NEW WORK, 2024 As an artist using the Procreate App to refine sketches and layouts and create high-contrast images, I embarked on an experimental journey with my iPad while waiting for my new studio space to be complete. My goal was to explore digital painting, a medium that offers a unique way to create art. Unlike traditional painting, this process involves layering and transposing many layers to create new compositions. Prepared gouache backgrounds in all these images are scanned and added to create more depth, texture, and intrigue.
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Gardens are living cathedrals for meditation and creative minds. As a child, I delighted in nature's unexpected surprises while playing in our gardens. I vividly recall imagining my travels through exotic lands where flora and fauna were flamboyant, fragrant, and alluring.
I continue to be surprised and delighted by the beauty, subtleties, and array of colors, shapes, sizes, and designs. Their mysteries give us joy and curiosity. Their inspirations are innumerable. Their respirations are our requisite. Gardens do not exist without birds, and vice versa.
When designing these botanicals, I see an opportunity to invoke magical realism. The pajaros are "Alebrijes"-like exotic birds (Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures).
From doodles to sketch refinements, I bring the final concept onto my Procreate App/iPad to make some tweaks, size, and print. The journey begins when I collage the drawn elements onto a panel prepared with layers of acrylic washes and textures. The final is created with oils and cold wax. Painting these is an intuitive, adventurous endeavor constantly evolving from the original concepts. ¡Disfruten! (Enjoy!)
LOS JARDINES Childhood expeditions playing in our gardens led me to vivid imaginary travel through exotic lands where flora and fauna were flamboyantly exuberant and enticing and always in the state of evolving into unexpected conditions.
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The exotic plants--transcendent, fragile, and ferociously resilient--inhabit my Earthly Paradise in my neighborhood: Golden Gate Park! Various garden mysteries, textures, and poignant hues are excellent sources of intrigue. The life of a garden is a vivid reminder that anything of beauty and radiance takes time, care, and devotion to seed, sprout, and bloom. Gardens have long been living cathedrals for the creative spirit. Capturing light, shadow, and textures proved challenging as gentle breezes came and went because of the constant movement and changes.
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