“Sailing King” by Koldo Barroso

Today I found the blog of a wonderful illustrator from Spain whose work I didn’t know. His name is Pablo Auladell and he has published his illustrations in numerous Spanish books. I’ve been very impressed by his wonderful use of colors and textures.

For me, it was not only a surprise because of his great work but also because I’ve noticed that one of his works had a resemblance with an illustration that I did back in 1990 for my first portfolio. Pablo’s illustration is a poster for an exhibition called “Los Hoteles de la Imaginación” held in Valencia in February last year. I found his figure of a baroque sun sailing on a boat very resemblant of my old illustration called “Sailing King”. I have to say that my illustration was never published or showcased, so obviously the resemblance is nothing but a curious coincidence. It’s nice to see other artist work coming with a similar idea but in a completely different context.

My illustration was originaLLY inspired by a song by Jon Anderson and Vangelis called “He Is Sailing”, released in the album “Private Collection” in 1983. I had this idea of portraiting a personified Sun as a King or a God, sailing by the sea and bringing the light to the world.

I’ve never been really happy about the result of this ink drawing, I kind of like more the original pencil drawing, but it shows my interest at the time for indigenous cultures and baroque art and I tried to make the background look like an old map. I even got to burn a little piece of the paper, which you can see. I remember that, back in 1990, I was showing my portfolio to some important person from a reputed publishing company in Madrid and when I showed him this work he told me they would never work with a burnt paper like that. I guess he thought I couldn’t paint an old paper effect and I was just playing with fire, trying to burn the paper a little until it got out of my hands. They never called me.

“Sailing King” by Koldo Barroso

I will finish this post with an extract from Jon Anderson’s lyric of “He Is Sailing”

Out of the mist into tropical splendour
With garlands of flowers
In Majestical fusion we see tonight
On to this sacred reunion of pleasure
They row as a rhythm, ten thousands of millions
They touch the Light
King is sailing they say
King is sailing we hear
King is sailing they say
King is sailing this day of days of days
Cocasaya Tay Toca”