Art of California
March, 1991
Bold, vibrant colors and the bright sunshine of the tropics call one to the work of Maria Bertrán. Her use of brilliant colors, laid on the canvas in fluid, expressive brushstrokes, and her ability to capture the special quality of light found in Southern California set her apart from her contemporaries in Laguna Beach.
As a child in Carcas, Venezuela, Bertrán grew up embarrassed by her desire to be an artist, but her father knew of her aspirations and encouraged her to paint. For years she painted reclusively and primarily for herself, refusing to “hawk” her works at galleries but all the while driven to paint, causing finished canvasses to pile up in her garage. Even when she made no money from her art, Bertrán described painting as “the biggest high.” Devoted to creating, she has rarely worked outside of her painting, only occasionally taking a part-time job. “Painting is something you have to do every day or the creative instinct leaves you,” she says.
In quick strokes Bertrán tries to frame everything she sees into her paintings. She never pauses to think about her technique, use of color, or medium – concentrating instead on her natural and spontaneous response to her subject. Although the majority of her works are oil on canvas, Bertrán periodically works in charcoal and pastels. With these she is able to smooth edges, overlap colors, and create different moods very quickly without waiting for paint to dry.
Bertrán’s work is unique not only in her use of color and light, but also because she creates portraits as well as landscapes. Although she enjoys painting landscapes, Bertrán finds more feelings and passion wen working from a model in her studio. In her portraits, which are mostly of women, she is able to communicate with her subject, capturing not only her own responses but the mood and feeling of her model. Recently Bertrán created a number of figure paintings for an exhibit in January of 1991 at the Sarah Bain Gallery in Fullerton, California. The exhibit included not only her portraits of women but also nudes and portraits of couples, in which Bertrán narratively depicts the interaction between two people.
In her north Laguna neighborhood, Bertrán has found the subject of her most popular series of work – the alleys. “I have always wanted to paint the streets of Laguna Beach, but there are too many cars.” Instead she has turned to alleys that are filled with white houses with colored roofs, vibrantly colored bougainvilleas, palm trees which cast violet shadows, and overgrown gardens. For Bertrán, the alleys, which are very similar to the small streets of Venezuela, have their own character. They are quiet and peaceful, lacking people and cars, but at the same time they reveal the personalities of the people living there.
Painted en plein air, Bertrán’s landscapes not only depict Laguna Beach, but also France (where she travels at least once a year), Italy, Venezuela, and Florida. Sometimes as much as one-half of her year is spent traveling, which Bertrán believes is critical to her work. She is constantly striving and searching for new and inspiring locations in which to paint. Although traveling and painting in unfamiliar locations is very difficult, Bertrán finds the challenge encourages growth and expansion in her work. While on location she immerses herself in the light, shadows, and atmosphere of the environment, quickly capturing her impressions and feelings on canvas. “Many of the places that I paint are in danger of disappearing because of development,” Bertrán says. “…It isn’t necessary to sacrifice aesthetics for modernization. These paintings present my personal protest against mindless progress.”
Maria Bertrán’s widely collected works have been shown since 1975 in exhibitions on three continents: North America, Europe, and South America. This year she plans to travel to Sicily and Tahiti. Currently a number of her landscapes are on exhibit at the Park Shore Gallery in Naples, Florida. In December Bertrán traveled to Venezuela where she captured her impressions of the small fishing village on canvas.