Faye Sepahban is an international painter with more than 40 years of professional experience. A self-taught artist, she experimented with various subjects and media early in her career. However, she always returned to her passion: people and rendering them in ethnic portraits.
“I am a self taught artist,” says Faye Sepahban. “Painting is an intimate and natural part of my life. While I did not follow a traditional path, I have been on a life long journey of studying and growing with every brush stroke.” She continues, “When my children were old enough, I started taking them to museums around the world, studying original works of the masters closely. Through hard work and experimentation, I have arrived at a point where I’m somewhat satisfied with my work, although I’m still growing and evolving as an artist.”
While living in France, her work was published by Editions Sandelius in the 1980s. During her years in Houston, Texas, various galleries showcased paintings from her Equestrian and Still Life collections in the 1990s. Over the past two decades, Sepahban has been living in Southern California and devoting most of her creative time to her book project, “One World: Portraits of Diversity.”
Faye Sepahban regards the art of painting as a gift, for which she is grateful to her father, a Russian naval officer and an engineer, who changed his last name to Malekyman after he emigrated. He was also an inventor and a talented artist, always drawing sketches of people around him and making all sorts of things with his hands. Whether it was his influence or simply genes, Faye says she owes him the passion for painting that she’s felt as long as she can remember.
“Portraits are my favorites” says Faye. “I always start a portrait with the eyes, which are the most defining and unique features of any person, the window to their soul. What you have to keep in mind is the eyes in a portrait have to look back at you when you look at them! It’s an iterative process… I start with the eyes and go on to the other features, then I come back to the eyes many times throughout the process. A portrait can take days or weeks to complete. It all depends on the complexity of the face and the surrounding details.”
In addition to portraits, Faye also continues to selectively do still life and horses for her own collection and by commission. Her latest passion is rendering her favorite scenes and landscapes in large-scale oils and murals.