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Work in Progress

This section presents the compositional development of my paintings: sketches, variations, adjustments and preliminary searches before the final work. It reveals the internal structure of the painting—its balance, its fractures, and the way the image is gradually constructed.

Expressionist painting of a female figure surrounded by pomegranates and geometric architectural forms, exploring memory, identity, and symbolism.

Expressive oil painting of a mannequin-like woman reading a newspaper by the sea, surrounded by flowing red cables and flying

working1. Dibujo y base de impasto. Trabajo en desarrollo: "La bebedora de absenta". Félix Rubio. 2023.

**Ritual in Nakht**

This work emerges from a slow, almost archaeological process, where the image is not imposed from the outset but revealed through layers, erasures, and successive decisions. The starting point was a clear compositional structure — three figures in relation — yet the painting gradually shifted toward something more ambiguous and symbolic.

The background was developed as a field of memory: layered glazes, scraping, and dragged passages evoke ancient walls, surfaces worn by time. It is not a descriptive space, but a mental one — almost ritualistic — where the material of painting itself records what has happened before the scene takes form. In this process, transparency (through glazing techniques) and the partial removal of paint have been essential in creating depth and atmosphere.

In contrast, the figures are built with restraint. They do not seek realism, but a suspended, almost icon-like presence. The central figure holds a red element — ambiguous, somewhere between the organic and the symbolic — which introduces tension and narrative charge. This red is not decorative; it is a point of energy: it appears, fragments, and integrates into the surrounding space, as if part of a broader process of transformation.

The figure on the left, turned away, acts as a silent witness. She does not directly participate, yet her presence is essential, introducing distance, time, and reflection. The figure on the right, by contrast, engages directly with the center, completing a triangular relationship of gazes and meanings.

The painting is titled *Ritual in Nakht* in reference to the tomb of Nakht in Ancient Egypt — not as a literal citation, but as an evocation of a world in which image, gesture, and symbol were deeply connected to the transcendent. Here, however, that ritual appears stripped down, fragmented, and reinterpreted through a contemporary sensibility.

Rather than depicting a specific scene, the work proposes a state: a suspended moment between the intimate and the archaic, where the human merges with the symbolic and painting itself becomes a space of transformation.

Oil painting of a young woman in a yellow dress sitting pensively on a blue chair, with a cat beside her, while a man sits in the background with his back turned. Interior scene with blue walls, a small table with flowers, and a window view, expressing emotional distance and silence.

Oil painting with a central harp forming the main compositional axis, its vertical strings organizing multiple nude figures into a rhythmic, sequential arrangement. The scene is supported by a large sculptural hand, with visible, layered brushstrokes and a limited palette reinforcing spatial tension and structural clarity.

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