The paintings of French artist Pandora Decoster read like a love affair with the forms and shapes of waves, surfboards and the female figure. This visual romance comes from Decoster’s experience as a surfer and arrive on the canvas as a dreamy vision of a surfing life and its beautiful, ephemeral moments in the ocean, on the beach, chasing the swell. Surfing is inherently sexy, sensuous, tactile, physical and pre-disposed to the embrace of aesthetic sensitivity.
The vibe of Decoster’s paintings is that of a summer idyll. The colors are sweet. The settings are paradise. And yet, somehow, the mood is somber. Long-limbed, slender women populate her images. They’re bikini-clad, sexy and sunned, lounging with pensive faces on the shore or sliding along a wave on a longboard, figures of strength and grace. We recently caught her exhibition at Mollusk in Santa Barbara, California. A sampling of works from her show are posted here.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 