Ernest - XL - Silueta Líquida

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 production and an artistic career focused, to a large extent, on researching 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 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 the deformations produced by light through brushstrokes that oscillate between figuration, expressive realism and certain 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 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 underwater background even when it seems completely integrated into it.

It is also characteristic the way the artist works composition. In many of his paintings, the flotation line crosses directly the face or the 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 body of 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 us to appreciate the general structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but the painting acquires a considerably greater dimension when observed physically, where the variations in brushwork, color overlays, 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 partly submerged face, 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 particularly significant, as it demonstrates the will to build a continuous body of work and not 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 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 very much in the process of 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 water representation, and above all, the search for a distinctive visual identity.

His aquatic series currently represents one of the more personal facets 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 not only functions as a setting in Ernest’s work: it acts as a second language that fragments, transforms and reconstructs the human figure.

Artwork by artist Ernest created in oil on high-quality professional canvas.
Size 100 x 70 cm of painting.
Original edition.
Shipping will be carried out via United Parcel Service (UPS) for Spain and Europe, and via FedEx for the rest of the world.
The work 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 process and delivery to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot includes AI-generated visuals. Check the original photographs to verify the artwork’s real condition.

This stunning oil-on-canvas work is positioned within contemporary realism with marked impressionist nuances, characterized by a masterful command of light, color and optical refraction where turquoise, emerald and deep blue tones of the water intertwine with golden glints filtering from the surface. The composition portrays a woman swimming underwater, whose figure and hair reflect symmetrically on the upper surface, creating a dual atmosphere where the body organically blends with the waves and the texture of the aquatic medium. Through this visually striking and serene scene, the artist seeks to express a deep sense of freedom, weightlessness and introspective communion with nature, inviting the viewer to experience the peace and disconnection that inhabit the silence of the liquid element."