Claudio Bravo Camus' 83rd Birthday

Today’s Doodle celebrates the esteemed Chilean artist Claudio Bravo Camus, who fused the classical technique of Spanish Baroque painters with a touch of Salvador Dali-esque surrealism.

Born in Valparaíso on this day in 1936, Bravo grew up on a ranch in Melipilla. After dancing for the Compañia de Ballet de Chile and acting at the Catholic University of Chile, he applied his talents to visual arts. Despite his father’s objections, the largely self-taught artist persisted, displaying his paintings at a well-known Valparaíso gallery by the age of 17.

In the 1960s Bravo moved to Spain and became a portrait painter with prominent clients, including the family of General Francisco Franco and Philippine leaders Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. His 1970 exhibition at New York’s Staempfli Gallery featured large still-lifes of mysteriously mundane objects painted in a vivid, technically flawless style reminiscent of masters like Velázquez. Upon moving to Tangier, Morocco, Bravo expanded his repertoire to animal portraits and landscapes.

Bravo’s work was sometimes compared to so-called photo-realist painters, but he did not work from photographs. “Always I have relied on the actual subject matter,” he said, mentioning Mark Rothko’s abstract color-field paintings as an influence. “The eye sees so much more than the camera: half tones, shadows, minute changes in the color or light.”

The Doodle artwork focuses on his iconic series of mysterious packages wrapped in paper and tied with string, which brought him notoriety starting in the 1960s. The canvases blend a Pop Art sensibility with Claudio’s mastery of trompe-l'oeil painting so realistic it can “trick the eye.”

A 1994 retrospective of Bravo’s work at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago attracted over a quarter of a million visitors.

Doodler Up Close with Shanti Rittgers

Today’s Doodle was created by Doodler Shanti Rittgers.
Below, she shares some thoughts on the making of the Doodle:
 

Q: When did you first learn about Claudio Bravo Camus? What part of his story do you find most inspiring personally?

A: Claudio’s dedication to learning and mastering hyperrealism is inspiring. I like that he persisted with his training in classical art during an age where modernity and experimental art scenes were in vogue— there’s something deeply satisfying in seeing the mark-making in his work and reflecting on his discipline over a lifetime. 
 

Q: You chose to focus on Claudio’s paintings of packages wrapped in paper and string. What was it about these works that resonated with you?

A: Claudio was a master of conveying realism—he could render anything, so it was a hard choice at first to decide what to focus on for a Doodle tribute to him. I found it most intriguing that for a period of time, he chose to capture the forms of humble, mysterious packages. He found beauty and landscapes within the geometry of crinkled paper, and it seemed like a meditative process, so as an artist I wanted to explore and see if I could capture the spirit of his interest in a Doodle. 
 

 Q: What was your creative approach for the Doodle in celebrating Claudio Bravo Camus’ 83rd Birthday?

A: Once I had a concept paying homage to his parcel paintings, I had to problem-solve how to involve the logo. The Doodle team discussed, and we landed on painting multiple packages, each representing a Google letter in color. I made them in real life for reference (as I assumed Claudio would have), and had these six packages strung up against a black tarp in a corner of my room for two weeks while painting them digitally. Finally, I composited the paintings into a larger gallery painting. 
 

Q: Are there any technical tricks that you used in this Doodle that you can share?

A: Even though I had a physical still life of the boxes set up for observation lighting reference, for convenience I also took photos of each box to have reference on-hand as I painted. I also composited the box photos as an underpainting/collage so I could measure out within the given space for the Doodle.
The rest was 95% digital painting, rendering, and time. 

Something that I found really neat to study while painting was Claudio’s technique of trompe l’oeil. He made objects feel elevated from the mundane to a degree even more heightened than reality. Through his keen powers of observation, he was able to render subtle colors, crisp edges, lighting, and temperature changes, and multiple visual moments throughout wrapped parcels in a way that a photograph would be unable to capture. 

 Q: What do you hope people will take away from this Doodle?

A: I hope they’ll feel curious to explore Claudio Bravo’s body of artwork. He is a master artist who painted so much throughout his life. I hope they will then feel inspired to spot the little character-giving details in everyday objects, rooms, and spaces in real life, and see the beauty in them the way Claudio did. 

Early concepts of the Doodle