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Arruda Camara

"I think a love for human beings is a basic condition for the practice of art. In that sense, my pictorial representation is a poetic one marked by a sensitivity to the human body, its races, themes that seem of more consequence to me. What motivates my reflection on beauty is considering and valuing the human races' most diverse customs of expression, especially those of the Native American.

"I was born in Tijuca on September 19, 1952, and I plunged in the world of the arts here in Rio de Janeiro. At that time, I was a designer and planner for a multinational corporation. Stimulated by a passion for drawing, I was led to buy a small canvas and oil paints, and I began to create. My next step was to frequent the Rio de Janeiro School of Fine Arts.

"My constant research continued through painting courses with the late artist Henrique Mascarenhas and in the School of Fine Arts, where I found other teachers who aided me in my thirst for painting. In this way, my works took on a peculiar aspect through my search for esthetic solutions that illustrate the artist's relationship with the world.

"The result has strong expressionist characteristics, whether for the use of color, or for the use of forms. Freedom of line in the moment of depicting bodies indicates a permanent search for esthetic paths having an accentuated freedom, and a conscious effort to avoid sameness.

"The figurative tendency present in most of my works reveals that human beings as well as nature are seen as an instrument for the practice of portrayal. Bold color and the realistic expression of animals and nature reveal my desire to always cross established borders in my search for paradigms that are personal and challenging.

"Strong shades and pure colors prevail, used directly out of the tube. The occasional use of the palette knife becomes the differentiating element, because it offers the possibility of working the paint with a quite special relief, that favors the use of the most varied forms.

"With this in view, my painting trends appear as a promise of probing, with more and more energy, the situation of contemporary man before the world and before himself.

"Art, for me, is going beyond the manifestation of feelings. It is a connection with the divine, with the best of our essence."