Clockwise from Top Left Corner:
Columbus Day Regatta, ink and acrylic on canvas 58" X 47";
Summer Hike – Stowe, Vt., ink and acrylic on canvas 60" X 48";
Artist, Carlos Ramirez;
Cabo S.L.-Winter Sun (detail), ink and acrylic on canvas 48" X 48";
Inspiration with 'Driving into Siena', ink and acrylic on canvas 62" X 48";
Turquoise Necklace – Indian Market, S.F., ink and acrylic on canvas 65" X 58";
The Studio;
Sand Path Through the Garden, ink and acrylic on canvas 60" X 33"
"I paint large abstracts loosely based on nature. Starting with bold black ink sketches that reference leaves, petals or stones, I then work in multiple layers of broken color. I work back and forth in this manner until I achieve the depth and complexity I strive for.
The overall effect is catching the light flickering on the bay or as you lie under a tree, those glimpses of sunlight through the leaves. In essence my work aims to bring the natural world back into our lives.
I am a Cuban born painter based in Miami. Unlike many other painters, I come from a fashion background. I’ve run my fashion label Liancarlo for 30 years now, it is carried throughout the country in high-end specialty stores and also at Saks and Neimans.
As a designer it has provided a creative outlet for me, since my work involves sketching, drawing prints and embroideries and of course manipulating color in new and exciting ways, season after season. Painting, though, has always been at the core of what I do, it has always been my inspiration. I have always known that at some point it would become my life."
Carlos Ramirez always drew and painted, but as the only child of an immigrant family, his parents were concerned that he have a structured profession, rather than take a chance on a career as an artist. In college he focused on drawing and drafting in the hopes of pursuing an architectural degree, but at the last minute, due to the prodding of his father, he applied to law school.
He received a full scholarship to the University of Miami Law School, where he excelled but soon realized his heart was not in it. In his last year he left the program to follow a vision of putting a fashion collection together. “I applied all of my drawing, sketching and design skills to this new endeavor,” he notes. At age 23, he established the label Liancarlo, and today he is a highly recognized designer in the fashion world. The label has dressed dozens of celebrities, and his work has been featured in countless fashion magazines.
Throughout the years of growing his business, he became a designer by day, painter by night, taking workshops with such greats as painter Wolf Kahn—making time to pursue this passion with the same detailed study and commitment that he brought to building a business.
In 2014, he was accepted into the prestigious Master Artists Series workshops for abstract painters with nationally known teacher, Steven Aimone, at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. His paintings have grown over the years from representational work to the large and ambitious abstractions of today.
Line, color, and shape are at the core of both his designs and paintings. They are not separate but have cohabited for many years—one being a natural outgrowth of the other. Ramirez continues to paint daily out of his cottage studio in Coral Gables, Florida.
Presently, his work is in Addison Gallery in Delray Beach, will soon be at Ann Connelly Fine Art in Baton Rouge and he is working with a gallery in Dallas.