Over the past thirty years, the artist-jeweller Paula Crevoshay has earned her accolade of the ‘Queen of Colour’ thanks to her one-of-a-kind vibrantly hued creations in a dazzling rainbow of gemstones and enamels. Crevoshay's skillful use of colour could well be attributed to her first career as a painter and Fine Arts graduate.
After a seminal four years in India in the late 1970’s, Crevoshay swopped the paintbrush for gemstones and has not looked back. Whether an abstract depiction of moonlight on water or a hyper-real damselfly captured in mid-flight, Crevoshay's universe of jewels invites us to look at nature with renewed awe and wonder.
Fascinated by the scintillating colour palette of gemstones she discovered in India, Crevoshay handles them with the eye of a painter. And like the most accomplished artists, no one style defines her creations. Often inspired by nature, Crevoshay has created series of plants, animals and insects that are near to anatomically perfect. Other works show a more whimsical side. As a portrait painter of the wild, she captures both the animal’s natural grace as well as its personality; all in a few square inches. The rippling fins and elegantly undulating form of a Siamese Fighting Fish is captured with mesmerising precision, but Crevoshay can’t resist including diamond air bubbles popping out of its little mouth and a pair of knowing, beady eyes. The playful character of a cockatoo is crystallised in a charming detail down to his sky-blue topaz eyes. In a more abstract mode, a landscape in moonstones and sapphires evokes soft moonlight reflected on the tips of waves in the Moon Dance bracelet or in another creation Mexican fire opals represent flickering flames.
Crevoshay’s work has become a favourite with discerning collectors as well as museums around the world. Throughout her career she has had four one-woman shows as well as published books of her works. In 2007 the Smithsonian in Washington commissioned Crevoshay to create the Conchita butterfly brooch from a donation of Montana sapphires that is now on permanent display. In 2013 the ‘Garden of Light’ exhibition was held at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, followed by ‘Beyond Color’ created to celebrate the opening of the jewellery wing at the Headley Whitney Museum in Kentucky. In 2018 'The Art of the Jeweller: the Crevoshay Collection' exhibition opened at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Crevoshay works from her studio in New Mexico, USA and has a particular interest in American gemstones including Montana sapphires and California and Maine tourmalines.
