Santiago Picatoste- Artist

One day I realised that I had never stopped painting. I was heavily influenced by my father, who was a bohemian, musician and ceramic artist. From an early age, I was aware that apart from ballpoint pens, markers and crayons, there was always paint and I signed up for a ‘landscape study’ class which was a private lesson at the ‘Academia Libre del Mediterráneo’, a wonderful name for a school of painting in Mallorca. There I learned chiaroscuro, foreshortening, painting with real models and was formally introduced to the Fine Arts.

Chaos and order reflect a way of being, a ‘leitmotif’. I work instinctively, revealing gestures in my abstraction. I have free rein to that way of working — resulting in  ‘action painting’ which is Abstract Expressionism. The expression is chaos and order is the balancing feature – this aesthetic of abstraction interests me.

I continually surprise myself with the creation process and use risky materials. The traditional and the industrial are present in my work; a symbiosis between these two concepts. Among the traditional materials that I use are oil paints, acrylics, waxes and industrial materials such as ‘spray painting’, industrial chloroform, synthetic enamels, aluminum… all from the industrialised field. I use the alchemy of production in my work. At the moment, my process usually involves working on several paintings at the same time. It is a way of expanding my gestural reach, a sharp contrast to the traditional painter at an easel — my studio is an industrial warehouse and I work on the floor horizontally, then vertically.

At the beginning of my artistic career I did not use color. The island where I was born, Mallorca, has an exultant nature. When I moved to other cities and countries, I lived in Madrid and New York, I realised the importance of light. It became a physical-chromatic need because I remember two things from the History of Art: the first, what Henri Matisse said about color, that it should delimit the work and not the characters that appear in it. The second, the discourse of the Impressionists versus the discourse of the school of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. There was a great debate about drawing and colour. The Impressionists defended that with color one could speak, becoming early Expressionism in a way. These concepts became so fundamental to my practice. I’ve recently incorporated Pop Art aesthetics that push the boundaries of color further; with sharper color hues and their reverence into an urban world.

They all form a symphony of different visual notes; the psychology of color helps support each series, allowing it to grow and diversity as it evolves.

I enjoy similar surroundings and environments; there is sun, sea, light, nature, color and good food.

I have a studio assistant who assists me in preparing the canvases and logistical issues, which are the most time consuming. My work is very personal, and therefore all done in my hand.

Someone with whom, would provide a stark contrast to my work. In my opinion, a Post-Pictorial Abstraction collaboration with ‘hyper aesthetics’ artists such as the 2008 exhibition at the Tate Modern featuring the work of the late, great Juan Muñoz.

One movement is always a precursor to the next. They are reinvented styles; everything is invented and nothing ends with nothing. As Soledad Sevilla says “it is not what you produce, but how you represent it”.