My father's blue profile

This portrait belongs to my yellow period. At that time I was obsessed with the colour yellow and used it all the time. To make it more intense I combined it with its complementary colour, blue. That is why in this portrait of my father you can see that his hair, part of his face, the background and his shirt are all different shades of blue. It is painted from life, since at that time I was very influenced by both the Impressionists and the German Expressionists.

In this work you can see the immediacy and strength that comes from the urgency with which I had to finish the portrait. The colors are intuitive. I have painted my father throughout my career. This is a special portrait, since it belongs to a period when I was just beginning to find myself in painting. Some of the features of my works that I apply today are in this portrait.

If you look closely, part of the face is the cardboard itself, unpainted.

I liked this technique because it absorbed the oil very quickly and I could start and finish in one session.

I concentrated a lot because every brushstroke counted. I remember this time fondly and this work reflects the wildness and energy of my thinking at that time.

Technique: Oil

Support: Cardboard

Measurements: 35 x 24.3 cm.

Date of completion: 1997