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Out of stockSize 122cm x 124.5cm Many people ask Raul why he often works in abstract, and what he says to them is his hands transmit through the brush the feelings he has about a place or time in his life. In Raul’s figurative work, it’s more about a different form of writing, whereas this painting reaches into his subconscious for how the landscape feels emotionally. Sometimes it’s straight lines, but more often a blend of texture and colour that speaks from his heart.
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102cm x 81.5cm This is part of a series of images and is centred on the fact that in Raul’s home country women provide for the home and the family. And although equality has been part of everyday life since the Cuban Revolution, Raul acknowledges that women still are the centre of the home, often carrying home from the market the food for the family on their heads. So, these paintings aren’t just about the physical fact of carrying, they also represent the degree of responsibility women hold.
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Size 99cm x 75cm In Wales, many of the valleys are deep and quiet, and then suddenly there’s a house or a tree that strikes a chord in Raul’s imagination. It’s similar in Cuba. Raul was born in a deep valley, just like the one at Solva, which is maybe why he is so at home here. It’s a subject he returns to in different forms, again and again.
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Out of stockSize 60cm x 60cm (each part) This diptych arises from Raul’s observations of Solva at night, as the sea comes in. Everywhere there is silence, except for the sound of the waves. The birds have gone to bed and he is alone in the landscape.
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Size 71cm x 102cm Raul is fascinated by old photographs of Welsh women in their national dress, and feels they should be acknowledged as being important to their culture. The clothes, the colours, and the sentiment of the tea ceremony in Welsh homes may be of times gone by, but they are still important to remember.
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Out of stockSize 52cm x 59.5cm Raul is painting a series of these Welsh women as they appeared centuries ago. He is reaching out to understand how different their lives were and finds himself wondering what they would make of today’s world. Oil is a good medium to use to express them because it reflects the depth of colour that black and grey hold within them, and which were part of the lives of Welsh villages and people back then.
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Size 71cm x 78cm One of Raul’s preoccupations when travelling is how the different cultures treat their women. This image started life after a trip to Morocco, when he saw how clearly defined the differences between male and female lives were. Although women are around in the streets, they are to some degree still hidden, with only their eyes speaking aloud. It contrasts with both the cultures Raul has lived in, i.e. Cuba and the UK, but he respects that it’s part of their culture and religious beliefs.
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Size 243cm x 122cm One of a series of works that Raul has been creating since 1997, when he first came to Solva. These images portray how he is engaged with the environment at any specific time. They’re never the same colour or even size, but always carry the energy of the time he is painting.
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Out of stockSize 84.5cm x 76cm Blue is one of the most fascinating colours. In Cuba it’s part of daily life. It’s not only part of the seascape but also of people’s spiritual beliefs. In daily religious connections, Cubans use coloured powders to offer to the altar, and in this picture the texture of the paint is such that its dryness represents this powder. Raul is looking from the window at his father’s farm and seeing a ceremony that often took place there.
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Size 102cm x 81.5cm It’s night-time and the sounds are distant, leaving the natural movement of the water to sing its own song. The water reaches out to cover the sand, leaving some almost white in the moonlight. As Raul watches this happening, he sits and dreams of how life works in cycles and has its own rhythm that man cannot change.
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Out of stockSize 50cm x 69cm Raul’s two paintings, Abstract 1 and Abstract 2, are a separate expression of the weather and the light as two times of the day: at dawn and at the turn of evening. They have a depth of texture that results from multi-layering, and took several months to produce, allowing the paint to dry within each expression. They are not sold as a pair, although they could easily belong together.
