Ildefonso Aguilar

Ildefonso Aguilar, who lives and works in Lanzarote, is considered an important representative of the ecology movement on the island. Aguilar expresses his closeness to the island landscape in his paintings, musical compositions and architectural works. His themes are the four elements fire, water, air and earth. In addition to acrylic paint he uses natural materials such as volcanic ash or sand.

Between 1963 and 1968, he studied art in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In Arrecife, he taught painting and drawing for six years. Since his main field of oil painting on canvas did not satisfy him personally, he devoted himself increasingly to a lifelong passion, photography.

Over time he found his way back to painting: he had developed a new technique in which he edited photos with sand, and created surfaces with glue and grains, giving a new structure to his paintings. Soon he tried it on wood, for example the wood that has been traditionally used for shipbuilding, and in this way developed the first sand images which have a unique expression due to their own characteristics and precision.

Through his five trips to Iceland, he is now inspired by the nature of the largest volcanic island of the earth, which, despite its northern location has much in common with his homeland, especially the geological origin.

Today Ildefonso Aguilar is one of the few artists who uses the sand-technique in paintings and photographs. By many layers of fine sand, he gradually creates a landscape that reminds the viewer of Lanzarote or Iceland.