"These jewel-like paintings intuitiviely fuse different aesthetic traditions, folk art and old master, with natural grace and an uncanny quality that may be a species of magic." - American Art Quarterly

Read the entire article from American Arts Quarterly -  Spring 2011

"Paintings, like plays, require audiences to complete them. The painter sets the stage and dresses the characters. In return, each audience member deciphers a different story in the embedded and implied meanings. Good paintings do not merely serve as mirrors to external worlds. They open doors into secret interior realms. I do not know who these children, soldiers, acrobats, and mysterious ladies are with their attendant menagerie. I only know that they are the cast of characters caught in the midst of a scene in an obscure play. The viewer interrupts, but the interruption is not unwelcome. With silent stares and quiet gestures, they issue invitations to witness their tales. The clown Pierrot reaches out to the innocent fool in all of us. Winged creatures and personages elevate the misfit into a marvelous thing. Soldiers revel in a peaceful idyll while little girls bust clouds and chase storms. What does it all mean? I do not know for they are all players in unknown narratives."

Fatima Ronquillo is a self-taught painter whose classically inspired imagery evokes a world of serenity and charm. Her paintings of mysterious personages, often set against pastoral and idyllic landscapes, are accented with an underlying sense of drama and playfulness. These small intimate works invite a respite from the frenetic pace of modern life.

Fatima is an intuitive painter working from a deeply personal visual language and imagination. Each painting is an unfolding story of layered meanings brought to life through multiple layers of paint. Her painted surfaces sparkle with thin delicate glazes over thick impastos and scattered scumbles of semi transparent colors. She paints in the style of the European classical traditions coupled with a magical realism rooted in folk and colonial imagery. Hers is an authentic voice that echoes from an inner world where art history meets with nostalgia and imagined characters from literature, theatre and opera.

Born in San Fernando, Philippines in 1976, Fatima Ronquillo emigrated as a child to the United States in 1987 where her family settled in San Antonio, Texas. She currently resides and maintains a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and west highland terrier. Her work is included in private collections throughout North America and Europe.

web site: fatimaronquillo.com