Ernest - Abismo Azul

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 steady pictorial production and an artistic career largely centered on the investigation of the human figure and its relationship with the aquatic environment.

In recent years, the artist has developed a series dedicated to immersion, water, and the human figure, turning these elements into one of the most recognizable features of his pictorial language. Women suspended beneath the surface, faces cut by reflections, fish, hair movements, optical distortions, bubbles and changes of light appear repeatedly in his compositions, not as mere decorative resources, but as part of an ever more 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 surface, reflections and the distortions produced by light through brushstrokes that oscillate between figuration, expressive realism, and moments close to hyperrealism. However, his intention does not seem limited to faithfully reproducing a scene: he uses those distortions to transform the face and the human body, creating images that lie between the real, the dreamlike, and the introspective.

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

Also characteristic is the way the artist handles composition. In many of his paintings, the flotation line runs directly across 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 repeatedly appears in his production. 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 looser, gestural, and expressive painting. This variety allows us to observe the evolution of an artist who continually experiments within a recognizable theme without being limited to a single formula.

Another notable aspect is the materiality of the works. The photographs allow us to appreciate the overall structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but the painting acquires a considerably greater dimension when viewed physically, where the variations in brushwork, the color overlays, the texture, and the small changes in light with which depth is built can be better perceived.

The repetition of certain elements—the female figure, the fish, the face partially submerged, 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 significant, as it demonstrates the willingness to build a sustained body of work rather than just isolated pieces.

Ernest currently maintains an active artistic production and continues to develop 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 currently form part of private collections and galleries in different countries in Europe and Latin America.

His paintings are also regularly offered at auctions on Catawiki, where his work has been well received by the public and collectors.

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

His aquatic series currently represents one of the most personal avenues of his production and stands as a good example of how an apparently everyday 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 Ernest created in the technique of oil on high-quality professional canvas.
Dimensions 60 x 80 cm of painting.
Original edition.
Shipping will be carried out via United Parcel Service (UPS) to Spain and Europe, and via FedEx to the rest of the world.
The artwork will be rolled and protected with several layers of packaging, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the artwork is paid for, three days are required for the packing process and delivery to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot contains AI-generated visualizations. Please refer to the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the work.

This vibrant oil-on-canvas work stands out for its notable technical mastery in representing light refraction and weightlessness in the aquatic environment. The composition shows a woman submerged, elegantly swimming diagonally, surrounded by small multicolored fish and a trail of luminous bubbles emanating from her movement. The color palette is dominated by a rich range of blues—from the crystal turquoise of the surface to cobalt and indigo tones in the depths—creating warmth with the bronze tones of the skin. The dynamic brushstrokes in the upper part capture the swells and the sun glints filtering through the water, contributing a sense of freshness, calm in suspension, and deep freedom that captivates the viewer’s gaze.