THE Hidden portraits
Hidden Children Series
Hidden Children Series
Hidden Children Series
"I was searching for a story,
that’s what I was really looking for,
and like so much in Amazonia,
it came floating down the river."
See the paintings, read the story.
Fish Story Series
Hidden Children Series
Hidden Children Series
"...one stroke can be beautiful,
like a single fish in a bowl. But it is not until we put all of those strokes together that we see a clear picture."
White Feather Series
Hidden Children Series
White Feather Series
"There is no counting backwards when playing their version of hide and seek. If you are it, everybody else disappears so fast into the jungle that there is no need for counting. Gone."S
Map Series
Veils Series
White Feather Series
"Our ancestors came from up there, through a hole in the clouds. They saw the beauty from up above, a land of abundance, and came looking...
and found... riches..."
Veils Series
Veils Series
Veils Series
"...She told me stories of her people, legends that get lost through the centuries like roots into the ground..."
Elle Series
Veils Series
Veils Series
"She was a curious child at five, who became a storyteller for her tribe at fourteen, who became a bride at seventeen, who became mother at eighteen... "
Click to see her story!
Hidden Series Watercolors
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Hidden Series Watercolors
Before they were large scale oil portraits, they were watercolor studies. Now for the first time available for purchase, click to see over twenty years of watercolors.
Hidden Series Sketchbook
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Hidden Series Watercolors
"...one by one, they would come to peek over my shoulder at my drawings,
not believing it was all coming
out of the stick..."
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Pencil - Egg Tempera - Watercolor Watercolor Pencil - Colored Pencil Portraits • Landscapes • Architecture
Children's Books & the Rainforest
Children's Books & the Rainforest
Sketches - Drawings Watercolors
Venture with Roberto into the mysterious Delta of the Orinoco. Explore the stories and illustrations in the making.
Adventure Children's Book Series
Children's Books & the Rainforest
Adventure Children's Book Series
Dreams, travels, and adventures collected on paper. Be part of our journey
around the world.
Photographs
Children's Books & the Rainforest
Adventure Children's Book Series
Travel photographs collected while researching for the Adventure Children's Book Series
The Hidden children series
The First of the Hidden Portraits
“They are all about light... you can’t paint something like this unless you have an incredibly strong capacity for registering form through the senses, through memory, through feelings.
Porras has... a bone-deep understanding of the human form and spirit, so that merely from being with the people and making pencil sketches of them in precious notebooks, he can then render them with substance and conviction in oils on canvas.
The method behind the 'Hidden' portraits is deceptively simple. Up close they are nothing but a mass of fluid, vivacious brushstrokes that resemble wind on water, or sunlight on leaves, but as you move farther away from the canvases, the face of a beautiful child with smooth, sienna-colored skin and unfathomable black eyes appears to grab hold of your heart.”
Jane Grau - art critic from The Charlotte Observer
describing the Hidden Portraits during their first exhibit.
2000, Charlotte, North Carolina
Fernando, the youngest of the artist's sons, poses in front of "Forest Fire"
“I try to recreate my experience with the children. I want the viewer to experience the colors, the textures, the light, the movement I saw - all without realizing there is a hidden child looking back at them... I want to give the children a chance to take a peek at ourselves before being discovered.”
Fernando Porras
THe hidden children series
Elle de Cinq
From the "Hidden Children" Series
2012, oil on canvas, 31.5”x 31.5”
Galerie Mark Hachem, Paris
This piece was first exhibited in Paris in 2012. It was showcased during an exhibition titled "Elle," along with ten other paintings of the same indigenous girl that portrayed her from ages five through twenty-one. For inquiries, email us at FernandoPorrasArt@gmail.com
Elle de vingt cinq
From the "Elle" Series
2017, nine panel oil on canvas, 6’x 6’
Artist's Studio, Florida
For inquiries, email us at FernandoPorrasArt@gmail.com
the ENCOUNTER
Hidden
"I was searching for a story, that’s what I was really looking for, and like so much in Amazonia, it came floating down the river.
