Understand
Source: Natural Diamond Council (NDC)
2022-02-09
Kurt Pio
Kurt Pio's work is characterized by abstraction, exquisite craftsmanship, and deep emotion. This South Africa artist is a native of Cape Town, which indicates that he and natural diamonds are destined to have an indissoluble bond. Before moving to Amsterdam as an artist in 2010, Kurt Pio worked in decoration, publishing, and clothing industry. After arriving in Amsterdam, he began to draw inspiration from his hometown, and the natural diamonds rich in South Africa are undoubtedly his most perfect creation objects. At that time, the whole world was slowly recovering from the economic crisis. Some friends thought that the creative theme of natural diamonds was too fancy and conspicuous, which was incompatible with the social environment at that time, but Kurt had a very different view.
Kurt Pio is obsessed with the beauty of shape. The angular facets of natural diamonds and the refraction of light require the canvas to be shaped. He tried to create a canvas that perfectly represented the concave and convex shape of a natural diamond, and his idea came to fruition with the advent of laser-cut wood. After changing the way and carrier of painting, he began to focus on exploring the relationship between people and jewelry. In his view, giving someone a natural diamond is an exchange of emotion and love. His giant installations were inspired by his emotional reflections on natural diamonds, and Richard Burton gave Elizabeth Taylor a gorgeous natural diamond and emerald necklace 's story is one source of inspiration. He created the giant installation called "You Got My Eyes" and held it exclusively at Gallery Orange in New Orleans. While you can watch his work on Instagram, the best way to see it is in person. Because only in this way you can truly feel the huge scale of the work and evoke the deepest feelings in your heart.
S.P. Harper
As a modern artist, sculptor and painter, S.P. Harper uses environmentalist artistic concepts to reveal the various forms of natural diamonds. Her grandfather was a diamond craftsman, but she didn't realize the value of his life's work until later in life.
Among the materials used in her art creation, in addition to oil and acrylic, she also uses common items to create jewelry art pieces such as handkerchief, milk crates, tablecloth, bed sheets, metal, wood, shower curtains, and even ball gowns. She even uses the powder left over from cutting natural diamonds in her work to pay homage to her grandfather's work as a diamond craftsman, polishing natural diamonds until their brilliance can be fully revealed.
S.P. Harper's research on the shape, cut, refraction of light, fluorescence, and phosphorescence of natural diamonds is what makes her natural diamond creations resonant with natural diamond lovers around the world. Her work is currently included in Cool Art House, an art gallery on the west coast of the United States.
Angie Crabtree
When we bring up natural diamond painters, the super-realist painter Angie Crabtree cannot be omitted. She graduated from the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute and received a traditional painting education. She refers to medieval art masters, usually using oil paintings as a carrier and embellished with gold foil.
In her early years, she was fascinated by kaleidoscopes, as if they had some hypnotizing magic. In an exhibition titled "Living in a Dreamland" with "Luxury Objects" as the object, Angie painted a huge natural diamond over 1.5 meters, which shined brightly at the exhibition. Since then, she has shifted her focus to the drawing of natural diamonds. From the cut of natural diamonds to her representation of the American Dream, she continues to learn everything about natural diamonds, starting from enlarged facets, classic shapes, traditional cuts, and natural exotic colors to create a series of natural diamonds paintings.
Angie's latest collection is dominated by gemstones, plated with 24K gold loin. The choice of this material can be traced back to her use of luxury as the origin of her creations. Over the years, she has been entrusted by jewellery brands to create jewellery pieces for them. She has also painted a number of gorgeous natural coloured diamond works for the famous Argyle Mine in Australia. Last summer, she had presented an 8-foot-tall painting of natural diamonds in a solo show in Los Angeles. The painting is of the largest ever natural pink diamond weighing 3.14 carats ever mined from the Argyle Mine. Although Angie's works are very popular, she does not sell original paintings, only limited print editions and some collectible masterpieces. Currently, with her initial focus, she is working on a new collection exploring the meaning of luxury and materialism.
