Le bon copain 2016

Carlos Sablòn made this painting, Le bon copain, with what looks like thin layers of oil paint, built up slowly. It’s a real slow burn, this one. The whole thing has this slightly surreal vibe, right? A figure with a palm tree for a head, hand on his chest, like he's taking an oath, or maybe about to burst into song. Then there is the hand gently resting on a small dog. I mean, what's not to love? Look at the paint itself – it's smooth, almost glassy, but there's a subtle texture, especially in the sky. You can almost feel the brushstrokes, the careful blending. And that light! The way it catches the leaves of the palm tree, the folds of the shirt… it's all so deliberate, so precise. Like a dream caught in amber. I'm thinking of artists like René Magritte, maybe Giorgio de Chirico too. They all had this way of making the familiar strange, the everyday uncanny. And that's what Sablòn's doing here, creating his own little world, full of mystery and magic.