Natural Pigments congratulates Julio Reyes for winning the Draper Grand Prize at the 2012 International Portrait Competition for his Tread Softly painting. The finalists in the competition were announced at The Art of the Portrait conference Gala Banquet on Saturday, May 26, 2012, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel.
Julio Reyes, Tread Softly, 42 x 63, oil on canvas
The title Tread Softly comes from a line in a poem by W.B. Yeats. Julio wanted to capture the vulnerability of dreaming and the longing for some unseen or unknown destiny. He wanted to embody the realization that the miraculous can be found in the ordinary, hidden from plain sight. It was important to him that he juxtaposed the warmth of a natural person against a vast and unsympathetic landscape to intensify the frailty and preciousness of human life. When Julio first met this young girl, he was immediately drawn to her. She was painfully shy, innocent, and genuine. He remembers this immense feeling looming over her solitary play as her tiny silhouette stood against unending horizons.
Julio uses Rublev Colours artists’ oils and mediums in his work, for which he commented: “In Tread Softly I could not have achieved the level of sensitivity and expressiveness I desired from my materials, without using Rublev Colour’s line of artists’ oils and mediums.”
Visit Julio’s website to see more of his work and the use of Rublev Colours artists’ oils and mediums. We wish Julio and his artist spouse, Candice Bohannon, who deserves no less praise for her talents as a figurative painter.
Julio Reyes, Tread Softly, detail
