Artist: Walter Castillo ( Belize, 1971 - present )
http://galleries.absolutearts.com/c...tists&login=onlinegallery&id=593 Main Category: Painting
Genres: Modern Art
Biography: Walter Castillo was born in Nicaragua in 1971. As a child his parents sent him out of the country to save him from the war and at the age of 10 years he arrived in the beautiful country of Belize. As a child he has always liked painting and travelling and dreamt one day to become an artist. He started painting in his free time for fun, designing scenarios from his mind based on the picturesque surrounding of Belize.
It seamed that universal law has already set his path as an artist. Early in his teens, he started travelling in Belize and mingling with people from many different cultures: Mayas, East Indians, Creole and Garinagu with which he lived from 13 to 17 years old. These vibrant, happy and beautiful people tough him to understand, see, listen and, most of all, love nature. He also learnt from them that negative and positive energy can be channeled and transferred to human beings and to the planet itself. All this knowledge woke up in him
a need for self expression through painting and drumming.
Castillo is a self-taught artist; he taught himself how to write and read Spanish and English, how to play instruments and how to mix colors, creating his own form of Naive style. His colorful and vibrant work celebrates the joy and zest for life depicting tropical Caribbean settings, magical rainforest with mysterious animals and wondrous waterfalls, mystical people playing exotic instruments and hiding behind the luxurious tropical canopy. His imagination is never-ending??.. "I learn from every piece of artwork I create. My art is like trees planted by rivers of water, that give fruits in its own season, which leaves shall never wither. I give thanks to the creators of the universe, to the sun and the earth, to my earthly mother for giving me my present body with which I express myself. I give thanks to the people of the earth for their love and respect for my art, knowing that my work pays respect to all mankind and all ethnic groups that populate the face of our planet, hoping that my work one day will become a cultural patrimony to all my brothers and sisters all over the universe"
Exhibition History: In 1990 he had his first successful exhibit in Cavendish Square in London where he met a lot of people that loved and appreciated his work. From then on, his path as an international professional artist was set. He had two more exhibition in England and expositions in Belize, Houston, San Diego, New Orleans, Miami, San Francisco, New York, Berna, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Lion, Tuscany, Milan, Hamburg, Moscow, Abu Dabhi, Taiwan, Japan, Managua (Nic.), Tegucigalpa (Hond.) and Chetumal (Mex.).