Barrio Escalante, San José

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Potro Rojo, by Rafael Fernández. A violent terracotta flare erupts across an ocean of nocturnal blues.
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Rafael Fernández

Potro RojoInquire about availability

Year
2017
Technique
Oil/Canvas
Dimensions
60 × 75 cm
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
cobalt blue, terracotta, cerulean blue, warm yellow, deep navy blue
Brushwork
Fluid brushstroke with atmospheric glazes and opaque impastos in the figures

Curatorial analysis

A violent terracotta flare erupts across an ocean of nocturnal blues. The colt that gives the canvas its title descends or hovers diagonally from the lower right, carrying on its back a slender figure dressed in yellow and pink. There is no firm ground beneath its hooves; the animal floats within a dense atmosphere of ultramarine pigment, where scale defies physical logic to surrender entirely to the rhythm of dreams.

Behind this primary mount, space dissolves into superimposed visions. A monumental female face materializes amidst the cerulean mists at the top, gazing down upon the scene with spectral stillness. Around her orbit fragmented presences: an ethereal white steed with golden harness, a small russet horse upon an unreal ridge, a fish suspended by a vertical cord, and diminutive boats edging a green strip toward the right. These apparitions do not answer to traditional geometric perspective, but rather to the simultaneity of memories or waking dreams.

The oil medium operates here through translucent glazes that build atmospheric depth, set against more direct, opaque impastos on the russet mount's body. Light does not emanate from an external source, but shines from the figures themselves; the reddish flank, the warm yellow of the tunic, and the white highlights of the eyes illuminate the darkness from within. That tension between warm mass and the cold vastness of the background sustains the visual gravity of the scene.

By linking equestrian iconography with an environment that feels simultaneously maritime and sidereal, the scene suggests a journey through intimate territories. The colt embodies an untamed vital impulse coursing through the blue haze of consciousness, guided by a rider who does not tug at the reins, but instead surrenders to the fascinating weight of the imagined.

Potro Rojo

More works by Rafael Fernández

56 works

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