The Permanence of a Fleeting Gesture Painting by Carlos Gamez De Francisco

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This work is rooted in a formative period of my studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, when I had … Read more This work is rooted in a formative period of my studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, when I had the opportunity to take several classes across Europe—in Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Each place left a distinct mark on my practice, but it was the Netherlands that stayed with me the most deeply.

There, I fell in love with the endless tulip fields—those precise yet dreamlike expanses of color—and the extraordinary still life paintings I encountered in museums. They carried a quiet intensity: an awareness of beauty, impermanence, and the poetry of everyday objects. That experience became a turning point in my work and ultimately led me to revisit still life as a central theme.

In my own practice, however, I wanted to reimagine the tradition rather than simply revisit it. My goal has been to create a more contemporary language for still life—one that breaks away from the limitations of the square or rectangular canvas. I began painting on round surfaces, and even extending the composition onto the frame itself, allowing the image to feel less contained and more immersive.

In this piece, tulips become the focal point, but they are transformed beyond their natural state. I reinterpreted them as porcelain-like forms—delicate, luminous, and slightly unreal. This shift in materiality speaks to fragility and beauty at once, elevating the flowers into objects that feel both timeless and vulnerable.

The result is a dialogue between tradition and experimentation: a still life that honors its history while gently pushing its boundaries into a more contemporary, sculptural space. See less