If you take a curiara and paddle up river, so many bora plants float pass by you that you start not paying attention to them... that is, until you see something moving in one. These water lily-like plants stay tangled together tightly enough to hold the weight of large anacondas, which curl up on them to lazily float downriver and rest. So when I saw this one move, I took my camera out in a hurry and hoped for a chance to photograph a large snake.
To my surprise, as I aimed my camera, it was not the head of a snake that came out, but two, three, four heads were peeking out from the water lilies. Imitating the behavior of the anaconda, four children were hiding in the bora to get a chance to have a better look at something very weird in that area of the jungle: me - I was their story to tell.
My aiming the camera at them made the bunch break apart. But they did not seem to be afraid of me, just amused. Quickly, they swam to the bank and got out of the water, and as I tried to approach them, struggling to get to a point where I could jump onto dry land, they ran and disappeared into the shadows of the rainforest in what seemed to be an instant.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to start a connection with the group - since I could hear them laughing ahead of me - I ran after them.
For a while, I could hear them running just ahead of me... their laughter. But in the middle of my run, I noticed that suddenly, everything had gone quiet - very quiet.
Now I could hear them laughing behind me.
I had passed right through them without spotting them, and evidently it all was very funny to them.
They ran and got ahead of me again - I could not see them, but I could hear the movement in the bushes around me - and again they stopped, hiding to let me go right through them. They played the running and disappearing act with me for a while, until it started to rain - very hard - and that’s when it happened. In the middle of my run, I ran into one of them! Startled, we both jumped back, making all of the other kids break out in laughter.
Just like on cue, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. Finally I could see all of them. It was then that I was able to understand how they had been “hiding” from me.
A total of seven now, they had been standing very still every time I ran by. In a jungle where the canopy of the trees is so high and thick, only a few beams of light manage to find small openings between the branches and get to the ground. You believe then that whoever is hiding from you is doing so in the refuge of the shadows, behind trees and bushes. You never expect them to be “hiding” in plain sight - right in the beams of light!
They have somehow figured out that the best camouflage in a dark forest full of distracting background is to stand very still in the beams of light. The light coming through the branches up above project the diffused shadows of the leaves onto their bare cinnamon skin, helping them blend with their surroundings. The incredible thing is (now I have learned through the years) that they count on you not looking at the light beams to avoid getting blinded by it as you run.
In 1999, eight years and many trials after that encounter, standing very still in my studio, I finally had the painting that could help me illustrate that experience - my first painting of the Hidden Series.”
Fernando Porras
THE FISH STORY SERIES
A Fish Story
"Somewhere in a water hole of a small stream of the Orinoco delta, a Warao child happily swims with a group of friends. The river current starts to change its direction, and with the water flow they realize that a large, dark mass is approaching them.
Hurriedly, they get out of the water, but that somehow does not seem to be enough.
They all climb onto the trees, and some of them try to reach the tallest branches. The dark mass is now right under them, and excitedly, they get ready for it. Then, quietly, and almost at the same time, they all jump from their branches. With their legs crossed and their arms tight against their torsos, they fly through the afternoon air. They are smiling and not afraid because they know very well what the dark mass is. It is a school of thousands and thousands of small, multicolored saltwater fish that come up the river when the tide change makes the waters of the mouth of the Orinoco delta temporarily reverse their course.
And now the fun starts. Right before the child from the highest branch touches the water, the school of tiny fish, fast as only they can be, spread out from under him, leaving an empty space where he is to enter the water. He knew to choose a tall tree, for he dives swiftly and goes in deep. The fish form a tunnel and let him pass through. They all now envelop him in a bubble, forming an incredibly beautiful wall of living color. They do not flee, for they know he means no harm. He tries to touch them, but they dance away from his hand, synchronized like a single gigantic organism. He wants to stay a little while longer but realizes that he is deep enough for the school to almost entirely cover the sunlight.
It is time now to come up for air. As he swims up, the fish start once more to
spread apart. The sun shows up again and its light goes through the multicolored school of fish, making it move and shine bright as a kaleidoscope.
I also jumped. The experience is like no other, and that instant when the sunlight shines through the rainbow of fish as I swam up for air has been my inspiration for this series."
