Guillermo Coll | Guillermo Coll

24Dec 2021 by Enriquecoll_1601 1 Comment

Us both, late 2021

Guillermo Coll

This has been a long bumpy 23-year trip. We met late 1998, in a publishing house, Guillermo was the chief-editor and I was… the chief-translator? To put it plainly, the only translator, so chief of none. We became friends, decided to share a flat, we were just two fools who wanted to become professional. Painting and writing. What can I say? We have achieved our goals. To this end, we have worked hard. At the beginning we just met to talk about our future, then we started an English-Spanish blog and now… Well, now we have a website. It is clear that we are going through a pandemic, a situation which will bring serious, negative consequences for Mankind. We are enduring losses and pains. Both of us have been through…

My airbrush

Advertising, Guillermo Coll, Illustration

The US inventor Charles L. Burdick patented the first airbrush in 1893; from that moment on, there has been a love-hate relationship between this tool and the Fine Arts. Some artists rejected using it claiming it was artificial and mechanical while some other enthusiastically welcomed that new device arguing it showed so many possibilities (making realistic, nearly photographic, works was one of those wonderful possibilities). Undoubtedly, some hyper-realistic painters like Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings or Ben Schonzeit have contributed to make this tool so popular. For those artists, the airbrush is a working item and furthermore, one of their ‘distinguishing features’. My very first airbrush was a Holbein Neo-Hohmi. It was a high quality tool but something in its design seemed wrong to me, the side ‘suction-feed’ or siphon tank…

Murals

Guillermo Coll

Murals Walking around the neighbourhood, more precisely in San Dimas Street in Madrid, I have found two big murals made by Boa Mistura. Boa Mistura is an Art and Design Atelier whose office is nearby. These are really beautiful murals but precisely the words at the top of them have drawn my full attention. These words become nearly invisible as one gets closer. It is a positive message with a subtle irony. The titles are “strength” and “breath”. We need to call them murals as they are not graffiti neither in the background nor in the shape. These efforts are pleasingly surprising as these embellish and dignify every part of the city. Suddenly, a humble building seems so interesting, these drawings appearing in such places do not disturb us while…