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Telling stories with a single image

Artwork and story by Telagio Baptista

I am a recent implant in Omaha, Nebraska. Born and raised in Northern California. My interest in the arts began at a very young age. I was a young violinist performing concerts up and down Northern California. By the age of 17, I was a concertmaster of a junior symphony. While developing my love for music, I continued my love for the visual arts. My high school paintings won national awards, and I was awarded a scholarship to San Francisco Art Institute and finished my education at the Califonia College of Arts and Crafts. For 20 years, I owned and operated a graphic design studio in Hawaii. After my stint in Hawaii, I became a professional golfer and played on the South Pacific Tour, and taught private golf lessons. However, throughout the years, and despite the joys and rewards of the various careers, there remained my passion for the arts.

I awakened six years ago triggered my interest and renewed my passion for watercolor painting, which had escaped me for decades. The transparency and vibrancy, and magnetic quality of being connected once again with watercolor painting uplifted my desire and was the driving force back to the challenging medium. I have always been deeply drawn to the accomplishment of the arts, being a concert violinist or a golf professional. Both require a degree of patience and perseverance.

I am a portrait, figurative, city, and waterscape, watercolor artist. Artistry and realism techniques are interfaced in my paintings. I surround my images with "negative space." This allows my images room to "breathe." My goal is to evoke a sense of energy, sharing, and giving in our natural world.

I have been blessed by awards in international juried art competitions, in addition to awards received both regionally and nationally.

I use a limited palette of three primary colors to five colors. In my opinion, too many colors can muddy the water, valuing simplicity. My images vary from entirely realistic to somewhat more impressionistic. I am not married to any particular style, just having fun along with my personal growth to one day stand out and embrace my individuality and uniqueness.

The very fiber of my creative soul brings art into my life. As an artist and as a person, I am open to new ways of perceiving and understanding. I am curiously learning and embrace the notion that my best work is yet to come. I live daily with my heart and brushes.

My artistic challenges are to bring my God-given and experienced painting skills along with my enthusiasm to each private and group watercolor workshop I conduct in Omaha and surrounding areas and to other states. Also, to create a balance of having enough time to exhibit and fulfill my thirst for fresh creativity - to search and build my voice.

My learning in art is to continuously grow as a student of life art. Being a sponge absorbs all knowledge of what watercolor offers beyond the obvious. To me, watercolor is magical, an exotic medium that has no boundaries.

The Watercolor Academy expresses and provides the necessary formula of growth to crawl, walk and run with their outstanding programs. This is immeasurable in terms of one's personal growth. This would be the cat's meow to be on board to expand my artistic journey.

I want to win the Watercolor Academy course, which would allow me to grow and enrich my realistic storytelling images. To move to the next level of hyper-realism.

People should vote for me due to my pure drive and passion for cultivating a body of breathtaking visual stories. To create the "WOW" factor in my images that give the viewers a sense of thought and be emotionally engaged.