Miguel Padura
Coro - Chorus, 1986
Miguel Padura. Born in Havana, 1957. I was four years old when
my family moved to Rodas, in the province of Las Villas. My
father was an engineer and I wanted to be one as well. He would
do a lot of drawings related to his profession and I was always
with him. That's how I started, although it was not until I was
seventeen or eighteen that I seriously considered dedicating
myself to painting. I took my first classes with Roberto
Martinez. He taught me how to see, how to perceive through my
own eyes, not through his, like so many teachers tend to do. He
helped me develop what I had inside, my own way of looking at
things. Although I have integrated the abstract into my work, I
consider myself a figurative painter. I have always been
fascinated by still-life, and although I may modify it in some
way or other, it will always have a place in my work. For me,
art means being able to bring to the surface one's deepest
feelings, one's way of knowing and seeing the world, the way one
wants it to be seen. I am a bit selfish I paint for myself, to
please myself. Perhaps my Cubanness comes out subconsciously in
my work. I remember Cuba as a tranquil place; at home there was
solitude and silence. In this sense Cuba influences my painting,
because tranquillity and solitude is what I want to paint.