Fernando Porras
THE WHITE FEATHER SERIES
In 2000, Porras developed the “White Feather Series” inspired by a very particular game of hide and seek he had the opportunity
to play with a native group of children from the jungles of the Venezuelan Orinoco Delta.
The idea that there is a part of us that is always in hiding, and the sensation that the paintings are inviting us to free
the child within all of us, is felt throughout the artist’s series.
Porras has dedicated years to studying color and light and the effects created when they are used to manipulate how positive and negative spaces are supposed to be perceived by the viewer. Splashes of bright white and red work as decoys that
engage the viewer with the bold abstraction of the painting, distracting them from discovering the portraits.
Aggressive strokes become serene abstract figures that, hidden in a game of light and shadow, take the viewer by surprise.
The White Feather Story
“There is no counting backwards when playing their version of hide and seek.
If you are it, everybody else disappears so fast into the jungle that there is no need for it. Gone.
Finding them proved to be no game, though. I cannot say that I did not see this coming when they invited me to play, but I never expected not to be able to find them. I didn’t even see any of the kids until the game was over - they all vanished. That is, all but one. Somehow, he would appear here and there, always running. He was actually very easy to spot, as he was wearing a large white feather on the side of his head.
When it was all over and they finally came back to make fun of my skills in the game, I asked the kid of the feather, a boy about twelve years old, why was he wearing the feather if that made him such an easy target to spot, and he answered with a smile: so you see me!
It took me a moment to understand what was going on. To them, hide and seek is much more than just a game. It is a way to learn how to help each other to survive if danger arrives.
The boy with the white feather, I learned, knew well what he was doing. The feather he carries is actually a great honor given only to those who are not only brave, but also the best at hiding, running, swimming, climbing...
I realized that, every time I spotted him during the game, it was because somebody else in the group was about to be found.
He would then run out from cover and pull out his white feather, making himself visible so I would focus my attention on him
while the others found safer hiding places.
The game is of vital importance to them, as gender and age are not considered when choosing the one to carry the feather. You just have to be the best at it under any circumstances. In case of true danger, the one with the feather would have
to act as the decoy and lead danger away from the others, and then escape.
So you see me... and he walked away with pride.
I cannot think of a nobler game."
Fernando Porras
THE MAP SERIES
“...we have to fight to have a place for our children”
She said
Porras’ passion for maps rivals his passion for painting, so it seemed natural he would try to find a way to put both together.
He has collected maps of interest to him since his teen years, especially those that include data about South America. But it was not until 1996 that, now with access to new technologies, he started collecting digital satellite images of the world’s rainforests. He was not unfamiliar with the vast deforestation going on in Brazil and Venezuela, but comparing the infrared images collected through more than fifteen years, he came to better understand the actual expanse and pace of the devastation.
Since painting the different maps showing the changes did not seem enough to bring the point across, he decided to paint the maps directly on the faces of natives of the areas of concern. As the natives grew older and changed through the years, unfortunately so did the deforested areas to be shown on the maps. As Porras says, “we will all eventually be touched by the devastation we are causing, but the natives are the first ones
to be affected, and we are doing it right in their faces.”
Overlay of the map of the area surrounding Manaus, Brazil, over an 8x8' oil on canvas
The native faces are shown covered in red and blue paint - red symbolizing the areas devastated by mining and deforestation, and the blue symbolizing what is left of the rainforest. The faces are hidden in plain sight. They are very easy to spot once you have realized they are there, but when seen at actual scale, the viewer has time to enjoy the abstraction of the painting, and sees all the map’s details before realizing someone is looking back at them. Done in canvases of large scale, they show roads and rivers, names and coordinates, all coming together to create powerful portraits of the rainforest and its peoples with a message that cannot be ignored.
THE VEILS SERIES
San Francisco de Guayo
Closer to the sea and the jungles of Guyana than to any populated area in Venezuela, over 100 miles from the nearest port in the immensity of the Delta of the Orinoco River, is the Guarauno village of San Francisco de Guayo. A community of houses set on stilts on what seems to be a floating island of lush green forest, Guayo is the largest indigenous village in the delta. During the rainy season of 2012, Porras stayed in Guayo as a base. From there, he visited smaller indigenous groups living deeper into the rainforest, and sketched and collected stories that he later incorporated into his Map Series. He calls the small group of paintings “the Veils of Guayo.”
