Daniel Martín Cea is a self-taught painter from Valladolid who practises hyperrealism his own way. That is, he builds his paintings out of real objects, though often ones pulled from his imagination.
His paintings are like a mirror, you'd think you were looking at a reflection rather than at a picture. The effect is heightened by his convincing use of light, brighter, you might say, than real illumination, as happens with mirrored surfaces, which condense different points of light.
These plays of light are especially rich when they happen on water, a recurring motif for the painter. Cea handles the effect of transparency with real talent. His artwork Los pies en el agua is a good example. You can make out the rocky bed of the river beneath a watery, transparent blanket that gradually turns more opaque, until it reflects the green of the surrounding vegetation, in such a way that we really believe it's us dipping our feet in at the bank.
The artist shows a good command of the human figure, which doesn't come out in forced poses, even if now and then they are a little forced, but rather conveys the same naturalness as the inanimate objects, which you'd think you could touch just by reaching out your hand.
Landscape is a genre he moves through with ease. In his repertoire we find highly expressive scenes, such as El bosque soñado, in which a magical treatment of the light filtering through the trees produces the illusion that we're in some secret spot which, like a mirage, opens up before our eyes.
His output also includes still lifes made from natural elements, like golden fallen leaves or greyish stones, and also from everyday objects, like a pair of trainers, a magazine or a plain can of beer. Compositions that seem to want to tell us that finding beauty in what surrounds us depends only on the glass we look through.
Visit Daniel Martín CEA's page here
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