Inside the Studio

Armando Rabadán

What are the major themes you pursue in your work?

I am keen on exploring the balance between organic and geometric elements in my paintings. For me, they are the degree of a whole concept.

I explore themes of  the non-existence of good and bad, sacred geometry, the scale, the cyclic processes, The Fractal Theory and Multiverse Theory. These studies have led me to realize that everything is connected in the universe somehow.

As a painter, I am concerned with the act of painting itself. I do not consider a painting as one main idea, but rather as a set of images and processes that I can display in one canvas.

Painting is a process that is constantly changing. I tend to ‘follow the randomness’ (I accept the stain as an encounter; the chromatic layering as richness; the overlapping of some squares on others). Therefore, I do not know when I begin how a painting may turn out.

My process is based on my attempt to find a balance between geometric shapes, texture, and perspective.

I paint several times over the same painting until this reconstruction process leads me to find a balance between geometry and organic nature.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

My father used to tell me “Do the things with love.” To me, this means to put your heart in what you do, and try your best. When I start a new painting I only concern myself with a  true connection between the canvas and myself. Love is something difficult to explain with words, but I think it is related to sharing and giving without expecting to receive anything in return. So it is what I do in my works. I respect them and I let them be without questions. And step by step I think we are growing together.

Prefer to work with music or in silence? 

Part of my method is based on mechanic tasks and I do not listen music when I do them because silence helps me to concentrate. I focus on searching for accidents while I work. I find them during the process of a gestural brushwork or just not doing something totally perfect. Music helps me to achieve these  accidents because it affects my mood. This part of my procedure is influenced by action painting. Depending on my mood, I tend to listen to drum’n’bass, Jazz, flamenco, classic or meditation music.

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be? 

It would be Yellow by Anish Kapoor. I remember the sensory power of this work when I saw it at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. First I thought it was a painting, but then when I went closer my perception had changed and I realized that it had depth. I like the way that the work’s colour and shape affected me as well. It made me feel like I was  in front of a religious object with high energy, or something mysterious that I could not explain with words.

Who are your favorite writers?

It is always changing but I like Jean Baudrillard, Regis Debray, Osho, Emilio Carrillo and some novels by Ildefonso Falcones or Arturo Pérez- Reverte, such  as “The Painter of Battles.”