Velasco's lights

In the studio, velasco paints with veins and muscles straining. He paints surrounded by brushes, bits of wood, pot of turpentine, rags, pieces of paper, sticks of charcoal, rolled-up sketches, and piles of canvases. the total disorder isolates and reassures him. Painting, for him, is a kind of combat. HE advances towards the canvas and withdraws. He hangs it up, turn it upside down, or spreads it out on the floor. He has an extraordinary speed of execution, even though, for him, painting is a virtually endless process. "I can go on retouching a paintings for days," he says. "As long as I have it there in front of me it's never finished. It's up to the painting to ask me... and then one day I say that's it and I let it dry".

 

in Extramoenia, Charta, Milano 2005, catalogue of the exhibition