ATIM’S TOP 60 MASTERS OF CONTEMPORARY ART “Coquette” Acrylic on Canvas by Rafael Espitia
Master Rafael Espitia Perea is an artist renowned for his murals, awards and long painting career. He was born in Cartagena, Colombia in 1967. Always interested in art, he studied and received orientation from Master Julio Carlos Angulo, before studying at various colleges and universities, among which were Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia (where he studied engraving), the Art Students League of New York (where he studied watercolor, painting, composition and color), and Universidad Nacional in Bogota (where he studied history of Latin American art, art appreciation and photography). His digital art credentials include Photoshop cS5 , Corel Draw, 3D Max, Corel Painter XI, and Premiere Pro cS5. Curator of Espitia Gallery in Cartagena and Espitia Gallery in Bogotá, and is the founder and managing partner of Diseño Interior, Cartagena. He was the assistant artistic painter for the film "Love in the Time of Cholera," a film directed by Mike Newell and based on a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The film features his colorful murals and mosaics, highlighted on exhibit in the best hotels and convention centers within Cartagena. He lives and works in Miami (US) and Cartagena (Colombia), and is professor of visual expression at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano. He is currently the resident artist of Area 23 Art Gallery in Wynwood, Miami.
Q: Your figures are often set against a more abstract background. Is this juxtaposition intentional? How do you create the background? A: When you closely and carefully see one of my works, especially the works of more recent years, the stains and abstract brushstrokes are individual effects, which together end up showing a possible image, an abstract world to our brain that is used to bringing everything into a tangible reality. It makes my spaces, characters and themes that captivate me very real. This is all, of course, exalted with the magic that 3D offers us. Q: What's a typical day in your studio like? A: Well, it is always a long day, working on many simultaneous projects and art works. The works for my
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exhibitions are created in a traditional technique, such as acrylic on canvas. First of all, before I start the painting, I create the sketches of each series digitally. I am always painting works for each show and digitally designing future series. My days are long but vary a lot. I quite enjoy doing my work; I live and paint between my studios from Miami (United States) and Cartagena (Colombia). I love the intensity in the art - this is what I like and I have always been passionate about. I take the best each city offers me, especially when I am in the company of my wife and daughters, or with my many friends with whom I spend time talking about the same subject: art. Q: How do you conceptualize your images? Do you draw on memories, or from photographs of
events, individuals and locations? A: My paintings all start from an idea that inspires me, from the title of a work previously baptized, to any image you see on film or in photos - that is, anything that seduces me, such as "Woman," which is one of the series that captivates me the most. I make films of my female friends and then I look at the video, frame by frame, trying to find the image that will serve me most to describe the message I want to convey. But this is not more than 30 percent of my art work because after this, I take these ideas and sink them into my world of colors, feelings and spaces which are the elements that really make each painting a sample of my own language. www.arttourinternational.com