Oil on nylon canvas, 110 × 110
Consuelo belongs to the work on colour I began in 1984, in which I paint on canvases that are already coloured. The turquoise blue was there before my first brushstroke: I build the painting by adjusting each area of colour, some of them slightly desaturated, to the tone of the ground.
The face emerges from this coloured field through blue, green and violet tones, with the red lips acting as a sharp point of contrast. The tilted head, direct gaze and tightly framed composition give the portrait a strong physical presence, while the cool palette keeps the figure at a certain emotional distance.
As in other works from this period, the coloured ground influences the entire painting. It alters the perception of the skin, the light and the mood, allowing the portrait to move away from naturalistic representation towards something more psychological and interior.