Family Photography Pictures: Photography art for Sale Cuban Painter, Roly Castelliny|Photography Art Gallery Neare Me

Roly Castelliny in front of one in every of his artwork in his home in Old Havana.

(See more of Roly's art work on this gallery I created.)

Twenty-six-year-old Roly Castelliny became running in an condo in Havana wherein I turned into staying while in Cuba in 2015. He turned into on the group of workers on the apartment and became filling the roles of Concierge, Bartender, Money Changer, Cook and whatever else his visitors referred to as for at some stage in their stay. Because, I think, he is set the age of my son, and because he has this type of fine individual and personality, I changed into drawn to him.

One night, after the rest of our institution had gone to mattress, Roly and I sat up at the balcony overlooking Havana Harbor and talked nicely into the night. His English was remarkably precise. (He said he'd discovered English by looking the few American TV shows they might view in Cuba!) He instructed me about his lifestyles in Cuba, about education inside the marshal arts for maximum of his lifestyles, approximately being a frame shield, approximately his spouse and family, and about the events that led him to make a career change and in the end find out his talent as an artist.

The story he shared went some thing like this. He turned into at the house of a woman he knew nicely who changed into being burdened through her ex-boyfriend. While Roly become together with her one night at her home, the ex kicked in his pal's door and attacked her. Roly intervened, and, using his marshal arts talents, harm the attacker badly.

The subsequent morning, despite the fact that he'd felt justified in protecting his buddy, he become ill approximately how badly he'd hurt this guy. He changed into feeling remorseful. He vowed at that second to leave his paintings as a body shield and pursue a brand new manner of life.

At the time, he did not realize what that new lifestyles would be, however he were given out of the safety business and found the activity that he changed into in once I met him in what I would call the hospitality/vacationer industry. He appreciated it, and he favored the humans he met, but something was missing for him. One day, to cheer him up, a chum got here by way of with a few paints and brushes and invited Roly to color with him. Having never painted, Roly was reluctant at the start, however finally relented.

What befell next helped him to find the route he changed into seeking out in his existence. He observed that he may want to paint! Not handiest may want to he paint, but he seemed to have a present for it. He'd had no training, but the photos he created no matter being a amateur, have been rather exact. He started out to color greater and to have a look at and to learn. His ardour for growing art have been ignited! When we talked that night time on the balcony he stated that he was approximately prepared to go away the relative safety of his activity at the apartment and undertaking out on his personal as an artist.

After I back to america, Roly and I persisted to live in touch. Within some months of our initial assembly, he sent me a Facebook message telling me that he'd left his day job at the condominium and had located a very small gallery in Old Havana in a place wherein travelers regularly came to visit neighborhood galleries. He started to sell his work across the world, together with pieces that dangle inside the foreign embassy in Havana. He additionally obtained inquiries from the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa.

Shortly after he installed himself in his small gallery, I was in Cuba with another group. We all went to look his new region. It changed into so tiny! About the dimensions of closets or a small rest room. His work turned into displayed on each inch of wall space, and he changed into selling. Within some months of that go to, he had moved to a larger gallery with access on a hectic street, a super vicinity for his art.

Today, we correspond on a regular basis. I actually have "invested" in his new gallery and feature watched as he renovated it, mounted new lights, spackled partitions, and hung his paintings. To thank me for my "investment," he is presented me some space in his gallery wherein I am displaying some of my photographic pictures from Cuba.

In spite of what seems like a achievement tale (and it's far!), this has been a exquisite struggle for Roly. Because he has no art schooling, he is not diagnosed as a legitimate artist through his government, so he isn't always eligible for any of the assets that is probably available to artists that are officially knowledgeable.

One of the most important threats to his ability to create work is the problem in obtaining artwork resources like canvas, brushes, and most of all, oil paint. It's now not so much that he can't manage to pay for it (despite the fact that money is tight), there simply isn't any paint to shop for in Cuba much of the time. Each time I visit, I convey him oil paints and ultimate 12 months I published on Facebook that he needed substances. I obtained many generous donations from across the us of a and become able to carry him new paint and brushes, and an collection of donated objects like gently used tubes of oil paint, canvases, and brushes.

Friends visited Cuba this June and had been type sufficient to hold greater elements that I had for Roly to preserve him portray. Since the closing Facebook request became so fruitful, I've put out the decision once more.

If you would love to make a contribution to a fund as a way to permit me to buy painting components for Roly Castelliny and aid him in his new gallery, you can achieve this here. I've created a PayPal button (beneath) in order to will let you donate, and allow me to tune the donations and maintain a file of participants. Last time, I obtained such a lot of donations that I misplaced track of in which all of them came from. I wrote many thank you notes, however worry I overlooked some who contributed. The PayPal system will allow me to maintain better tune.

This is set up entirely informally and all you have got is my word of honor that each cent (besides for PayPal expenses vital to make this managable) will go toward supporting Roly and his art. Money will be spent on certainly one of three matters:

art supplies,
baggage fees to get materials to Cuba, and
gallery rent

There are 5 degrees of donation:

$5
$10
$25
$50
$100

Any amount may be significantly appreciated!

I really don't know what kind of response there will be. If I start receiving more money than is practical (a good problem to have!), I will turn off the donation site and stop accepting donations.

I'll be visiting Cuba two extra times in 2017, leading small groups of photographers from November five-13, and once more from November 26 - December four, so I'll be able to convey extra elements once I tour.

Roly Castelliny's Paintings

Here are a number of art work created through Roly. It's tough for him to ship me pix, so I do not have many. Also, a number of the images he is created have bought and he does no longer have pictures of everything, so, what I have here is a confined instance of his paintings. Eventually, I'll have a catalog of his paintings with prices for each person who's inquisitive about buying.

I do not have the names of the entirety he's finished or the precise sizes of the whole lot both, but most of his work is pretty massive. (See the piece he is status next to below.) Some of his works are commissions, just like the one of the girl inside the sunglasses. You can see the progression and the image the painting was based on for this one.