Estela Robles Galiano-Online Portfolio

"Art is the continuation of Divine Creativity". To talk about art and an artist requires a high degree of commitment with both, the artist as well as with the observers. The work that you will see lets us know the artist, creator of new horizons, landscapes, secrets, narrations and traditions that we have around us.

I wish to introduce the artist, the colleague and the friend in a fair perspective. As we contemplate her work we open the pages in the life of the artist. Estela Robles Galiano, born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; raised and adopted by Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, the town that has inspired the paintings that you will see. Daughter of Mr. José Javier Robles and Mrs. Ana Teresa Galiano Vincenty, she spent her childhood in Aguadilla, with her only brother Javier. She married engineer José Arturo Hernández Calero with whom she has three sons: Dr. José Arturo, Eng. Javier Francisco and Architect Eduardo Gustavo Hernández Robles.

Her background and professional experience is extensive. The University of Puerto Rico., Mayagüez Campus, Catholic University, InterAmerican University, all, forge her formation and keep forging her work. She enriches her life traveling, studying and dedicating hours to contemplation, practice, reflection, enlivening and enjoying daily life. She has had hundreds of solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Puerto Rico.

How can Estela Robles have achieved these virtues? With open mind, eyes, sincerity, determination and experiencing the daily practice of the mediums and techniques. Estela is an artist whole-heartedly dedicated to her paintings. She works with different media, like oil, watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, pastel, xilographs and monotypes. Talking about the transparency that permeates her work, which she manages masterfully, she simply says… that she keeps the whites surrounded by shades. She loves purple, avoids plain black and has a great concern for harmony. All of her work is harmony.

Only a soul like Estela Robles, who loves and enjoys life, can produce the transparencies and poetry in her work. I am trying to talk about the woman, the personality of Estela, but I am attracted even more by the artist. This intense Puerto Rican woman, assidous, studious and contemplative laborer, loves life, nature and her Puerto Rico; catallytic agents that give origin to her creation.
The enviroment where Estela Robles paints is reflected in her work , her daily themes explode in masterpieces of art. Is it magic realism or realistic magic beauty that is complemented by the artist's palette?
In "Silence" (Silencio) you feel and see the stillness and absence of sounds while the flowers sleep.
Estela 's paintings abound with peace, serenity, hospitality, dignity, love, beauty, exhuberant traditions. Her work shows the beauty of our island Puerto Rico.

We are surprised by the movement in the watercolor "Campanitas de Cristal" ("Cristal Chimes"), inspired by the song of the same title, composed by Rafael Hernández, where she captures and we perceive the subtlety of the tulle agitated by winter's breeze that filters through the window.
Do you expect to be received by Christ himself in the church of Hormigueros ? telling us "¡Adelante!" ("Welcome").
We are amazed by the elegance and majesty of the guardian iron gates in the architecture of Ponce…"Grace and Modesty". She must know the secret saying "Ponce is Ponce".
"Roots " metaphors "El Yunque Rain Forest", depth and mystery, that gives away the legends and myths that surround the mountains.
"Ventana Engalanada"("Joyful Window, Aguadilla") reminiscences of Andalucía, Spain.
The paintings of the artist speaks of sentiments, capturing the profound. In "Witness of History" her brush goes inside history .
In "Love Story", she "mills and wedges" so much sensibility that even though the flower girls are with their backs towards us, you can feel the curiosity of their faces. I could keep on about the details of her work, details that emerge from the soul, from the heart, because these paintings are soul and core perceptions.
And so, Estela is also painter of the invisible, as quoted in "El Principito" by Saint Exuperi..-"The important things in life are invisible." These artistic creations are a song to happy daily living and love for life. Her style is charming, esthetically pleasing, lovely, emotionally clear and technically convincing to the eye. Using art as the universal language that it is, as "maestra", Estela Robles expresses herself directly, clearly and real.