Artist masters mood on canvas

Veronica Jacuinde, The Press and Tribune

Jose Silva is a 26-year-old oil painter based in Shafter who works from a studio in his garage, where he spends hours creating works for private collectors. Primarily working with oil on canvas, he focuses on portraits, landscapes and seascapes.

Silva began painting at 17 while in high school, developing his skills over the next six years before turning professional. Today, his artwork commands prices in the thousands of dollars.

Self-taught, he draws his inspiration from movies. "I like Christopher Nolan, the director of the Batman movies. The way he uses light and shadows in his films is very realistic in mood, and I use that composition as an inspiration to paint because I want my paintings to have the same effect," Silva said. "My work is what I call impressionistic realism, a mix of realism and impressionism to make it look like a painting."

His work has a classical foundation. He studies the old master painters, such as Anders Zorn and John Singer Sargent. "But I try to reimagine their work in a modern take. Each of my paintings is like a still frame from a film that never got made," he explained.

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