How to use words in reference to paintings, when one has turned to painting because it allows one to go beyond words? Perhaps an epigram offers an escape from the paradox:'The joy of painting defies description: its attainment implies the containment of thought and words.'
Perhaps not.
What I would say is that a painting 'works' for me when it provides a mesmerizing visual experience - both to the painter and to other viewers. That is the goal: to make something that renders one speechless, that stuns one to the core.
No catalog essay, no theoretical or critical appraisal, and certainly no price tag should be allowed to interfere with the rare and profound relationship that can arise between a human being and an image.
Nor, ideally, should information about the painter intrude. However, since some curiosity about the person behind the image seems natural, here is a little background:
- My conventional educational qualifications include studies in history, philosophy, political economy and art (Ottawa School of Art and Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid). But most learning has occurred beyond the classrooms.
- I have dedicated myself to painting for more than 20 years and have shown in a number of galleries, mostly in places I have lived, like Madrid, Cologne and Amsterdam.
- I was born in Brazil in 1951, and grew up there. I have lived in a variety of countries and now my home is in a French village, where I paint and write.
