Ernest - Sinfonía subacuática

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 to develop a steady pictorial production and an artistic career largely focused on researching 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 pierced by reflections, fish, hair movement, optical distortions, bubbles and changes in light appear repeatedly in his compositions, not as mere decorative resources, but as part of a visual universe that is increasingly defined.

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 light-induced deformations 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 sit 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, ochres, oranges, and warm hues applied to the skin, the fish, the flowers, or the 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 the composition. In many of his paintings, the flotation line cuts directly 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 repeatedly appears in his work. Water thus becomes a boundary, refuge, and space of transformation.

Within the series there are compositions of a more intimate and contemplative character, while others present a more free, 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 appreciating the overall structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but painting acquires a considerably greater dimension when observed physically, where variations in brushwork, color superpositions, texture, and small changes in light that build the sense of depth can be better perceived.

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—helps to shape a recognizable artistic identity. In a young creator, this coherence is especially significant, as it demonstrates the will to build a continuous body of work rather than merely isolated pieces.

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

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 who is still in the process of growth, but who already possesses especially valuable elements within an emerging trajectory: 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 personal visual identity.

His aquatic series currently represents one of the most personal branches of his production and stands as a good example of how a seemingly 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 scene in Ernest’s work: it acts as a second language that fragments, transforms, and reconstructs the human figure.

Artwork by the artist Ernest done in high-quality professional oil on 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 artwork will be rolled and protected with several layers of packaging, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the work is paid for, three days are required for the packaging and delivery process to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot contains AI-generated visuals. Check the original photographs to verify the artwork’s real condition.

This oil on canvas painting in a realist style dynamically and delicately captures a moment of underwater buoyancy, where a woman in a red swimsuit glides serenely through a crystalline marine environment. The composition stands out for the virtuosity in projecting sunlight, which penetrates the water surface to filter luminous beams and intricate caustic networks on the figure’s skin and the turquoise background. Moving bubbles created by the feet’s propulsion add a notable sense of movement and freshness, while small tropical fish scattered around balance the frame. With a rich palette of azure and greenish tones and warm contrasts on the figure, the work conveys an atmosphere of calm, freedom, and perfect harmony with nature.