Danielle Roberts

Night Light.

-  Kristin Farr

How do you paint tension?

Danielle Roberts demonstrates such an elusive skill by directing scenes like a filmmaker and approaching narrative like a novelist. She amalgamates observation and experience through pictures that are grippingly curious. Growing up in two opposing landscapes, suburban California and a British Columbian island, she is adept with dichotomies: dark and bright, north and south, natural and artificial, mundane and magical. Roberts volleys between forces to paint stories that teem with tension, that are rich with mystery, and she generously reveals the deep secrets of her practice.

Kristin Farr: What’s the most Capricorn thing about you?

Danielle Roberts: The amount I’m working. My friends make fun of me. I’m obsessively always working. It’s my friend’s birthday tonight and I’m hoping I see something that will help me finish this painting. I can’t count on it, but you never know!

At a bar? So you’ll go to the party, but you’ll be sourcing material.

Exactly. I’ll feel like it’s OK to go out if I’m still working.

Why do you feel so connected to the light at night?

There are a few reasons. Like the movies, light can control the mood and feeling of a space so dramatically. At night, it’s really accentuated because things get washed out by natural light in the daytime, so there is something about artificial light that I’m really interested in. I’m into night because that’s when you see it become more exposed.