Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Robert Padilla (b.1947)
Eze, France Landscape, 1985.
Oil on linen canvas, 8.75 x 10 inches.
Signed and dated lower left.
Unframed.
Robert Padilla was born in 1947 in Paris, France, and was shuttled in and out of foster homes and orphanages, which played a factor in him turning his paintbrush on those who had been discarded – out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
Searching for a place to call home, Padilla enlisted in the French military in his early 20’s before coming to the United States in 1976. With a job already lined up when he arrived, Padilla worked at a ritzy hair salon located on Madison Avenue and 72nd Street in New York City and was doing well for himself.
While roaming and exploring the streets of New York City and becoming entrenched in his surroundings, Padilla discovered another creative outlet. “I started painting, drawing and developing my technique,” he said. “It took me about a year to create a painting that meant something, and it was a turning point.
He also saw creating art as his “calling,” once he discovered “Thompson Park, the underground capital of homelessness in New York,” he said. Padilla found in their faces that human emotion, the same cloak of despair that he at times felt.
He also saw creating art as his “calling,” once he discovered “Thompson Park, the underground capital of homelessness in New York,” he said. Padilla found in their faces that human emotion, the same cloak of despair that he at times felt.
As an artist, he was validating their existence. They posed for him as models and he expressed seeing a tenderness in their eyes that he connected with. Their faces have been positioned just so on the walls of Detour Gallery in great anticipation of the opening of their show, for all to see and for them to be admired, acknowledged and invited in as part of the human family.
“His work is about real people,” said artist, Julia Rivera...
Category
1980s Impressionist Paint Paintings
