Luis F. Pérez, Krilling Me Softly, watercolor, 15 x 22.
New Yorker Luis F. Pérez was rinsing a colander full of fresh shrimp at his kitchen sink when the inspiration for his winning entry struck him. The light from the kitchen window created shimmering, iridescent reflections on the shrimp, sending Pérez running for his smartphone and a stepladder. Then, looking down on the shrimp from his perch atop the ladder, he says, “I started snapping pictures like crazy.”
In one respect, the artist’s resulting watercolor painting is about the simple beauty in our daily lives, he says. But it’s also about the luxury of being able to eat well, adds Pérez. “I feel very lucky to [be able to] afford shrimp and eat it; not everyone can.”
Pérez works in several different mediums and primarily in a representational style. Yet, when it comes to watercolors, “I secretly want to be an abstract painter, and I can’t,” he confesses with a smile. “I’m not wired that way. But nevertheless, if you look closely at the details in the shrimp, it’s all abstract. It’s only when you walk back [from the painting] that these forms, lines, and adjacent tones become representative.”
Early in his art career, Pérez worked as an illustrator and then as the art director for a men’s fashion-design company. As a fine artist today, he values the drawing skills he honed in those roles. “You train your eye to see,” he explains. “Being able to see makes watercolors less intimidating. You want to treat them with respect and understand their limitations. I try to find and stay true to the beauty of the relationship between the paper, the water, the pigment, and the brush.” Find the artist’s work at www.luisfineart.com.
This story appeared in the December 2020/January 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.