The sketchbook gallery of santiagorios offers a vivid journey through places, people, and impressions captured in ink and pencil. With so many images spanning continents and cultures, this collection is not only a record of travel but also a deeply personal exploration of gesture, scenery, and fleeting human moments. Each sketch carries the immediacy of observation, often accompanied by footnotes or margin texts that enrich the narrative, transforming the pages into living journals.
The Artist’s Journey
Born in Zaragoza, Spain in 1943, santiagorios pursued a career in Mining Engineering, earning both an Ms and a PhD in Geologie. Yet alongside this scientific path, a profound interest in modern painting steadily grew. In 1995, guided by painter Virgilio Albiac, he entered Estudio Goya and committed to regular practice in painting and drawing. Since then, his work has expanded across figurative painting, live sketching at musical concerts, and travel-based art. His dedication has led to 13 solo exhibitions and around thirty collective exhibits, underscoring the balance between technical precision and artistic spontaneity.
The Sketchbook Collection
The gallery at sketchbooks.org/gallery/santiagorios presents a wide range of sketchbooks, each tied to a specific journey or theme.
Travel and Cultural Encounters
From Paris, where drawings reflect five days spent with his wife and colleagues, to Egipto, where ink sketches marked his first attempt at travel drawing in 1999, the works reveal a progression of confidence and style. The Morocco sketchbook, created during a trip in 2000, captures the vibrancy of markets and architecture, while journeys to Noruega and Venecia highlight the interplay of natural landscapes and urban atmospheres.
Dance and Gesture
Several sketchbooks focus on butoh dance studies, such as butoh-dance-in-the-zaragoza-art-scool and danza-butoh-in-the-art-school-from-zaragoza-spain. These works emphasize movement, gesture, and the ephemeral nature of performance. The sketches are not static portraits but dynamic traces of bodies in motion, reflecting the artist’s sensitivity to rhythm and human expression.
Global Horizons
The collection extends far beyond Europe. Sketchbooks from Camerun, Cuba, Mali, Tibet, and Nueva Zelanda Isla Sur reveal encounters with diverse cultures and landscapes. Each page is a fragment of lived experience, whether through depictions of architecture, animals, or fleeting human activities. The Pyrenees Sketchbooks and their 2012 continuation show a return to familiar terrain, blending local scenery with personal reflection.
Technique and Style
The sketches are characterized by immediacy and intimacy. Quick lines capture gestures and expressions, while architectural studies reveal patience and precision. Margin notes and footnotes often accompany the drawings, offering context or personal reflections. This interplay of text and image transforms the sketchbooks into layered narratives, where visual impressions are enriched by written thought.
Legacy and Impact
The work of santiagorios demonstrates how sketchbooks can transcend mere documentation to become living archives of memory and travel. His practice bridges engineering discipline with artistic freedom, resulting in sketches that are both structured and spontaneous. For viewers, the gallery is not only an invitation to witness places and people through his eyes but also a reminder of the enduring power of drawing as a way of seeing.
Conclusion
The sketchbook gallery of santiagorios is a testament to a lifelong journey of observation, travel, and artistic exploration. Each sketch, whether of a dancer in Zaragoza, a street in Paris, or a landscape in Tibet, reflects a commitment to capturing the essence of the moment. His work stands as a rich visual diary, offering audiences a chance to travel alongside him, page by page, image by image.
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Oh Cuba calling me, wish I was there. Brilliant work mate.
When does one stop while traveling, to make a sketch, in the middle of a city or event? You obviously know these things. Wonderful gestural captures of places and people a far.
YES!