MUSEO DE BELLAS ARTES DE BADAJOZ P R O J E C T
The New Creation
Watercolours by Rosana Soriano Polo
Still lifes and urban landscapes
This project begins with an exhibition of watercolours by Rosana Soriano Polo from Merida. Her work falls into two distinct subjects, modern still lifes and urban landscapes, which show the quality of the work from this emerging artist to whom we wish great success, traditionally known as ‘artistic fortune’; we hope that this support from the Fine Arts Museum of Badajoz may contribute to it.
STILL LIFES
We are first impressed by the freshness and modernity of Rosana Soriano’s still lifes but, on reflection, we can notice aspects which remind us of the traditional ones: the closeness of the elements that make up the composition also draws attention to the surroundings of these objects as well as the tasty foodstuffs that are typical of the genre.
The elements arranged by Rosana, unlike traditional, particularly European, still lifes do not form crowded compositions: rather than everything being piled up, they are clearly and intentionally distinguished. However, the surface on which they lie is classical, in opposition to the clear backgrounds, so different from the conventionally dark, in contrast with the objects thus emphasizing volumes, depths and surfaces.
The composition is usually central and from a close perspective; sometimes bordering on the abstract while at times being more distinguishable, but the paintings are always modern and personal which makes Rosana one of the best exponents of this genre in our region.
The choice of what she depicts goes from fruit, fruit bowls and other foodstuffs, so valued in the traditional Still Life, to musical scores and keyboards which are reminiscent of some of the still lifes in the style of the Italian, Bacheni.
The light in the still lifes of Rosana is usually quite uniform and definitely clear; we do not find those intense classical chiaroscuros, but successful transparencies. However, in other respects, we can perceive that alternation between the echoes of the historical still life and the effects of great modernity which eventually prevail in this genre: a favourite of Rosana’s.
Thin lines shape and delimit the objects and splashes of colour and it is precisely that chromatic effect as a whole one of the most characteristic features of her painting. She applies splashes of colour and fine brush-strokes with great certainty, ease and precision.
LANDSCAPES
The other theme that is presented to us by Rosana is her personal interpretation of landscapes, dedicated on this occasion to urban landscapes, although she also depicts natural and mixed.
The urban landscapes of our painter deliberately exclude the human figure, which rarely appears, and when it does, it is shy and distant. The true protagonists of the landscape are its architecture, geometric shapes, organized in broad and distant horizontal structures, and others in powerful vertical blocks between which we observe wide urban avenues or maritime spaces.
It is a modern urban landscape, as the painting itself, new architectures, of our own cities and neighborhoods, in spaces shared by the city and the maritime areas.
Sometimes the simplification of the architectural blocks produces an approximation to abstraction (red urban). When the painting is divided between skies, architectonic structures and water, the transparencies and reflections form highly accomplished compositions [Marine interiors].
These dehumanized landscapes with their harmonic, balanced distribution of structures, present a rich colouring, sometimes with high contrasts of colours and on other occasions with gradual tonal shading based on the same colour.
In any case, colour is always and definitively the protagonist in the watercolours of Rosana Soriano. Her technique, both in the still lifes and in the landscapes, surprises us by her confidence when applying pigments, the clarity, fluidity and transparency of the whole, as well as such a modern conception of two genres which belong to the great tradition of Spanish painting.
Román Hernández Nieves
Director of Fine Arts Museum of Badajoz
(From the Exhibition Catalogue)