Holm-oak forest

Most of my work comes from a direct view of nature (...). When the presence of something moves me (...) the need arises (...) of expressing its language.”
With these phrases, Luis Garrido gives us some clues about his creative attitude. Luis walks through the nature that is closest to him; looks at it quietly, carefully and pleasantly. Joyfully heartfelt, emotionally known, he discovers its language built from a recondite silence and with a silent voice reveals its heartbeat made alive, its murmuringly lively sound. We see it and hear it inwardly. And we necessarily feel an intimate sense of calm, of still time.
Thus in this landscape.
Our eye is called upon by warm ochres and the yellowish-whites and cold “silver” greens of a spiny faggot located in the centre of the image. Born of a broken dark sienna bush and contrasting with the bluish emerald greens —interwoven with purplish greys— of the tall stems from the lower half of the second space. Later, through a play of balance, the eye settles on grown grasses that occupy the foreground of the picture; grasses of ochre shades, some lightly orange or green, rising over a land of warm grey siennas and cold purples: delicate colour and temperature contrast.
These grasses lean towards the left, while those on the second plane lean in the opposite direction. So, our eye moves in a slight zig-zag movement across two spaces divided at the same time by a wide curve that separates the warm light of one from the humid shade of the other.
One is then directed to the thick trunks of the third and fourth sections, whose diagonal layout leads to the back of the picture. But the tour is stilled by horizontal bands along which the trees are placed... and it is revived both by the slight movement —in opposite directions— from its soft grassy area and by the subtle chromatic and luminous plays appearing there. Then, one’s eyes come to rest on the cold, green bushes at the back; and the eye finally wishes to escape towards the light blues hinted in the background...
Carefully recreated, with slow delectation, each and every image in the painting surprises because of its exceptionally accurate manufacture, of painstaking finesse and extreme material lightness.
Everything appears represented with the characteristics of their particular uniqueness, but so slow and lovingly made that, without paradox, it reveals its ideal essence.
Painted in simple, almost religious spirit, without tricks, with truth, this artwork conveys communion with nature and love for the quiet life. And it reaches our soul with such intensity that it inevitably leads one to delve into the landscape; to inhabit it with extreme care; experience it in excited and respectful silence.
Javier Suescun Molilna