Indigenous People of the World

The Windows to the Soul. My interpretation of their journey, expressed through their facial characteristics, gives you a depth that takes you into a third dimension.

I try to portray the strength, the pride and wisdom of these extraordinary people. I feel an energy in certain subject matter that challenges me to capture this spirit on canvas. Please feel free to comment on his art by going to our Flickr gallery.

The strength and character of an individual has always influenced me and I find this has directed and encouraged me to search for these qualities and therefore find myself drawn to the power of this presence.

I started painting portraits in the early 70’s — inspired and fascinated by my own Basque Heritage. I was constantly being exposed to interesting subject matter; character studies in my own village were abundant and took me on a path of intrigue and curiosity about other cultures and people of the world.

We travelled together my family and I to the far corners of the earth, from Jerusalem to Rio De Janeiro. At the time my style was more realistic and representative of what I saw. My expression throughout the years has changed and now through many experimental stages I am representing the faces more on how I feel about the style rather than the visual representation.

I believe the emotion and the sensitivity of a face should be felt as well as seen and through many different styles I have been able to express a persons story and his life through the portrait.

As I enjoy expressing myself through different mediums and styles I also paint faces with a more modern approach—through the colours in the face you uncover the layers of time depicted in the expression.

I feel that it is essential to continually be searching for new subjects, new ideas—it is important to experiment and constantly challenge yourself.

This is an even more exciting challenge when working freehand on the larger murals. I particularly like to work on murals where the faces are from 10 to 15 feet — the impact of a face ten times larger than life becomes monumental in size.

Although I paint faces I don’t consider myself a portrait artist. I enjoy many different subjects, but I find myself constantly searching for the life behind the face—to create an almost historical expression of that persons life is the direction that most intrigues me.

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