Details of the paintings include his studies and mappings of the islands and “caños” surrounding the area of San Francisco de Guayo as they change and expand during the rainy season. Working with heavy impasto, Porras uses a technique where he allows some of the pigments to oxidize. The pigments he uses contain iron in their mix. He controls the oxidation to create very unique metallic colors and textures, symbols of the incredible riches in the area, then seals the worked areas when the desired effect has been achieved.
Blue Veiled Girl - Oil on Canvas - 4x5'
All works from the series have been sold - Commissions accepted
"...She told me stories
of her people,
legends
that get lost through the centuries
like roots into the ground..."
"...Until one night came
when broken the muscles of the large bosom of the earth,
it jumped its abysses, fell as cascade,
found its way though the bristling forest,
followed the furrow of the virgin slopes,
turned North, dignified by jungles,
bellowed on the convulsions of its falls,
and spread wide open at last, of serene waters,
with the nose tempted with a thirst for the plains,
on its way to the Orient of its dreams..."
From the poem "The River of the Seven Stars" by Andrés Eloy Blanco
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Site under construction - We apologize for the inconvenience
THE ELLE SERIES
Tida
"Tomorrow is a big day.
It is actually rare to marry somebody you have known since you were a kid.
There are rules you follow so you don’t marry someone of the same blood. But they know they are not related, just friends since forever. That makes it very special for everyone. That makes it very special for him, who after six years away from her has come back to ask the elders to let them marry. But it is particularly special for her, who, since she was 7,
has been in love with the boy of the white feather.
Once night falls, everybody finds his or her spot around the fire. Minding their evening chores, everyone sits quietly. The faces lit by the fire shine bright against the blue shadows, a subtle but incredibly beautiful effect created by the light of the full moon bouncing from the waters of the Orinoco river murmuring underneath the hut.
I have been sketching a kid that had fallen asleep in a hammock, but exhausted from the day’s runs, he slides in his dreams and disappears inside the hammock. I turn around for a chance to draw the bride, but the spot where she is supposed to be sitting is empty. So I turn around to the side where the groom is supposed to be and he is missing too.
I am about to ask if anybody knows where they are, when I realize that they are the only ones missing... and nobody seems to be concerned with the fact that the bride and the groom are missing from the circle... or is it that they all know where the two of them are? Is it that in every culture the bride and the groom disappear the night before the wedding if given a chance? The smile in one of the older ladies in the hut gives me a hint
and I turn around in the direction of her stare.
Here she comes, the bride, a child I first sketched when she was seven. In a hurry she sits, nervous, her lips visibly shaking, red and plump. Her nostrils wide open in excitement, her eyes glittering in the light of the fire, glorious. And here he comes. Sitting in a hurry as he arrives from the complete opposite side of the hut, guilty with a smile he can’t manage to get rid of. They cannot stop gleaming at each other, and I am certain then,
that the little girl I have known for over ten years...is now a woman."
Fernando Porras
WATERCOLORS
Before they were large scale oil portraits, they were watercolor studies.
Now, for the first time, available for purchase.
Site under construction. Gallery of images coming soon!
THE SKETCHBOOK
The Magic Stick
“...it was during a visit in 1991
that I became aware of the true magic powers of the stick.
I started sketching a couple of girls that sat quietly by the edge of a log,
and one by one they would come to peek over my shoulder at my drawing,
not believing it was all coming out of the stick...
...and then they would run excited to get in front of me...”
Portrait of a People
“...for over 20 years, I have carried it with me during every visit. At first I did only sketches,
a few lines and played with some lights and shadows. But through the years, I came to realize that my sketchbook had become more than just a tool to collect ideas for my paintings. It had become a way for me to approach them and always be received as a friend. Not only it was fun to be included in it, they believed it was important to keep a record of their people as time went by. They were always eager to see what they looked like years before, or remember those who were not among them anymore...”
a few pages in time
