Luis Sottil

Luis Sottil was born in Mexico City in 1959. Raised in Tampico, Luis was surrounded by the plush and tropical beauty of his native country. Growing up amongst the beauty of Mother Nature affected Luis’s art. He has the desire to represent nature in art in a way that brings together the essential values of intensity and the serenity of life. His technique of doing so is called “Naturalismo” which Luis developed in 1989. One attribute of his work is the rich gold leaf background. Another is the use of natural pigments. Luis makes his paints from different naturally occurring elements such as mother of pearl, vegetable roots, minerals, clays, and even beetle shells. In essence, he used nature to paint nature. The last attribute to Naturalismo is the eyes. Luis paints the eyes at least one third larger than they appear in nature. Animals communicate their emotions through eye contact; enlarging the eyes in his paintings allow the viewer to communicate with the subject of the painting. He is a painter of emotions; animals experience the same emotions humans’ experience. Luis studies, photographs and takes meticulous notes in the natural habitat of his subjects before he paints the emotions that he experienced. His work is meant to emulate nature with the elements of surprise that are always present, from beauty, fear, joy, passion and romance. Luis continues to give back to the human community as well as the animal community and donates to charities such as Canine Companions and foundations that fight terminal disease in children.