by Robert Charles Murray II

The competition has been going on for about 73 years, and I believe that I am the only non-Mexican to win Premio Tlacuilo (2014).

The composition that won is a 75x55 cm watercolor with all my high resolution and light optics incorporated in the pigment sculpture. It is a close-up of a bunch of nopal cacti with 67 tunas, prickly pears on them. It is from the point of view of nature, of a bug who lives on that plant or a bird who lands on it. It is to see nature not as a human presence. I have been compared in my florals to Georgia O'Keefe and I carry the same style into my cacti.

It shows the scorch marks where animals or humans invaded or someone maybe carved their initials on it or the scars from the birds that pick at it or storms or something breaks apart all those scars. I incorporated all that into my work. I pay close attention to the undulation, the twisting agony of time mixed with the beautiful abundance of the prickly pear just at its ripest point, at its peak. If you look, you can see the cochineal powder of the parasitic bug from which red stains and dyes were made .

At the time of the competition my life was in turmoil. I had left the Canary Islands where I had lived for 15 years, having participated in some 500 expositions in Spain. I had landed in LA, met someone, built a relationship with someone and married her. Then we moved to Mexico.

The very first things that I started to paint here were my flowers and cactuses, the first set of cacti that I had done since leaving Spain, where I had done 50. This specific piece, the winning composition, was designed to show  timelessness through agony and the sweet results that come as the fruit. It has extreme contrast, lights and darks, the beautiful sublime, balanced, rich colors of saturation mixed with the powdery gray effects that you get on cacti like the powder on a grape. You see all the illumination techniques that I can compose, including my "sculpture of pigment" basis. I used well over 50 different specific pigments to communicate the beauty of the dance of the prickly pears sitting there in nature as they would be if you were Adam and Eve. I estimate that it has 250,000 brush marks.

The beautiful, wonderful prickly pears just invite you to grab them, so I titled it Cuidado Que Pica (Careful It Will Prick You).  

As I say, at the time of the competition, my life was very difficult. There wasn't enough money, and my marriage was falling apart. I couldn't get jobs or clients. There weren't enough shows to exhibit my work. I paid my entry fee to the Mexican International Watercolor Society and submitted my piece. The monetary prize was only $5000 pesos, but winning is an honor, a very profound honor. It's like winning the Academy Awards, but in watercolor.

When the day came, I went to the award ceremony at the Museo Nacional de la Acuarela in Coyoacán, in Mexico City. Everyone there was in their best dress, as they say in Spain with "calzoncito limpio y corbata," clean underwear and a tie.

The moment of truth came: "The honorable mentions go to so-and-so." You see the paintings. They're all right there in the expo. People are congratulated. Cameras flash. The presentation continued: "Third prize goes to X." "Second prize goes to Y" "First prize goes to..." And I broke down in tears, thinking, "I'm going to win nothing?"

This was my last chance to pay the rent. I had nothing. My wife had been constantly telling me to get a job and this was my way of saying, "To hell with that." I had put everything I had into that painting because I knew that it might have been the last thing I painted. I might have to be homeless again... in Mexico.

There in that final moment at the awards presentation, while my tears fell, I thought, I guess it wasn't good enough; I wasn't known enough; I didn't have enough friends; nobody likes to be around me because I'm very intense socially; I didn't have the money to pay for the places I needed to be or to take advantage of my talents.

And they announced, "The Premio Tlacuilo 2014 goes to Robert Charles Murray II. I was stunned. I was in shock. It was my way of saying "I told you all." I told you this is what I'm designed to do. Stop telling me to get a job. It was the most special national prize I've ever won, but it's not the only and we'll leave that for another time

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Robert Charles Murray II was born in Hollywood and lived most of his early life in Southern California. He joined the Marines as a musician and while in service painted some murals on naval vessels. Back in LA he married the girl nextdoor who was from the Canary Islands, where they moved. There and in Spain as a whole from 1998-2012 he participated in 500+ events, mostly individual shows. He lives now in San Miguel, where he continues to paint and work in wood.

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