Dear friends:

As you may have noticed there has been a change in the presentation of my web site. I am taking advantage of this event to send you my greetings.

It was only recently that I learned to make use of these new online platforms to present my art to the world. In the past 3 or 4 years, I have noticed that I have been given the opportunity to be in touch with people from all over the world, and to show them the paintings that I have been creating in my studio, which is located in Cumbaya, just minutes away from the city of Quito.

Up until this day I continue to work with oil paintings on canvas and hemp. To counterbalance this, I have also been working with watercolors and acrylics on various types of papers brought from Europe. I am currently preparing a series of watercolors for an exhibition scheduled for this coming November in Quito. I am very excited to be sharing this exhibition with local audiences; this technique is very close to my heart as I initiated my artistic career with watercolors back in the seventies. Through this blog, I will be presenting the transparency of my watercolors as well as my textured paintings over canvas. I am interested in showing you both of these techniques and supports.

After a few years of cyber activity, I realize that my artworks on paper and canvas appeal to people in the Americas and Europe. As for the theme, I should note that there are about 11 sub-divisions (sub-themes) which have taken place in at least the past two decades of my artistic path. First, we have the line of watercolors: “Árboles de agua”, “Formas evanescentes”, “Ventanas translúcidas”, “Inundación de cielos”, “Opacidad y transparencia” y “Líneas diáfanas”, which are art series that include paintings of various years. Here, I must stress that the spirit of this technique is transparency and its character is indissoluble, whatever the nature of the paper. As in poetry, both substance and form merge and become inseparable. In watercolor, all one can undertake with this technique will always be speedy, clear and brilliant. We then have the line of oil and lacquer on various textiles, grouped under five sub-themes, namely “Árboles y casas”, “Árboles y máscaras”   “Arquitecturas”, “Personas” y   “Postales”.  After this brief description, I hope that art lovers can have multiple readings of my artwork; that they can refer to my surrounding environment and, if necessary, that they can relate to the different times, as I have accumulated over thirty years of practice in the fine arts.

At this point, I would like to recall an experience of mine that occurred over two decades ago. I had previously mentioned that I was stunned after attending a retrospective of the sculptures of Henry Moore at the Royal Academy in London. I remember coming into the wide halls of the museum and being fascinated by the set of pieces displayed before my eyes. I was fascinated not only by the composition of their forms and the atmosphere of the environment, but mainly because they had transported me to different cultures. This journey went back thousands of years ago; it started with the Egyptians or the Chaldeans, passed by the Mayan culture and reached the twentieth century – while all of these manifestations had been marked by our contemporary times. This ability to look at different times in history, through an art piece, has seduced me endlessly. Keeping distances and times, this is what I want to instill in the public when it engages with my artwork.

It would be delightful if my viewers could, among other things, look at the colors of ancient textiles and, at the same time, be prompted to modern cities and tropical flora.

In any case, I enjoy the possibility of enriching this blog every day. I want to make my website available to you and hope to connect with those who are navigating this portal. Eventually, I will report on my progress in this complex world of information technology and communication.

Cheers. See you soon,

Miguel Betancourt