MIGUEL PEIDRO
Autumn’s Hues
As the seasons change, Mother Nature confidently takes rein of the landscape shifting nature through its life cycle. One of the most vibrant of changes comes from summer to fall when the colors turn from bright greens to robust oranges, yellows and reds. The hues signify that things are winding down and the dormancy of winter is ahead. Spanish artist Miguel Peidro has particularly found an interest in autumn, often focusing his landscape paintings around the season.
“I am a lover of nature and I enjoy it in my daily life—running, painting and photographing it—but it is in autumn that
I feel more emotion and peace through the diversity of tones and tranquility,” he says. “It seems that this color is even unreal, as if you were in a story and away from everything, and from there comes my inspiration. Autumn is in tune with what I look for in painting light and color.”
Living near the Pyrenees mountain range, Peidro has an abundance of inspiration at every turn, and everything he paints is based on real places he has been. “The work in plein air is essential, especially in the beginning when you do not yet have a defined technique,” Peidro says. “[It helps in] catching mists, rapid changes of light, etc., that the photograph doesn’t give to you. I make small sketches in plein air, and then work in larger sizes in the studio.”
When Peidro is in the studio, he develops the work with an artistic lens—adding and subtracting elements in order to improve the image. Each painting still highlights the moment in real life that captivated him to put brush to canvas.
In Autumn Fog, for instance, the artist was inspired by the contrast of the gray fog with the bold red trees. “I wanted in this piece to emphasize red, to make it stand out,” he elaborates. Another painting, Water’s Edge, not only shows the beginning of the season with greens and golds blending, but also focuses on the waterway. Peidro describes, “What struck me most was the contrast of the lava stone by the riverbank, which stands out next to the emerald water.”
Walking in Autumn is a depiction of the protected natural park Hayedo de Montejo in the Sierra de Madrid, explains the artist. He says, it is “a beautiful beech forest, and in autumn gets spectacular golds. This place was one of my first trips to create in plein air.”
Other works, such as Magical Autumn and Tranquility are scenes from around the Irati River, which the artist says is one of his favorite places to paint. “I make many trips to get lost in its forests. It’s a magical place, where a film director could make
a film of gnomes, elves and witches,” he says. “Its beauty intensifies in autumn, where the diversity of colors makes you feel like a child happily painting.”
Throughout the month of October, Lotton Gallery in Chicago will celebrate autumn with a solo exhibition of Peidro’s paintings.