Context · Territory and colour
Colombia as a point of departure.
Claudia Velásquez’s work is grounded in dialogue with Colombian landscapes: mountains, forests, seas and cities shaped by a very particular kind of light.
Rather than depicting these places literally, her paintings work with the atmospheres, colours and memories that remain in the body after having inhabited them.
Colombia · Andes, selvas, ríos y dos océanos.
Landscape, light and territory
Colombia is crossed by three mountain ranges, with strong changes in altitude over short distances. This produces different kinds of light, mists, high skies and greens that shift in tone from one region to another.
In Claudia’s painting, these landscapes appear as layers of colour rather than recognisable views: fragments of mountains, suggested horizons, lines that recall paths and vegetation that emerges through glazes.
Territory is understood not only as geography, but as lived place: everyday routes, journeys between cities, repeated trajectories that leave a mark on visual memory.
Biodiversity and colour
Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. This variety of birds, plants, waters and climates is echoed in a wide palette: deep blues, intense greens, oranges and yellows that appear at sunrise and sunset.
In the artist’s series, birds and foliage function almost as signs of this diversity. They are not scientific illustrations, but presences that recall the density of life in these territories.
Working with such diversity also means deciding what to leave out: simplifying forms, reducing detail, focusing on a few colour relationships that can hold the image together.
Atmospheres and landscapes
Reference images from Colombian landscapes: mountains, forests, rivers, seas.
See works related to Colombia
If you would like to explore how these landscapes appear in the paintings, you can view a selection of works where territory, vegetation and light play a central role.