JOSE DA SILVA
Patzcuaro boasts a consummate portrait painter.
José da Silva was born in 1948 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Argentina. He married Adriana Mitidiero and they had two children. In 1974 the couple left Argentina to move with their two-year-old daughter and six-month-old son to Mexico D.F. José and Adriana both needed to work and they spent hours commuting in the nightmare of Mexico City traffic. They said they hardly saw their children. The niñera fed breakfast to the children after the couple left for work and put them to bed at night before they returned.
In 1976, CREFAL in Pátzcuaro offered Adriana a position as executive secretary and also offered José a job. The couple picked up again and happily moved to Pátzcuaro--where two more daughters were born and Adriana and José have lived ever since.
In Pátzcuaro José met an Austrian who had been trained as a finish-carpenter. The two men set up a business, first making wooden toys and then furniture. At one point Carrefour in France ordered 2500 sets of shelves, which they shipped in 1997. At its peak, the furniture business employed 80-100 people.
José started painting on plywood at the age of ten in Argentina and had always liked to paint, even though he worked at other jobs for a living. In Pátzcuaro he was further able to study painting technique with a painter from Mexico City. José began painting portraits, which is what most interested him, and he sold them well from the beginning.
At some point José and his partner realized they did not both have to manage the furniture business at the same time. They began trading three months on and three months off, then six months, and eventually one year at a time. They shared the profits which gave them both the luxury of time off with income. Eventually, in 2006, José sold his share in the business to a mutual friend. His children were grown and José could devote himself full time to painting, his first love.
Although he has done a few landscapes, José is first and foremost a portrait painter. He says that the expression on certain faces catches his attention. To begin, he may take as many as one hundred photographs of a subject which he uses in picking the angle and the look he likes best. He especially likes to paint a person’s eye contact. And some people, such as Arminda of Ihuatzio, he paints over and over again to capture a different mood, angle or look.
Those of you who wander around Pátzcuaro have certainly admired the superb da Silva paintings displayed at El Patio or La Surtidora on Plaza Grande. José usually has some portraits for sale and he can ship to a customer. If you are interested in purchasing a painting and would like to know what he has available, make a comment below to request his email address.
Here are some portraits that José da Silva has painted.
6 comments:
Interesting. I´ve seen this fellow´s work, but I don´t think I´ve ever seen him here in person.
He and his wife walk to the Centro almost everyday.
In answer to a question, the artist uses a high quality oil paint, a Dutch import with the apt brand name "Rembrandt".
We were in Pátzcuaro yesterday and saw some of his paintings in El Patio. We are interested in purchasing and would like to get in contact with him.
Wooleyman, Give me your email address as a comment which I will not post here on the blog. I can then privately help you make contact with the artist. He paints wonderful faces.
I lived in Patzcuaro for more than twenty-five years. I owned a little record & book shop called Discolibro. I remember very well don Jose Luis, who we refered to as "el ché", due to his Argentinan origins. Both doña Adriana and him are great human beings. A couple of hard-working persons, devoted to their family.Please, give them my best wishes.
Post a Comment