Barrio Escalante, San José

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Ritual, by Alma Fernández Tercero. A frontal and restrained gaze, suspended between wakefulness and a meditative trance, anchors the gravity of this image.

Alma Fernández Tercero

RitualInquire about availability

Year
2017
Technique
Oil/Canvas
Dimensions
76 × 61 cm
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
petrol blue, soft pink, pearl white, jet black, peach
Brushwork
Soft blending in carnations and backgrounds with light stippling of splatters and precise graphic lines in the curls of the hair.

Curatorial analysis

A frontal and restrained gaze, suspended between wakefulness and a meditative trance, anchors the gravity of this image. The female figure emerges from a watery or celestial mantle, wrapped in a vaporous white that softens and dissolves the lower contours of her body. The sculptural density of her dark hair, rendered through a continuous arabesque of curvilinear lines, immediately contrasts with the liquid, ethereal atmosphere surrounding her, giving the face an inescapable earthly presence amid a weightless setting.

The pictorial space dispenses with architectural references and physical horizons. Instead, a backdrop of blues ranging from cerulean to deep petroleum is enriched with pale glazes and fine spatters, evoking either marine depths or the immensity of a starry vault. Lotus flowers in varying stages of bloom float around the woman, alongside detached petals that seem to rest on or emerge from the mass of her hair, suggesting a ritualized time wherein nature responds to the subject's introspection.

There is a remarkable delicacy in the construction of the skin's warm tones, bathed in a diffuse light that avoids harsh shadows. The hands folded over the chest, almost in a posture of protection or private prayer, reinforce the vertical axis that sustains the composition, while the slender green stems of the flowers introduce a subtle organic counterpoint balancing the prevailing coolness of the blue.

This scene translates the notion of purification into a quiet pictorial reality. The interplay between the tangible volume of the hair and the progressive dissolution of the lower forms generates a sense of inner ascension, where the ritual is not proclaimed outward but unfolds entirely within the subject's quietude.

Ritual

More works by Alma Fernández Tercero

30 works

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View all 30 works by Alma Fernández Tercero

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