Le trois fois grand 2019

Carlos Sablòn made this painting, Le trois fois grand, with oils on canvas. Look at how the wispy, translucent brushstrokes seem to flutter and float around the figure, dissolving the boundaries between the person and the landscape. It’s like they're trying to find a new way to depict someone, not just in their body, but in their spirit too. I love how the artist uses these delicate washes of color and fluid lines to blur the distinction between the figure’s garments and the natural elements surrounding them. I imagine Sablòn, with brush in hand, coaxing these spectral forms into existence, guided by intuition and a desire to capture something beyond the surface of appearance. The pale hands and face juxtapose against the darker and more mysterious body and clothing of the figure. It reminds me a little of Remedios Varo’s surreal, otherworldly scenes, or maybe even some of the dreamlike portraits by Odd Nerdrum. And it makes me think about how artists, throughout time, are always riffing off one another, trying to find new ways to express the inexpressible.