Santiago Pedraz, the colorblind painter under the influence of love

Santiago Pedraz is used to breaking with the conventional, also in the way of declaring his love. Where others place some verses, he has combined lines and colors on a framed canvas titled ‘Infinite Dream. Pulmonary madness’. The recipient is his partner, Esther Doña, who wears it “extremely proud” on one of the walls of her house and shares her happiness with the 11,300 followers on her Instagram account.

As abstract art that it is, it has its own meaning and an autonomous language. It is to be assumed that the instructor of the National High Court displays in her his most volcanic and passionate personality.

Although most now discover his artistic facet, thanks to the couple’s respective Instagram accounts, this is not their debut feature. His hobby goes back a long way and he always has a canvas at hand with which to entertain himself while watching TV, having a coffee or enjoying a beer.

Between time and time, he composes his art. For his friends, this artistic facet was no secret and, in fact, more than one has been presented with one of his works. They are not for sale and he does not intend to exhibit in any gallery. He paints for sheer delight.

On Instagram he has shown other of his creations, such as «On the eloquence of a vulgar cross. Filomena 2021» or «The imposture of the inner universe». The first was painted during the great snowfall in Madrid, in January 2020. The other is a gift for the Doña family, according to her.

They are works in which he sometimes spends a few days, other times months, according to sources close to LA RAZÓN. In any case, it is a «hobby» that he uses as an antidote against stress and is considered «tremendously shy to present them in a gallery», despite having decided to publish them on Instagram.

The response from the public has been astonishing, but an abstract artist does not look for a universal or unequivocal reaction, but leaves his work open to interpretation and therein lies, in part, the charm of these paintings. The author frees himself in them from the weight of the objects.

There are no flowers, buildings, people or landscapes. Precisely abstract art has as a peculiarity its lack of definition. The artist becomes more involved in color, lines, shapes and texture. Pedraz’s content may seem confusing and uncomfortable to the viewer, but both the intention and the implicit message is an exclusively intimate and private matter.

The feature that has surprised the most in this facet of the judge is the chromatic game. The explosion of color escapes the thresholds of normality and there is a reason: his color blindness. It is an alteration that prevents us from seeing colors normally and affects, to different degrees, some 350 million people in the world.

In its most extreme version, the palette is reduced to black and white. This affection in the world of art is usually reflected in the use of contrasts, textures, shadows and brightness with which the authors try to compensate for the excitement that the current handling of colors should give.

For any human brain, capable of distinguishing thousands of shades if it has normal vision, it is very complex to understand how a colorblind person sees or what criteria they follow in their choice. Does Judge Santiago Pedraz use colors arbitrarily or has he preferred to limit the color palette to a few that are more familiar to him?

He hasn’t given too many details of his creative process yet, but it would be interesting to know how he understands color. Perhaps that is the reason why he prefers to be self-taught to give some classes to improve his technique. By the way, he allows himself the privilege that no one else will see his art with his own eyes.

Many of the best-known paintings are attributed to this condition or another vision defect in their authors. In the elongated faces of El Greco could influence his severe uncorrected astigmatism. Claude Monet’s cataracts also marked a stage in his impressionism, as did the macular degeneration of Edgar Degas, also an impressionist.

And according to some studies, Van Gogh’s peculiar perception of color and light could be explained by his color blindness. So in this artistic way, Santiago Pedraz starts 2022.

Most people with color blindness perceive the world with a broader light spectrum, with a greater range of tonalities. It is the first thing that is appreciated in the pictorial work of Pedraz.

During World War II, people with this vision were said to be better at detecting camouflage because they picked up the contrast of light and shadow. Decades later, Cambridge scientists confirmed that the anecdote could be true, since they discovered in these people a greater sensitivity to detect certain color combinations.

All of this helps to understand Pedraz’s audacity in his use of color and his ability to create chromatic effects of such intensity, despite using a more limited palette. Seen this way, his color blindness would play in his favor, without losing sight of the fact that art is always a very individual expression.