Pájaro (pronounced páh-hah-ro), who takes his name from a childhood nickname meaning “bird”, is a Venezuelan artist who spent much of his youth and adolescence in Spain.
He embarked on his path as a self taught painter at the age of 23.
Returning to Venezuela he brought back with him the influence of European Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art that expresses itself in an interesting mixture of styles, creating a form of visionary magic realism that he terms “Metarealism”
Pájaro draws on those aspects of classical art that he chooses and mixes them at will; Renaissance garbed figures, rendered with Baroque or even modern sensibilities, might appear in landscapes with the intricate detail and false atmospheric perspective of Medieval painting.
His subjects are dreamlike juxtapositions of figures, objects, times and places, rendered with an appealing eye for texture and tone, and usually painted with a muted, carefully controlled palette; though he occasionally applies high chroma passages.
Pájaro presents his subjects in compositions that feel somewhat theatrical, as though implying that he has stories to tell us, and with an intensity of rendering that imbues them with a feeling of personal significance.
On opening his website, there is a choice at bottom right to view the site in English. There is an “Enlarge” button to the lower right of most paintings; unfortunately, the JavaScript that opens the window for the enlargements takes some time, particularly on a large monitor.
Pájaro also has started a blog, though there is little content as yet.