Fatima Ronquillo

Artist Statement

As a romantic painter, I create my own Arcadia full of wonderment and nostalgia. My paintings are metaphors for personal journeys where my own memories merge with mythmaking. I paint to fulfill my naive desire to translate a simple idea into a pictorial poem.

Artist Bio

Fatima Ronquillo is a self-taught painter whose classically inspired imagery evokes a world of serenity and charm. Her paintings of mysterious personages, often set against pastoral and idyllic landscapes, are accented with an underlying sense of drama and playfulness. These small intimate works invite a respite from the frenetic pace of modern life.

Fatima is an intuitive painter who works from a deeply personal visual language and imagination. Each painting is an unfolding story of layered meanings brought to life through multiple layers of paint. Her painted surfaces sparkle with thin delicate glazes over thick impastos and scattered scumbles of semi transparent colors. She paints in the style of European old masters coupled with a magical realism rooted in folk and colonial Latin American traditions. Hers is an authentic voice that echoes from an inner world where art history meets with nostalgia and imagined characters from literature, theatre and opera.

Born in San Fernando, Philippines in 1976, Fatima Ronquillo emigrated as a child to the United States in 1987 where her family settled in San Antonio, Texas. She currently resides and maintains a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and west highland terrier. Her work is included in private collections throughout North America and Europe.

Fatima Ronquillo’s Website

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