Ernest - Oasis Carmesí

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 largely focused on the study of the human figure and its relationship with the aquatic environment.

Over the last few years, the artist has developed a series dedicated to immersion, water, and the human figure, turning these elements into one of the most recognizable traits of his pictorial language. Women suspended beneath the surface, faces pierced by reflections, fish, movements of the hair, optical distortions, bubbles and changes of light appear repeatedly 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, reflections, and light-induced distortions with 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, 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 handles composition. In many of his paintings, the buoyancy line crosses directly the face or body of the character, dividing the image into two realities. In others, the viewer observes the scene completely submerged. This choice generates a sense of quiet, suspension and isolation that appears repeatedly 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 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 confined 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 gains a considerably greater dimension when viewed physically, where the variations in brushwork, color overlays, texture, and small changes in light with which the sense of depth is built 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—help to shape a recognizable artistic identity. In a young creator, this coherence is especially significant, as it demonstrates the will to build a sustained body of work rather than isolated pieces.

Ernest currently maintains 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 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 full 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 distinct visual identity.

His aquatic series currently represents one of the most personal facets of his production and serves 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 function only 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 oil on high-quality professional canvas.
Dimensions: 60 x 80 cm 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 painting 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 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. Check the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the work.

This oil on canvas captures, from a cropped perspective, the figure of a woman at rest floating on a circular pink-toned inflating ring. The intense cobalt blue background is defined by expressive brushstrokes that suggest organic movement and the network of light refracted on the water’s surface. The woman, wearing a vibrant green swimsuit and a wide-brimmed straw hat that hides her face from direct light, is depicted with a realistic shading technique, creating a dynamic contrast with the background’s abstraction. She holds a cyan cocktail glass, reinforcing the leisure narrative and the sensory experience of the moment. The top-down viewpoint isolates the subject, creating a balanced and tranquil composition that evokes themes of solitude, renewal, and the interconnection between the human figure and the natural element of water.