Morning Smile (2021) Painting by Horacio Cobas

I was born and raised in the city of Buenos Aires and spent all my life since my early childhood in close contact with art. Drawing since I was 5 years old and painting with many different mediums since then.My school's curriculum exposed me to art as well from 1st grade forward in very enthusiastic classes and art was slowly taking a little bit more of a predominant role in my childhood.
Later, at the age of 16, I met the family of Mr Juan Batle Planas, born in Catalonia but living in Buenos Aires since a young age, a master painter, who became one of the top 20 artist of Argentina. From his niece, Nelly Planas, I learned to give a more serious look at my performance and my interest in actively painting every day. She gave me the basic tools to start moving by myself: my first brush (a Trimay natural sable hair brush manufactured by her family), canvas and paints, and my first classes and tips in oil painting. With that qualified push I moved forward into serious art full of confidence. A few years later, I replaced oils by acrylics and later on I faced the challenge to paint in watercolors.

Pure and transparent watercolors. Mixing colors on paper takes the watercolor visual experience to a new level of mingled colors and transparent hues. The extensive array of techniques makes watercolor a perfect medium to create unbelievable scenarios of atmospheric beauty and mood: washes, layering, wet-into-wet, lifting pigment, mingled washes, etc etc.
My pigments of choice are those transparent and lightfast in order to highlight the particular beauty of watercolor. My palette is a limited one, with a couple of yellows, reds and blues, both cool and warm, in addition to the earth tones of Raw and Burnt Sienna. Now and then, a Viridian or Burnt Umber join the palette.
My common subjects are nature based compositions, from landscapes and still life to the human expression depicted in portraits. Life is my main subject and I try to paint its energy the way I feel it, spontaneously. My paintings begin with a soft drawing with pencil on the watercolor paper, usually cold press 140lb. No details are added to the drawing which is mainly the silhouette of shapes on the paper. Then the process of handling/controlling water and pigments through delicate brushstrokes and layers that keep the transparency and freshness of watercolor. Paintings are finished usually the same day but always I review them with a clear mind the following  day and make a few adjustments when I feel they are needed.

• Nationality: ARGENTINA
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Argentinian Artists