DESDE EL MAR de José Fernández Ríos. C/Ricardo Ortega (Instituto Monterroso).
DESDE EL MAR (MARISOL DUARTE ARBE ,YAJAIRA ESPINOSA HOLGADO,LIZETT MARTINEZ CORREA – C1.1A)
Estepona is an outdoor museum, which shows us culture and art in the streets. One of its magnificent sixty one murals that are part of the impressive Estepona’s Route of Artistic Murals is “Desde el Mar” (From the Sea), also known as Alegoría de Estepona (Allegory from Estepona).
This mural is a hyperrealist architectural optical illusion painted by José Fernández Ríos, who has created ten of the murals of this picturesque and lovely city. This fabulous piece of art, whose dimension is 200 m2 and can be seen from five different perspectives, is situated on three Monterroso High School’s walls.
Gazing at each part of the astonishing mural, the author shows the elements of the coat of arms of Estepona. Those elements, which are seen from the sea, are a rough deep blue sea, a beautiful fishing sailboat whose name and date are a tribute to this education institution, the stunning mountain“Sierra Bermeja” and an ancient watchtower.And last but not least, if you take distance and look at the perspectives in which the horizons of the sea of each side are aligned, you will witness a fascinating colossal image.
It definitely will take your breath away!
DESDE EL MAR (ANA PRIETO INFANTE C1.1A)
This fantastic canvas in large format is located in Monterroso Secondary School and it was created by Jose Fernandez Rios, the painter of many other murals in Estepona’s streets (Día de pesca or Una flor de futuro, among others).
It is a wonderful hyper-realistic work painted in pastel blue tones which captures the beauty of a full of life seascape in three different perspectives. The masterpiece includes the most representative elements of Estepona which coincide with the coat of arms of our city. From what I can gather, it wants to give the impression as if we were taking a photo from inside the sea on a sunny day.
In the foreground, one can observe a stone tower from the Andalusian period and a sailboat sailing on the riotous waves, figures that portray the culture of our city. In the background, we can see the seashore united to our mountains, Sierra Bermeja. This union of Sea and Mountains is the image that remains in the mind of anyone who visits our multi-faceted and gorgeous city. All of this invites tourists to come back and choose Estepona to live, in addition to its gastronomy and its people.
DESDE EL MAR (FROM THE SEA) (MATILDE GÓMEZ LEÓN – C1.1A)
“From the sea” is a 200 m2 prominent mural painted on three walls on the Monterroso Secondary School, so it can be seen from many perspectives.
The first impression is just a seascape painted in blue colours in a hyperrealist style, which is also an architectural optical illusion, divided in three facades. On a first view the most eyecatching element is a huge porch with the name ESTEPONA on the top with a brave blue marine background and a sail ship on another wall with the name of the school; but looking closely to it the viewer can discover all the elements from the town coat of arms, these are: the Mediterranean Sea,a fishing boat representing the long seafaring tradition, the Sierra Bermeja and a watchtower which could be the San Luis Castle. Therefore this mural is also full of symbolism.
The author of this great mural is José Fernandez Ríos,painter and sculptor who was born in 1964 in Jaen, a prolific artist who painted between 2013 and 2018 ten magnificent murals in different buildings of the town, highlighting “Un día de pesca”, which is the largest mural in Spain.
DESDE EL MAR (FROM THE SEA) (MIGUEL GARCÍA CASTRO – C1.1A)
Located in Monterroso Secondary School, “From the Sea” is an extraordinary mural painted on two perpendicular walls under the name ESTEPONA, in capital letters. It was made by José Fernández Ríos, an author who has previously painted the most famous mural in the city, named A Fishing Day.
Using hyperrealism, the mural shows the perspective of Estepona village from the typical arrival of a boat to the port. Each wall, both forming a 90º angle, shows different perspectives of the same image. On one wall, we observe a part of the troubled blue sea, with swell exhibiting white foam and the small lighthouse built on grey stone. At the bottom we can see the mountain Sierra Bermeja, under a light blue sky with some random clouds which look like cotton.
On the other perpendicular wall a sailing boat can be observed in spotlight, sharing the same elements described in the previous paragraph, but from a different perspective . Those elements are, in fact, the ones that appear in the official coat of arms of the village.