The artist was born in Valparaiso, Chile in the year 1936. His father was the owner of a ranch. His mother ran the household and Bravo was one of seven children. The artist was well versed at all aspects of art and even toured a short time as a professional dancer in Chile.
The artist showed signs of potential at an early age. He was not very good at math and science. In order to get better grades in his math and science classes he would offer the teacher a portrait. Bravo went on to study from the ages of eleven to twenty years of age with Miguel Venegas. Chile was heavily influenced by the european style of art and the artist’s main mentor, Venegas, was devoted to realism and not modern flat and cubist art.
The artist had his first solo show at the tender age of seventeen. All the works sold to family and friends and Bravo gained large support throughout the community.
Bravo attended college in Santiago, Chile studying literature and music.
The artist admired Salvadore Dali and the Surrealist movement. Brave also admired the Renaissance era painters.
Bravo lived around the world in such places as New York City, Morroco, Chile, and Spain.
Bravo worked in a variety of mediums including watercolor, oils, bronzes, crayons, pencil, and pastel.
Like other prominent artists he painted many people belonging to the upper classes. The artist even painted royalty. Among his clients were Imelda Marcos and her husband the famous dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Francisco Franco the dictator from Spain. He also painted the publisher of Forbes magazine.
Bravo started selling portraits in Chile. He did so well he saved enough to sail for Paris. Due to bad weather he stopped off in Barcelona and eventually ended up in Madrid, Spain. He painted the local well to do crowd and was highly successful.
As with most dictators, they try and control thoughts! Franco was highly conservative and the artist felt restricted in his paintings. One day his sisters brought home some packages and the artist found a new work in painting packages. He became obsessed with creating trompe textures in his art.
A great collection of the artist’s work. Notice the great use of edges on both the corners of tables and also windows. The artist was able to create tremendous depth in his works. Also notice the many different textures the artist was able to create. His paintings of overlayed fabric are spectacular!
High price range: $1.172 million for a work done in oils. $216,000 for a work done in pastels.
Low price range: Pencil works start at $5,000. Charcoals start near $10,000. Lithographs start at $1,000.
The artist passed away in 2011. He was living in Morocco at the time.
I enjoy this artist for his fantastic works with painting fabrics and the still life. The artist was best at creating depth and by creating many different surface textures from wood to cloth, that kept the viewers eye moving about the picture. Another texture and surface the artist paints very realistically is glass.
Its GREAT to create!
D
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