Edgar Leal was born in the city of Bogotá, Colombia, in 1958.
He moved to the United States in 1990.
“My biography, like my paintings, hides nothing. Here I am at this moment: learning to improve.”
Although he completed some university studies in his country, he did not receive any formal artistic education; therefore, his artistic development has been based on trial and error practice.
Due to the long working hours in his new country, artistic practice, that is, working with pencils and brushes, was sporadic.
It was after he turned 54 that time became more flexible, allowing him to dedicate himself more to practicing drawing and then transferring those ideas to canvas.
This new stage allowed him to reconnect with his artistic interests with greater calm, discipline, and personal intention.
Painting is saying something about what happens in the world and about what occurs in our own lives.
Each person discovers the way they will express things. Even remaining silent is a way of saying.
The colors of thoughts are varied and the forms, very diverse, as many humans exist; there lies the broad spectrum of the fine arts.
I chose painting as a form of expression and, since art fulfills a mission in human life, my mission is to give meaning to my time and, if possible, to another’s time, the observer.
This giving meaning to time includes two fundamental elements: time as minutes and seconds used appropriately; and historical time with its events, movements, and ideologies that concern human life.
Everyone finds their own way to express themselves, even through silence. Amid the endless diversity of human thought and art, I chose painting.
Because art has a purpose, my mission is to give meaning to time-both the passing moments of the viewer sharing my space, and the broader historical time shaped by the events and ideologies of human life.
From then on, everything is pleasure:
The pleasure of transforming ideas into pictorial language.
No matter how intricate the subject may be, no matter how controversial or indisputable, the artistic labor, the execution itself, from the initial idea to the contact with the materials, from pencil sketches to the final colors on the canvas, evokes a sense of relief, an inner peace that contrasts with the potentially complex subject at hand.
That is the blessing of art. Art relaxes, art heals, for by freezing the scene of the subject at hand, we pause, our lives come to a halt, we want to observe closely, we want to analyze.
This moistens the soul; then new visions about the stories each of us has to tell begin to flourish there.
No matter how complex or controversial the subject, the artistic process from the initial sketch to the final canvas brings a sense of relief and inner peace. That is the blessing of art.
It heals and relaxes us by freezing a moment in time, forcing us to pause and observe closely. This process nurtures the soul, allowing new visions and stories to flourish.