Pepe Pétalo - The Dreaming Sea

Pepe Pétalo develops a personal imaginary world of the artist, a territory where spontaneous drawing, intuitive gesture, and memory transform into painting. The origin of his work goes back to adolescence, when he began to draw a goofy figure with a big nose at the margins of his school notes, on napkins, or in textbooks. Those doodles, born almost as an unconscious act, have over time become the seed of his own artistic language. Pepe Pétalo has spent 25 years building his professional career at the Social Work of the now-defunct Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, where in his final stage he was in charge of the Culture area and coordinator of the CAM Contemporary Art Collection, currently located at the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA). From that position, he actively participated in the design and organization of numerous traveling exhibitions across Spain, as well as in promoting emerging artists. Throughout his professional career he has had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with prominent creators such as Carmen Calvo, Eduardo Arroyo, Cristina García Rodero, and Cristina de Middel, the latter President of the Magnum Photos Agency (Princess of Asturias Award for Concord). That closeness to contemporary art from cultural management has enriched his outlook, although his painting remains faithful to the freshness and authenticity of the original stroke. Pepe Pétalo’s painting does not seek solemnity or distance. On the contrary, it aims to be a call to smile, to distract, and to reconnect with that playful part that often dissolves in adult life. His doodles and scribbles, apparently simple, conceal a reflection on identity, memory, and the capacity to create without fear of judgment. “Universe Petalo. Doodles and Scribbles” ultimately represents the public consolidation of an artistic universe that has accompanied the author since his youth and that now unfolds with maturity, coherence, and a clear vocation to connect with the viewer through direct emotion, complicity... and, why not, humor. This painting presents a fantastic, cheerful, and imaginative marine world. In the center appears a large turquoise creature, covered with circles and shapes in different colors, giving it a fun and handmade look. Around it we find fish, a crab, a turtle, a submarine, and small fantastical-looking characters. The background, in beige and earth tones, is decorated with suns, stars, flowers, spirals, and other symbols that seem to belong to a storybook universe. The tones of turquoise, blue, green, orange, and brown create a warm and harmonious contrast. The dark wooden frame reinforces its traditional character. Taken together, it conveys a sense of fantasy, innocence, joy, and adventure, as if it were a scene from a child’s dream. The specified dimensions of the work are those of the painting once stretched and mounted on the frame. The actual measurements of the canvas are larger to allow for its mounting. The work comes unframed (professional packaging, rolled in a tube). It is delivered with an authenticity certificate. You can follow my work on Instagram @pepepetalo

Estimate:$1,344.53

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