Ernest - XL - El Retiro de las Profundidades

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 constant pictorial output and an artistic trajectory centered, to a large extent, on the study 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 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 surface, the 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 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 hues applied to skin, fish, flowers or reflections. This chromatic opposition gives the works a strong visual presence and makes the figure emerge from the aquatic background even when it seems fully integrated into it.

Also characteristic is the way the artist works composition. In many of his paintings, the float 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 repeatedly appears in his production. 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 appreciation of the overall structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but the painting gains a considerably greater dimension when observed physically, where the variations in brushwork, color superpositions, texture, and small changes of light through which the sense of depth is built can be better perceived.

The repetition of certain elements—the female figure, fish, the partially submerged face, floating hair, surface reflections, and the intense blue of the water—helps to configure 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 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 countries in Europe and Latin America.

His paintings are also regularly offered at Catawiki auctions, where his work has received a favorable reception from 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 command of color and the representation of water, and above all, the pursuit of a distinctive 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 setting in Ernest’s work: it acts as a second language that fragments, transforms, and reconstructs the human figure.

Artwork by Ernest created in oil on high-quality professional canvas.
Dimension 100 x 70 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 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 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 check the original photographs to verify the artwork’s real condition.

This dazzling oil-on-canvas work is set within a contemporary magical realist and figurative style, characterized by a masterful handling of light filtered through water, the chromatic contrasts between the bluish glints of the surroundings and the vibrant orange tones of the fish, and a fluid brushstroke that gives great dynamism to the scene. The composition presents a woman with a white flowing dress, calmly seated on a wooden chair in the depths of a crystal-clear body of water, eyes closed in a meditative attitude and surrounded by a court of goldfish and tropical fish swimming around her. Through this dreamlike and poetic atmosphere, the artist seeks to express a deep sense of inner peace, liberating isolation, and absolute harmony with nature, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in a state of timeless calm and spiritual disconnection.