Blanca Botero-Fuentes is a name you are unlikely to forget if you have experienced her art. With an indescribably wide range of capabilities, styles, and feelings, Blanca's art arguably represents a true sense of understanding for those who consume it.
While she claims to not completely contemplate her audience as she works, each piece leaves just enough alone for the observer to personalize their feelings surrounding it.
“I really strongly believe is that every work of art needs to be left almost unfinished,” explained Blanca.
“You have to have an element of enigma, because then the viewer brings their own personal experiences into it, and their eye finishes what [they] know.
“I think too much detail is just not how I work. I like to leave it to the viewer to bring their own experience into it.
“I mean I put my own experiences in, but somebody, whoever's looking at it will bring their own. I don't like to explain too much with it.”
Originally from Spain, her grandfather was also a painter. He used to work on churches and she kept her maiden name - Fuentes - to honour him.
Blanca does much more than just paint now, though. She incorporates a variety of media with her pieces, and specifically into her latest art show at Bluerock Gallery.
The show contains multiple pieces that demonstrate her fine control and understanding of the mixed media process. Pieces of hand painted paper and high quality magazines are integrated with painting to create a sense of life and movement that is incredible.
“I have always been fiddling around with mixed media. I like mixed media because it has a lot of texture and it teaches you a lot about design.
“I really like working with good quality magazine papers because they have amazing colours and textures, and they're very, very inspiring to me.
“When I do that in painting, they are encased in medium, which is archival, and they have several coats of that so they last forever.
The theme is ‘This Canadian Place’, and one that seems to suit Blanca quite nicely. Given her studio’s situation with large windows overlooking the foothills of Southern Alberta, she sees her fair share of Canadian wildlife.
"Well my Canadian place, this Canadian place is just right here, this place.
“I took some of the elements that I love so much like the moose that comes here in the winter, and the geese that come and go every year, and the owl that sits on the flagpole.
“That's my Canadian place, so I brought it down quite to an intimate level and what I can really express what I feel about this amazing country.
“I'm glad that I have found this in life.
“It's just the most amazing thing to have found a passion for something and to be able to do it.
“My husband built me this beautiful studio with tons of light, so that I can work and almost feel like I'm outdoors, you know.
“I'm very, very fortunate to have so many other artists around who are very inspiring.”
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