In today’s highly digitized society, few champion techniques that belong to historical art movements. Mexican artist Ricardo Fernandez Ortega‘s way of adding and subtracting light and carefully controlling rich dark, luscious tones resembles great 17th-century Spanish masters such as Diego Velazquez. His intuitive ways of using lights and darks (chiaroscuro), takes us to a mysterious, sometimes surreal space, where women wear elegant armor, extravagant headdresses and exist in empty terrains while participating in strange, but fantastical and dream-like activities.
Through his usage of a historical style, Ortega authentically assembles an extended body of work that resembles and continues, in many ways, the legacy of the old Spanish masters. His curious themes may feel contemporary, but overall it is hard not to go back in time while enjoying these skillfully-painted works of art.
