STORY BEHIND THE ART OF RAMIRO PRUDENCIO

19th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists & The Horticultural Society of New York

Pink Maple Leaf

Acer sp.

I chose a fall leaf as the subject of my painting because it offers a cherished metaphor for my own autumn. In the Spanish language one does not retire; instead, one “jubilates.” My twilight becomes alive with the deepness of fall; its luminosity, contour, whiff, expectancy.

Selecting a subject is always accompanied by restlessness and apprehension until, magically, the subject chooses me. Then I capitulate with gratitude. I obey.

To help someone who has not yet seen my painting visualize it, I resort to passion. I instruct: Close your eyes. Perceive harvest. Baptize yourself in the leaf downpour. Smack the subtle air. Now, look up and catch a falling leaf. Submerge yourself in her language, in her expression. Own it. Then cast it in the breeze.

My favorite tools of expression are the Cinderella of media: colored pencils. Great potential lurks underneath their humbleness. Colored pencils are a Rosetta Stone into my perpetual chromatic anguish whose language I less understand than feel. Color is always complex, always whimsical, always subjected to the volatility of light. Color offers both a provocation and a chance. The very physical perception of hue is only possible by dint of thrill. My Pink Maple Leaf demanded serious vigilance in the use of two finicky colors: lavender pink and mineral blue.

In my painting, I invite my audience to engage in its linear dynamism that bursts from a central point and radiates outward into graceful curves. The challenge was to balance its agility and flight with its steadiness and poise.

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