleries, as part of my Illustrative Painting class' exhibiton, 'Major Works' in April 2026.

“My work explores looking into a candid moment, seeing the interest and beauty in the mundane, and the universality of human gathering. I used old family photographs as reference, particularly unplanned photos – those in which people are existing honestly, not posing, unaware or unbothered by the photo being taken. The two photos I chose to paint, one from my mother’s family and the other from my father’s, come from different countries and decades, but contain similarities through a gathering of family and everyday environments of home. The paintings are relatively small, to reflect the intimate nature of looking at a physical photograph. I left bits of my underpainting – a initial base layer of paint – exposed as part of the finished pieces, echoing a blurriness of memory. The lace acts as a connector between these two separate moments, as well as reflecting imagery within the paintings, a vintage style, and wear through time. ”