Dreams in California Colour

From her LA home-studio, Celia creates acrylic paintings that draw on the hypnotic dreaminess of sun-drenched California. The rich hues and surreal aspects of her designs reflect the vibrancy of a place where light and colour seem to take on their own personalities, and things are not always what they seem. From flower-sprouting computer screens to outsized plants that loom over human figures, there’s a colourful and sometimes pleasingly bizarre energy to Celia’s paintings. "Living in California, it’s impossible not to be inspired by the light and colour,” she tells Wrap. "LA is weird and the wealth disparity is brutal, but there’s also a lot of room for people and ideas and things. There’s tonnes of beauty, and so many influences and cultures here.”

Celia grew up in Portland, Oregon, but has made her home in California since graduating from the state’s Art Center College of Design in 2017. "I work mostly with the same tools I’ve used since college—acrylic paint, cheap synthetic brushes, coloured card,” she says. "I sketch on my iPad and paint the final pieces in acrylic on paper, which is always the most fun part.” While she has stayed loyal to the tools and techniques that she developed during her studies, her style has nonetheless matured in the almost four years since she graduated. "I do think my style has evolved naturally through working with clients and staying curious,” she considers. "Although it's kind of like your personality changing; you don't really notice it happening until you look back or someone else points it out.”

Celia works regularly on editorial projects for publications such as The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Emergence Magazine and The New York Times. She emphasises how much fun it can be to work with an artistic director who gets enthusiastically involved in the ideas behind the illustration. "They can really make the job special,” she explains. "I'm a sucker for any assignments that involve nature or music or the ways people interact, since those are things I'm already interested in. But I'm always surprised by how much fun it can be to work on topics I’m less familiar with.”

Apart from her editorial work, Celia also designs album art for musicians and bands, and works on advertorial content for brands. She recently collaborated with Airbnb on a particularly unique project. "During the pandemic, Airbnb wanted to create something that would give people the experience of being elsewhere without the risk of traveling or crowding,” Celia explains. For this project, titled 'Sounds of the World’, Celia painted scenes from the Mojave Desert, which crosses the boundaries of the states of California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Her paintings were accompanied by audio clips collected by sound artist Kim Kylland, characterising the immersive experience of being in the desert.

"I drove out to the Mojave and camped next to some rocks and made some sketches and paintings and took a bunch of photos,” Celia says. “It was really nice to just have the chance to experience something—particularly something related to nature and landscapes, which I love, and then reflect it back for other people to enjoy. It's a really direct and lovely way to do what I do.”

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celiaj.com / @celiajacobs