ARTURIANS

PAINTS

  • This body of work presents the human form as a liminal space—a place where identity is shaped, fragmented, and re-emerges in new guises.
  • My figures do not fully belong to the everyday world, yet neither are they detached from it. They emerge from eroded backgrounds, imaginary gardens, fields of color, and surfaces that seem to retain traces of other images.
  • The female figure takes center stage, though rarely as a conventional portrait. Her face may be veiled, fragmented, obscured, or shifted into profile. At other times, her body is blanketed in petals, merges with the vegetation, or undergoes a transformation through animal and mythical elements. This approach shifts the focus from physical likeness to a deeper question: What remains of a person when their image ceases to be stable?
  • Color as a Psychological State
  • The overall palette is not merely decorative. Each field of color establishes a mental atmosphere.
  • Pinks and corals evoke intimacy, sensuality, and vulnerability, yet can also suggest artificiality or theatricality. Reds introduce desire, intensity, danger, and physical energy. Greens link the body to nature and regeneration, but also to a certain psychological instability. Ochres and browns connect the figures to the earth, memory, and the effects of time. Blues and violets generate distance, introspection, and a sense of suspension.
  • Color acts as an emotional space surrounding the figure. It describes an inner condition rather than a specific lighting effect. Often, the background represents the character's psychological state.
  • Between the Intimate and the Universal
  • Although the paintings begin with individual figures, they do not necessarily seek to depict specific people. Each face can serve as a gateway to broader experiences: desire, solitude, memory, metamorphosis, vulnerability, or the need to protect a part of oneself.
  • This openness allows the viewer to complete the work through their own experience. A veiled figure might speak of identity, but also of grief, silence, or the need to withdraw. A woman surrounded by flowers might represent beauty, but also the pressure of being seen. A fragmented face might evoke a personal memory or the contemporary difficulty of constructing a coherent self-image.
  • The work does not demand a single interpretation. Its meaning is fulfilled in the encounter between the image and the viewer's gaze.
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SURFACE AS MEMORY



One of the most significant features of the body of work is the use of surfaces that are worn, cracked, scraped, and layered. The material does not function merely as an aesthetic finish; it is an essential component of the conceptual underpinning of the works.

These surfaces evoke:

  • An old photograph;
  • An eroded wall;
  • An incomplete archive;
  • Skin marked by time;
  • An image that has been covered over and then recovered;
  • A memory preserved in fragments.

The painting thus becomes a palimpsest. Each layer holds the potential for emergence and disappearance. The figure is not simply depicted against a background; it seems to struggle to emerge from it. At the same time, the background encroaches upon the body, returning it to a more unstable state.


The material, therefore, possesses a temporal dimension. It speaks of what endures, but also of what transforms, wears away, or is lost. The beauty of these figures is never separate from their fragility.

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 A PHILOSOPHY OF OPEN IDENTITY

The philosophy behind this body of work is grounded in a fluid conception of identity. The figures are not characters defined by a single narrative, but rather presences undergoing transformation.

Each one seems to inhabit an intermediate state:

  • Between person and symbol;
  • Between body and landscape;
  • Between memory and matter;
  • Between vulnerability and power;
  • Between beauty and decay;
  • Between the visible and the hidden.

The face serves as a point of recognition, yet also as a limit to understanding. We can identify a figure without fully grasping its meaning. A direct gaze can confront us; an averted gaze can withdraw; a veiled face can transform a lack of clarity into a form of autonomy.


In this sense, concealment is not the same as disappearance. Veiling, abrasion, and fragmentation protect the figure from definitive interpretation. Identity remains alive precisely because it cannot be fully exhausted by the viewer's gaze.