Haikus
I carried on some other black and white works with texture but forgetting the previous subject, so I painted a series of small works inspired in Zen aesthetic and the short poems of the delicate book called “Paisajes” (landscapes), by Jose Francisco Megias, whom I met in an exhibition. I started to include small beasts like spiders, butterflies or dragonflies…, these worked as simple “presences”. Other works are mere composition exercises.
The dried tree
Once upon a time, I found an enormous dried tree with its peeled branches pointing in all directions, its roots visible enough, dry and bleached covered by a thin layer of cracked mud which seemed to me much more interesting than expected. Although I thought it was the spitting image of devastation, it was still beautiful with a full range of possibilities; holes, cross-linked branches, textures…
I worked on the subject for the whole 2001 year and painted a medium format 25-work series, all of them of linen canvas. In order to build the texture I used wood-work putty sold in all home improving shops. Before it was too dry I employed different objects such as a metallic brass brush or a small saw to build the texture. As far as shades are concerned, I chose ivory black oil paint for a warm finish and applied much diluted layers or coats. I also tried some thin watered coats of different colours like blue or transparent rust red, but I found these so really unnecessary. The “dry” and neat white colour of the canvas was so much helpful.
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