WELCOME TO THE ART GALLERY OF MANUEL SOSA
Pioneer in wildlife painting in Spain. My passion for painting and extensive time in the field have been the necessary ingredients to create the oil paintings that grace this exhibition, where never-before-seen images are displayed, representing the «wildest» essence of Nature.
MANUEL SOSA. Painter & Biologist
From the great success obtained with Portraits of the Countryside, his first major solo exhibition fifteen years ago, Sosa has already sold his soul to the devil of painting, delving with each brushstroke into the deepest parts of Iberia's last virgin lands, to invite us with his oil paintings to feel the heart of the Earth.
A pioneer in wildlife painting in Spain, Sosa has already lost that fear of someone venturing for the first time into a pictorial genre entirely novel in our country. A delightfully refreshing genre for painting, often so saturated with the same motifs. Taking a bold step, years ago he abandoned the comforts of the city to immerse himself in the countryside. And his paintings exude it.
His paintings smell of wheat ears, of golden sunsets among holm oaks, of wild wolves, of partridges, of healthy countryside, in harmony with man. Countryside through and through, molded with a Mediterranean palette of ochres, siennas, and olives, painted with a mastery that makes us experience the magic of being there.
Review of the Exhibition «VIRGIN LANDS»
at the Durán Gallery in Madrid.
Born in Cáceres. More than twenty years as a wildlife illustrator with hundreds of works published in the most prestigious publishing houses in the country: Incafo, Natura, Periplo, Plaza & Janes, Planeta, Salvat, El Pais, Santillana, Anaya, etc., collaborating on five encyclopedias, over thirty books, hundreds of posters and brochures with illustrations on the most diverse themes. As a Painter, since 1998: five solo exhibitions and seven group exhibitions. Awarded the highest distinction by the European Academy of Arts. Commissioned by the «Marcelino Botín Foundation» for the creation of the oil painting «The Last Lynx» which today hangs in the reception room of the King of Spain, Don Felipe VI.
He has worked on an ambitious project commissioned by the USA for the publication of a voluminous book or Elephant book titled Sosa’s interpretation of Audubon’s Birds of North America» which will bring together paintings of all the birds of North America. Sales worldwide through his own online gallery, with his paintings in private collections in the USA, Canada, Holland, Spain, Germany, France, England, Switzerland, and Turkey.
CRITIQUE
MANUEL SOSA, the mystery of Nature.
In Manuel Sosa's painting there is art, beauty, composition, and all of it in large doses.
Any of the many elements that make up the wild world takes on an unusual vigor in Sosa's paintings. Be it simple grasses withered by drought, or the scrutinizing gaze of a wolf observing us from the solitude of the mountain. The secluded corner of a forest, a discreet pair of hoopoes, a covey of Red-legged Partridges feeding on seeds, any fleeting moment of the hidden world of wildlife is sublimated to the category of magic. It was necessary for someone to burst into our pictorial landscape, someone who would introduce us in such a way to the fascinating Spanish Nature. Each painting by Manuel Sosa is a window that opens to the deepest and most ancient mystery of the planet, to the mystery of Nature.”
Borja Cardelús
Former Secretary of the Ministry of Environment
Director of the television series Wild Spain
If, as the classic says, power is a quality of the soul, it is appropriate to speak of Manuel Sosa as a virtuoso. All his work produces the sensation of innate skill, of effortless strength. But as every first impression is deceptive, since behind his brushstrokes lies an exclusive dedication over the last twenty years to the elusive world of art by, for, and about nature in Spain.
After a first contact with the salt marshes of Cádiz from his childhood, he feels the compulsive, irresistible need to capture what he sees, not with a descriptive intent but with joy, almost as a homage to what is most beautiful, a tribute to a world that is fading. Thus were born his first sketches of Flamingos, Terns, and Avocets, already perfect in technique.
All his subsequent activity focuses on the artistic representation of natural phenomena in their most diverse manifestations. Utilizing all types of techniques, formats, and styles, he contributed to various publications from the age of fifteen and quickly rose to prominence in Spanish naturalist illustration. He collaborated with Incafo, Natura, Periplo, Plaza y Janes, Planeta, Salvat, El País, Santillana, and Anaya with illustrations on the most diverse themes. He created posters, participated in documentaries, and also found time to complete his Biology degree and spend seasons in the Doñana Reserve, enjoying and learning.
He also traveled through much of the unknown world in search of that ephemeral sensation produced by the contemplation of wild Nature: twice to the Amazon, North America, the Pacific islands, Scotland, and a large part of Africa. He is, furthermore, an accomplished infographic designer and animator, capable in this, as in all other artistic techniques, of pushing their possibilities to the limit. A few years ago, after a final major collaboration with Borja Cardelus on his encyclopedia and television series La España Salvaje, he decided to set aside illustration, exchanging the big city for a rustic estate in the heart of Guadarrama to dedicate himself fully to painting, finally following his masters: Shishkin, Carlos de Haes, Harris Ching, Albert Bierstadt, Caspar Friedrich, Aivazovsky. From that challenge emerges this work that we can contemplate with rapture; these oil paintings, beautiful yet robust, without compromises or embellishments. Landscape and fauna. Without man. Only nature.
Critique of the work of Manuel Sosa / Madrid, April 1998
