Raquel Farinas

Raquel Fariñas, Spanish artist, is very famous as an illustrator of the childish comtes. The artist says, “My paintings are the medium that I dispose off to reflect on the reality beyond rational knowledge, to portray the beauty I always seek. When I paint, every element of the reality I am depicting is revealed as a carrier of truth and beauty, which confers them a different sense than its mere appearance or utility. At this conceptual plane, everything is interrelated and I notice another existence that I’m unable to explain with words. Then, everyday life makes sense because I experience, like Rodin, that ‘it exists, above all, what the greatest part of people does not know to see: the unknown depths, the foundations of life’. So, what I can not express in concept, I do it with images, and it is here where the world of symbols appears; the concepts of unveiling and hiding are connected in a symbol. Symbols, myths, dreams reveal what escapes from immediate experience, to consciousness. This is how I create shapes in my art work. In a tree I find the Natural Law of Development and Growth. In the circular, round, the Cyclical Law of the Sun and the Moon, and their celestial movements; the cycles of food and water. Also the fabrics are important: everything is weaved, linked. There is no opposition between up and down, the one is a reflection of the other. To see and to contemplate is not the same. When I paint I attempt to contemplate, and I give this contemplation to other people, who will transform my signs in symbols and my symbols in signs. I never ask to follow my interpretations. You, the viewer, are the creator of a new meaning.”

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.