Francesc Vidal Gardella is a Catalan landscape painter who works primarily in oil. Based in Olot (La Garrotxa, Girona, Catalonia, Spain), his work is strongly connected to the tradition of the Olot School.
Although he was born in the nearby village of Setcases, he was influenced from an early age by the masters of Olot. Some voices have tried to discredit the followers of the work of the Vayreda, Berga, Galwey, etc., and in part they are right: the followers of a school are not those who copy what the masters did, but those who, starting from their pictorial foundations, are able to seek new ways of interpreting painting.
During his years at the Escola de Belles Arts d’Olot, Francesc Vidal received the influence of painters such as Xavier Vinyoles, Vilà-Moncau, Lluís Juanola, and Josep Guardiola. From them he learned something essential: how to treat the landscape, how to reproduce it, and how to define it. Building on those teachings, he brings innovation in color, aesthetic balance in composition, and a sense of soul to the landscapes he paints.
He interprets landscape well because he draws well and knows the masters’ techniques in depth, but he does not stop there. Landscape, like any subject, requires specific knowledge to resolve it with dignity.
La Garrotxa has an exceptional geography that enchants visitors and captivates those of us who live here. Painting it is more difficult than it seems at first glance. Many visiting artists try, but very few manage to truly interpret the Garrotxa landscape.
Its exuberant greens confront the painter with the difficult problem of producing works that may appear monochromatic. The green of the beech, the holm oak, the oak, the junipers, the poplars, the aspens, the birches, and the grass are all different, even though they are green.
Capturing the nuances that distinguish them is something only those who love the landscape, know it, and master the palette can do. All these colors have different bases; so different that, when autumn arrives, they travel across the spectrum: bluish greens become yellow-green, then green-yellow, then yellowish green, and finally yellow.
Later in autumn come the first yellow-orange tones, pure oranges, orange-pinks shifting toward pink, and, on the other hand, reddish oranges that end in reds.
Gradually, the orange-pink that turns into pink becomes a purple-pink, and the red that follows the same process leans toward purple-red, then reddish-purple, and finally both pink and red meet in a pure purple.
All these colors must already be present in the many nuances of spring and summer greens. This is the great challenge of the painter who faces a landscape that seems to be of a single color.
