lunes, 31 de diciembre de 2012

Fragile

"Fragile"
Watercolor and acrylics on paper, 15 Jun 2006


  Science has found that living creatures have the ability to create order and move away from the natural, entropic tendency towards thermodynamic stability, which is death. This is a neguentropic property, opposite to the entropic properties of the non-living matter. There's a thin line between living beings and non-living matter. We don't know yet what is the secret of life, what makes us be alive, and why a rock is not. Whatever the difference, there is a fragile border for living beings: once trespassed there's no way back.

  I wanted to express how fragile we are, how fragile life is in general. A filament of genetic material is about to break. That can be the difference between living and non-living.

  I reserved a band of blank paper with masking tape. I painted the four classic elements, Fire and Earth on the bottom, Water and Air on the top. That's the non-living matter. In the central band the DNA filament struggles for survival. The rainbow colors symbolize the ability of Life to adapt and transform itself. Effects are made by dropping water or other colors on the first color layer.


Listen & watch here "Fragile", by Sting


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domingo, 30 de diciembre de 2012

Knowledge blind


"Knowledge blind

Ink, watercolor and pen on paper, 21 Nov. 1977




"No non-sense world

Ink and pen on paper, 23 Nov. 1977

  Back in 1977 the world was a quite different place: No computers, no internet, no mobiles, no cheap flights. Not even fax or video tapes. The most modern piece of technology you had access to was a simple TI pocket calculator for 15$. Music was on vinyl and cassette. Friends were those just in the neighborghood... The perspective of nuclear war was still a main concern to everyone, while the promised revolution of the 60's was only a fading mode. At 21, the future seemed quite gloomy to many of us young people in Spain: Political transition to democracy was still a project, inflation was rampant at 30% and employment opportunities down to none, as uncertainity made investments go somewhere else. I just had to put those feelings down on paper.

  I used normal fountain pen, writing ink, a brush and water - no ruler. That was all I needed (I didn't have much more: just a watercolor box lend by a friend).


  "Knowledge blind" refers to the modern civilization, symbolized by houses on top of a cliff. A cubist, absurd perspective, no windows outside, near a dangerous and risky edge. TV antennas are the only means to communicate. A nuclear sun oversees all, while clouds sit quite indifferently in their own dimension.


  "No Non-sense world" is an expression that shocked me when I read it the first time. Double negation to affirm something was quite a discovery. However, to me the world was more non-sense than otherwise. I wanted here to reflect the ideal world sought after by unchecked rational intelligence, where the uncertainity of life and emotion has been wiped out. Sun is dark and cold, there's no need for a warm and bright sun where there's no life to take care of. Again a cubist-like perception was quite adequate to express what I wanted. 





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sábado, 29 de diciembre de 2012

Temporary landscapes

"Temporary landscape"

Watercolor, pen on paper. 8 Sep. 2005

"Temporary landscape II"
Watercolor, pen on paper. 30 Dec. 2005

"Temporary landscape III"

Watercolor, pen on paper.  4 Feb. 2006

 Nature has been one of my preferred topics, and the destruction of massive areas of wilderness for the benefit of Progress (or rather the progress of benefits) has always touched me deeply. I wanted to point here to the lack of long term view when dealing with natural resources, which is a very common disease in our society. This disease is often treated only in its symptoms, trying to offer a cheap solution to a very complex problem.

 The paintings here simulate temporary landscapes built to replace the beautiful, natural ones no longer on sight. As someone said, fun is not the contrary of serious, but the contrary of boring. Environmental issues can be boring to some people, so I preferred an attractive and yet ironic approach.


 As in all my paintings, there is no previous scketches made. The strokes here are made directly on paper with a flat square brush, sometimes two colors mixed over one stroke.






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viernes, 28 de diciembre de 2012

Inner Worlds


"Inner Worlds"

 Watercolor and Ink on paper, 16 Feb 1980

  In those days I was a young student in the USA, along my dear wife. She was expecting our first baby. Somehow the idea of "life in the inside" as a principle, not just as a situation, came through my mind. This image has so many interpretations that I would not dare to list them here, just try yourself!

   First I draw the stones with a fountain pen, big ones first. I added the shades with a wet brush. Finally I added the color circles and the yellow background. 







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Points of view

"Points of view"

Watercolor on paper, August 2010

 Sure you've experienced someone talking to you about a subject, and then you discovered that it really was not quite how he or she described it. I tried to express that in this painting, where we can't get a correct perception if we look only through someone else's "colors"... As with any important document, we should try to obtain the original, not just settle for the transmitted copy.

 Suns of all sizes and colors are constant in my works; They are special elements that give energy, meaning and reference. Of course, it can also be interpreted in different ways: For some is the idea of God, while others just see themselves. Art can be then a fascinating mirror where people can see what's inside of their own mind.


 A difficult effect to achieve, the transparency without destroying the lower color layers and get it all messed up. 







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Sailing off

"Creation" 
 
Ink and watercolor on paper, 20 Dec 1973


 This blog will be kind of a gallery and a window to those deep worlds found off the calm shores of triviality, and some thoughts that came along in the process. I hope you may enjoy the trip as much as I do.

 It's now 39 years since I made my first color painting, shown above. I discovered then the magic of ink and color combined with water and paper. I dedicated much of my time to explore these elements, while I also discovered on the way new inner worlds and ways to express them.


 All the early paintings were actually sketches for future projects that never came to existence. Doing "Creation" I became fascinated how the ink spread itself through water and wet paper. I still do, and it's the basis for most of my graphic experiments.


 I experimented here with two ink colors, blue and red, drawing with a nib on wet paper. The blue clouds were writing blue ink spread with a larger brush (not very smartly, indeed, but at this early stage I didn't really care). Completed with yellow and red watercolor.







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