Birds in Piantalfumo

In this canvas Padova turns his gaze to the familiar landscape of the Po Valley and he focuses on the animals that populate it. The protagonists are the birds but their representation does not find roots in naturalism; on the contrary the author defines their silhouettes through a subtle sign, their bodies are transformed into colorful labyrinths uniformed to the tangled vegetation that hosts them. The operation carried out by Padova is to draw inspiration from reality, by implementing a departure from reality, proposing a landscape in which no naturalistic element appears recognizable, while sprawling ambiguous forms occupy the space of representation. A fundamental role is played by the color, which becomes dense, a thick matter, that spreads out by overlapping. The deformed and twisted figures become the symbol of the anxieties that torment the author's soul.