Paolo Miguel Mariñas

Paolo (b.1991) is a visual artist whose specialty is oil painting on canvas. He has studied Fine Arts for a couple of years at Far Eastern University, but he has been drawing and making art for almost his entire life. Starting from pen and pencil doodles, he has since been painting using oil as his primary medium for almost a decade now.

Inspired by nature, Western folk cultures, and morbid curiosities, his themes and works include gothic and pagan sceneries made in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, with his subjects clad in unnatural lighting surrounded by darkness, accompanied by some hints of both 20th-century modernism and the abstract movements within them.

He can paint almost everything, but Paolo likes to depict women more often in both their most vulnerable and formidable appearances, as he believes women are the best subjects for paintings because of their overall fluidity and utter beauty. He has recently painted them on minimalist backgrounds to further accentuate his subjects, while dabbling and experimenting often with the color black. Marinas loves to accompany them with flora, a she greatly appreciates the simple beauty of nature. This has led him to prefer Western folk cultures because they are very much in touch with their natural surroundings.

His preference for the Pre-Raphaelites stems from the movement, which consists of what he believes to be the best kind of style, but he has since been attempting to fuse it with modern styles. His love for chiaroscuro was rooted in his undying admiration for his favorite artist, Caravaggio. Francis Bacon and his macabre paintings have inspired him to lean into the disciplines of the surreal, figurative, and expressionist. The rawness, audacity, and flexibility of expressionist paintings drive him to dominate that style. This preference for certain styles gives him a unique vibe that is vastly different from that of his contemporaries. Finally, he also draws inspiration from his love for high-fantasy novels and weird fiction short stories, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, and H.P. Lovecraft’s horrifying bibliography.

Paolo’s recent fascination with modern and abstract forms of art is the result of his trying to be a one-trick pony in order to diversify his styles of oil painting. He believes having multiple styles will unlock his true potential and purpose in the field of visual arts. He uses his knowledge of different styles and always intends to fuse them together in order to create his works.

For him, painting is a lifetime passion. His days revolve around painting and the constant acquisition of knowledge to improve his skills. He loves delving into the history of art, and he always attempts to implement whatever techniques and methods he has learned into his canvases. Knowledge regarding art is precious to him because he believes it will help him in the future in his chosen field.

He hopes to finally be a part of an art gallery someday so he can show the world his kind of aesthetic and vision, which is to usher in a new wave of public appreciation for the olden, forgotten, but eternally beautiful ways of painting.