Despite being well known for his pictorial use of vibrant colours, Jorge Santos has created several drawings and prints. Taking advantage of the paper, the colour and the contrast between line and background, the drawing is always present in the artist’s work – even in paintings or sculptures – with a special focus on botanical forms.

In The elusive truth, curated by Lourdes Féria, Jorge Santos presents a series between botany, floral arrangements and natural landscapes, where the plant element is primordial. The works show the romantic side of nature – a feeling that mediates all our relationship with trees, plants, landscape and gardens.

The series of drawings Les Amants (2012) shows a succession of dancing tree trunks. The stylisation of the line reveals this almost choreographed effect, giving the works a remarkable expressiveness. The confrontation with the blind gold-painted prints on paper provides luminosity and brilliance to the exhibition, as if we were moving from the twilight of the forest to the clarity of the flowered meadow. Two paintings with the typical black silhouettes of the artist serve as a complement. It looks like that melancholy moment at dusk, when the sun paints the sky with a vibrant and mild rose.

The elusive truth by Jorge Santos is at Galeria Quattro, Leiria, until January 15, 2021.