Ernest - Éxtasis coralino

Ernest M. is a young Cuban artist trained in the city of Manzanillo, Granma, in eastern Cuba. He currently lives and works in Havana, where he continues developing a constant pictorial production and an artistic trajectory focused, to a large extent, on the investigation of the human figure and its relationship with the aquatic environment.

In recent years, the artist has developed a series devoted to immersion, water, and the human figure, turning these elements into one of the most recognizable features of his pictorial language. Women suspended below the surface, faces cut by reflections, fish, movements of the hair, optical distortions, bubbles, and changes of light repeatedly appear in his compositions, not as mere decorative resources, but as part of an increasingly defined visual universe.

One of the most interesting aspects of his painting is precisely the treatment of water as a pictorial and psychological element. Ernest manages to represent the water’s surface, the reflections, and the distortions produced by light through brushstrokes that oscillate between figuration, expressive realism, and moments close to hyperrealism. However, his intent does not seem limited to faithfully reproducing a scene: he uses those distortions to transform the face and the human body, creating images that sit between the real, the dreamlike, and the introspective.

His palette is clearly dominated by deep blues, turquoises, greens, and marine tones, which frequently contrast with reds, ochres, oranges, and warm tones applied to skin, fish, flowers, or reflections. This chromatic opposition gives the works a strong visual presence and makes the figure emerge from the underwater background even when it seems completely integrated into it.

Also characteristic is the way the artist works composition. In many of his paintings, the buoyancy line cuts straight through the face or body of the character, dividing the image into two realities. In others, the viewer observes the scene completely submerged. That choice generates a sense of silence, suspension, and isolation that recurs throughout his work. Water thus becomes a boundary, a refuge, and a space of transformation.

Within the series there are compositions of a more intimate and contemplative character, while others present a freer, gestural, and expressive painting. This variety allows us to observe the evolution of an artist who constantly experiments within a recognizable theme without being limited to a single formula.

Another noteworthy aspect is the materiality of the works. The photographs allow appreciation of the overall structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but the painting acquires a considerably greater dimension when viewed up close, where the variations in brushwork, color overlays, texture, and small changes in light with which depth is built can be perceived more clearly.

The repetition of certain elements—the female figure, the fish, the partially submerged face, the floating hair, the surface reflections, and the intense blue of the water—is helping to shape a recognizable artistic identity. In a young creator, this coherence is especially meaningful, for it demonstrates the will to construct a continued body of work rather than just isolated pieces.

Ernest currently maintains an active artistic production and continues developing his career through exhibitions and projects both in Cuba and in Spain and other international contexts. His works have progressively found buyers and collectors outside of Cuba and are currently part of private collections and galleries in different European and Latin American countries.

His paintings are also regularly offered at Catawiki auctions, where his work has received a good reception from the public and collectors.

Acquiring a work by Ernest means getting closer to the work of a young Cuban artist who is still in full growth, but who already possesses especially valuable elements within an emerging trajectory: a clearly identifiable theme, continuity in his pictorial investigation, growing mastery of color and of the representation of water, and above all, the search for his own visual identity.

His aquatic series currently represents one of the most personal facets of his production and stands as a good example of how a seemingly ordinary motif can be transformed, through painting, into a reflection on the body, identity, silence, beauty, and perception.

Water does not merely function as a setting in Ernest’s work: it acts as a second language that fragments, transforms, and reconstructs the human figure.

Artwork by the artist Ernest created in the oil on canvas technique, high-quality professional canvas.
Dimensions: 60 x 80 cm of painting.
Original edition.
Shipping will be carried out through United Parcel Service (UPS) for Spain and Europe, and through FedEx for the rest of the world.
The work will be rolled and protected with multiple layers of packaging, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the work is paid for, three days are required for the packaging process and handover to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot contains AI-generated visuals. Please check the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the work.

This magnificent oil-on-canvas work of contemporary impressionist character captures the figure of a woman gracefully swimming toward the surface of a stunning coral reef. The composition stands out for its diagonal dynamism and a loose, vibrant brushstroke that fills the seabed with life, creating a trail of small bubbles around the hair and the swimmer’s body. Sunlight pierces the water in powerful golden and warm beams from above, generating a dramatic play of light and shadow on the anatomy of the figure in a red swimsuit and reflecting in a rich range of multicolored fish and corals that inhabit the lower part. The vibrant color palette—that contrasts the ocean’s cool turquoise and blue tones with the warmth of red, orange, and yellow—gives the scene a festive, liberating, and vibrant atmosphere where the human figure blends harmoniously with the marine biodiversity.