Ernest (XXI) - Inmersión Escarlata

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 career largely focused on the study 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 hallmarks of his painting language. Women suspended beneath the surface, faces pierced by reflections, fish, hair movements, optical distortions, bubbles, and changes in 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 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 to be 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, turquoise, greens, and marine tones, which frequently contrast with reds, ochres, oranges, and warm tones 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 buoy line directly crosses 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 appears repeatedly in his output. 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 continuously 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 gains a considerably greater dimension when viewed physically, where the variations in brushwork, color superimpositions, texture, and the small changes in light can be perceived more clearly, building a sense of depth.

The repetition of certain elements—the feminine 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 sustained body of work rather than 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 Cuba and are currently part of private collections and galleries in different countries of Europe and Latin America.

His paintings are also regularly offered at Catawiki auctions, 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 investigation, 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 strands of his production and constitutes 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 solely 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 created in acrylic on high-quality professional canvas.
60 x 80 cm painting dimensions.
Original edition.
The shipment 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 packing, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the artwork is paid for, three days are required for packing and delivery to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot contains AI-generated visuals. Please refer to the original photographs to verify the real condition of the work.

This acrylic painting on canvas stands out for its striking chromatic play and technical mastery of light refraction in water. The female figure, captured in an organic arching contortion wearing a red swimsuit, creates a dynamic visual contrast against the palette dominated by azure tones, turquoises, and deep marine blues. The work conveys a sense of weightlessness and serenity through the heavenly beams of light that filter the surface, while the dynamism of the bubbles and the aquatic surroundings add enveloping textures and an atmosphere of total immersion.