Didier Delights

The colours immediately leap out at you - the primary reds, blues and yellows. The intense skies, the deep seas, the warm earth, the sun-baked walls, the splashes of scarlet - alive, vital, vivid. His people are robust, often full-bodied, they are enjoying life by the beach, under the stars, in a restaurant, at a jazz club. Didier Lourenco, born in 1968, and one of Spain's most celebrated contemporary artists, depicts ordinary life with an extraordinary edge. Although his style is surrealist, there is a whimsy and cheerfulness to his work, so different from the darker themes of Munch and Dali. Lourenco has his mellow moments, where he uses a wide range of moody blues and soft browns. Overall, there is a great sense of place and time in his pictures, and we too wish that we were in Lourenco's world, sipping a long, cool drink on a terrace with balmy breezes and gently swaying palm trees; tapping our feet in time to the beat of the band in a dark, smoky jazz club; cycling with the wind in our hair on a sunny beach, the sea at our back. A beautiful life, a wonderful indulgence indeed.

Note: A big thanks to TW for introducing me to Lourenco's works and for making my world a more colourful place.