Interview: Federico Barrault

In conversation with Federico Barrault, a visual artist who lives and works in Mexico.

www.federicobarrault.com


@fedebarrault

Artistic statement:

‘I take hold of my palette knife; get closer to the canvas without showing my own query, divided into two, between the confidence of what I learned and the internal chaos of the uncertainty of creating. I reinvent myself with each work of art, with each process, being dimly aware of where I go, but being sure that it will be intense, chaotic… and that I will know what happened, at the end. 

The necessity and the passion to know why this profession of faith demands me so much, were the reasons why I was inspired by artists I admire without discriminating avant-grade artists, from the Baroque and Romanticism to the Expressionism and the Lyrical Abstraction. From Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Gericault, Vermeer to Pollock, Kline, Mathieu, Rothko. In this way, inspired by figurative and abstract experiences, the conception of my work goes through two parallel paths which never combine. 

The value of pigment, to make the most of the material, faces the technique which transcends the canvas.’

What was your journey into the arts?

Since I can remember I take art very seriously, since I was a child it was part of me. Then I started some studies in fine arts but my training is self-taught, from experiences lived with mentors, artists, trips. Art is a path that never ends.

Your work uses many different media and outputs, can you talk about this approach?

I use various materials for the production of the work, industrial paints and everything that serves to generate textures. In contemporary painting everything is valid. For me the use of the material is key. For the creative process I was very inspired by photography, I also work a lot with digital resources such as the ipad to establish compositions or a color palette.

What is your working pattern like? How do you work?

I am not very methodical when I paint, but very methodical in the creative process. I plan and organize my time to recruit ideas, make sketches, and start working on the canvas, along with the maturing process of painting.

Do you use a sketchbook or journal? If so, can you talk about how you use this. Is it or your sketches a record of what you do or does it inform your approach and thinking?

I have a notebook to make notes and it generates new ideas. My sketches also form a great blog of stimulating content.

My work of art is an invitation to think, to break the assumptions, to exceed the established limits, so as to install ourselves in a more artistic thought, where poetry and passion join.

In this constant search of self-awareness of the work, the exaltation of the matter can be seen, the various textures that give the impression of being unfinished, concentrate the aesthetic universes which form an artistic redefinition, confronting the academic standards.