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This week I’ve been talking about art with Rafa Macarrón. We met in his Madrid studio, a space of incredible vistas of the vast Pardo hill. When you enter the room through his painting-door, you go into a different world, a balanced world in which everything seems to be exactly where it needs to be: an isolation tank invaded by an explosion of vibrant colors, galaxies of acrylic boats, markers, oil paint tubes, models, beads, pieces, buttons, and fibers that cohabitate in a floor made of living stains.
The Power of Being Amazed by Small Things
In the work of Macarrón everything flows in an intuitive dominion of space and composition.
Colors are mixed with spontaneity; one color latches onto one another in a harmonious dialogue of daring combinations. The characters in his painting awaken our curiosity: where do they come from and where are they going? You feel like hugging them, they are like Rafa: with big glasses, tender, intuitive, calm, intelligent, soft, spiritual, fun, and colorful.
The microworlds in the paintings of Rafa Macarrón can be perceived as a state in which the rules of equilibrium and order of the universe reign supreme.
Rafa, One of the Spanish Artists with the Greatest International Projection
The world from which he comes from and lives in is the world of art and culture. Manuel Hernández Mompó, El Paso group, Alfonso Fraile, Manolo Millares, and Francisco Iturrino are the artists he looks up to the most. From the Paris school he learned about color, elegance, and warmth in works of art. Confessions, by Saint Augustine, and The Lily of the Field and the Bird of Air, by Søren Kierkegaard are mandatory readings; these books have left the biggest mark upon him, and have helped him in the path of inner connection and reflection he’s undertaken in his work.
About Spirituality in his Art
Rafa talks to us about his spiritual world: he reads mystic literature, philosophy, and poetry. The path of detachment to reach the maximum freedom is the one that taught him to listen to the painting during the creation process in a direct and clear way. His spontaneous, balanced, and carefree work reflects the fact that Rafa is an artist with spiritual longings. Without sketches, straight into the canvas, Macarrón paints from an intuitive and connected space, that can only be reached with discipline, work, and —at the same time— by letting go, flowing.
Photography: Oscar Rivilla
Music: Dr. Symptosizer
Conceptual Design: Carolina Verd
Fashion:
Jewelry Rafa Macarrón collection by Catalina D´Anglade
Pink shirt and brick-red flannel pants by Forte_Forte, shoes by Golden Goose; ourtesy of Pez
Carolina Verd 