About the Artist - Hülya Ozdemir

September 2020 Issue
About the Cover Artist
by Meredith Millen Deal

Hülya Ozdemir loves to focus her artworks on vibrant women. She says she does this “to express their inner worlds.” Each unique feminine subject is brought to brilliant life with a palate of enriched color and pattern.

Over several emails, we asked Hülya, whose village home is near Bodrum, Turkey, to share some of her life’s work and aspirations: “I intentionally use different patterns by design. In my portraits, I believe the woman and the pattern work are inseparable. My women are all strong, even though some seem weak at times.

“One of the most frequently asked questions for me is, ‘why aren’t your women smiling?’ Yes, they rarely smile because I want it to be that way. Also, I cannot make everyone happy,” ending  that email sentence with a smiley face icon: :)

Hülya says she loved painting even at a young age. “I have always been told I am talented, but I did not get any special, real support. If someone had poked and pushed me from behind back then, I could have reached my present state earlier so I can say I was born this way!”

Inquiring about her painting materials, she answered, “I mostly work watercolor on paper, but I would like to work on larger canvases with acrylic paints. I will start working soon.”

Sharing the story of her artwork “Whispering Heart,” selected as this month’s cover, Hülya explained her process and artwork title. “I mostly work from photographs, even though I don’t do it one-on-one. I had a long time to paint this picture, and I liked the woman’s posture and having her eyes closed.
“I choose my works’ titles from the lyrics of songs I listened to while painting. “Whispering Heart’’ is a title of one of Morten Harket’s songs. Morten Harket, who has the best voice EVER, was lead singer of the Norwegian band A-ha—the best music band of all time for me!” 

So, with eyes closed and, also wide-open, we thank Hülya Ozdemir for sharing a slice of her creative life with us and especially for sharing “Whispering Heart.”

Take a look to explore many of Hülya’s colorful artworks available at www.icanvas.com/canvas-art-prints/artist/hulya-ozdemir. And, Hülya has recently connected with others regarding her artworks through Instagram: @HuliaOzdemir.