ELSA GARCIA OSPINA - Spain
Contacts: talleresdelsa@gmail.com
Riquezas da Ria
A Pimenteira
acrylic on canvas cm 60 x 50
Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm
A la faena
Queixo fresco de Biskato
oil on canvas cm 115 x 87
acrylic on canvas cm 65 x 50
Atardecer en la playa de Compostela
Limpiando los cultivos en la Ria
oil on canvas cm 61 x 51
acrylic on canvas cm 65 x 50
Her Biography
ELSA GARCIA OSPINA born in Bogotá, Colombia, on August 29, 1957, daughter of a Spanish father and Colombian mother. Always curious about natural beauty and very grateful to God for allowing me to develop the talent that makes me feel very fulfilled today, as I have managed to devote myself to painting as a job rather than a hobby. Since I was very young, I have been interested in painting and the broad expression of emotions through it. In every brushstroke, I am guided by the connection between what I observe and what I feel at the moment of capturing an image. As a self-taught artist, I have learned to observe in detail and to see within nature and everyday life the small details, the shades produced by light and shadow that we normally define as a single color. I am a cheerful, enthusiastic, enterprising, open person, and willing to keep growing, because I am convinced that in art there is no final work... My dream at this moment is to continue discovering many places and to capture the everyday details of the various trades of many cultures, to show them to the world through the brush guided by a gaze overflowing with feelings and emotions. My work is based on sensitivity and admiration for the cultural customs of different regions of places I know. In this case, the inspiring muse has been the grandeur and beauty of the Rías Baixas of Galicia, which reveal a wealth of natural resources framed by the magic of the beauty and warmth of the place, its people, its culture, and its history. My experience as a painter has self-taught roots. I started painting in 1987 and through self-criticism I have perfected my techniques. I have been well received as an instructor of drawing, painting, and crafts in various schools in Galicia; at the Provincial Museum of Lugo and in my own workshop.
Her Curriculum
• “Euro ExpoArt Sixth Edition”. Contemporary Art Fair Vernice Art Fair in Forlì, Italy, March 2022.
• Art Contest: 1st Edition of the International Art Contest “Corchiano L’antica Fescennium” in Corchiano, Italy, ranked 9th place awarded by the jury. First place by public vote. January 22 - February 5, 2022
• Painting Exhibition: Expressions of Life and Color “AS RIQUEZAS DAS RIAS BAIXAS” Moraña Cultural Center, December 2021 - January 2022
• Painting exhibition. Oil on canvas technique, miniature collection and other formats held in the exhibition hall of “La Caja de Compensación Familiar Comfamiliar” in the city of Neiva, Colombia. June-July 2000
• Painting exhibition. Various techniques in different formats, held at the Club Campestre de Neiva, Colombia. December 2000
• Painting exhibition, oil and charcoal techniques in free format; held in the exhibition hall of El Colegio San Bartolomé la Merced Bogotá, Colombia in 1998.
Over the years, I have accumulated experience working in other creative disciplines such as: Decorative crafts. Design, creation and development of techniques in foam rubber, in the customization of figures. Creation and designs with recycled materials. Set design and creation. Painting on fabrics. Tin embossing; albums and books in Scrapbook among others.
The Critique
“The only reality that can exist in a painting is the painting itself” (Ortega y Gasset)
ELSA'S PAINTING
Many have tried to precisely define what Art is, a difficult task since it is a purely abstract and subjective concept. Perhaps that is why I stick to what a wise old professor of mine used to say: “Art may be the most genuine intuition each individual has of the universe.” But human activity unfolds within a specific vital environment, in a tiny portion of this infinite universe.
When contemplating Elsa's paintings, we understand that her personal universe, at least pictorially, is directly related to her most intimate affections; children, animals, people of the sea, field workers, and our landscapes, always viewed with tenderness and emotion.
Technically, her work can be placed within realism, even bordering on hyperrealism on many occasions.
In all her paintings, one can appreciate the cleanliness and freshness of her color, which is applied with mastery and brilliance.
Her painting always springs from emotion, which is why it is easy for her to convey to the viewer her own sensations before a lived reality.
The point is that, for artists, in whom sensation is formulated much earlier than reasoning, it is allowed that while analyzing things, they can also preserve those sensations initially perceived.
Her artistic career shows us the versatility and breadth of her interests, which she always tried to transmit to her students (in her country she even taught art outreach courses on a television channel).
Now it is up to the viewer (in the new artistic concept as indispensable as the author) to stand before these paintings with a mind free of prejudice, to try to perceive the same sensations that the artist experienced before that lived reality, before facing the inevitable anguish of standing before a blank canvas, with no support other than her sensitivity and imagination. Gonzalo Sánchez Folgueira (Zalo) 01-12-2021
To delve into the work of Elsa García Ospina is to enter the world of a woman who undertakes the difficult task of those who profess the vocation of art. It is to walk through our Homeland, depicted in landscapes, still lifes, and flowers by the hand of a sensitive eye whose gaze takes into account the opinion of the soul.
A rich palette and forms in small and large formats bear witness to a craft, a talent, a heart put into the brush, to offer the viewer the secrets of emotion and beauty that are hidden within.
It is the work of a self-taught artist, determined to be herself, without obeying cold and impersonal theories, with serious work over many years, with a clear awareness that there is no final work but only the beginning of what will come tomorrow.
Martha Lucia Forero F. Restorer (25-07-2000)
ELSA GARCIA OSPINA
Born in Bogotá and Spanish by origin.
A self-taught painter, her work is a song of admiration for the regions and places she knows. Galicia inspires her with the grandeur and beauty of its Rías Baixas and its green landscapes. She masters the color palette, skillfully capturing and bringing to the canvas the luminosity of the scene. An excellent portraitist, capable of capturing with her brush the soul of the character she brings to the canvas. She handles different techniques with great skill; with great manual dexterity, which allows her to use mixed techniques, such as Needle Felting, with which she manages to make animal portraits with merino wool look almost real, as if to be caressed.
Luis Domenech.