"Havana is a baroque city, and we have a history of voluptuousness" is Luis Felipe's response when asked why he paints so many nudes.

He was born during the Cuban missile crisis of 1961, and at an early age, graduated from the Academy of Drawing and Painting in Havana. 

Our first visit to to Luis' home was in 2004.  The elevator, jet-dark during broad daylight, labors up the old Soviet-style block high-rise where Felipe lives with his Peruvian wife, Dorothy and two children.  At the 20th floor, it opens to a river of water escaping one of the apartments and literally, we wade to the artists's door.

We are welcomed by the sweet, polite and except for Felipe, shy family.  Luis displays 40+ paintings and bounds around the room in unfettered joy as we consider them.  We ask what he is "after" when he paints, because his artistic style is a radical departure from some Cuban artists who cater to the tourist trade.

"Nothing deep" he says with a grin.  "Life is a carnival, a party...with many different characters.  This is what I paint."  But word on the street is, he's "on the outs" with the system for unflatteringly depicting certain controversial political leaders in his works, and he is not allowed to exhibit his works in the government galleries.

We fall in love with a number of his paintings, and buy them for what is a fortune to this family that lives in a strikingly spartan apartment with a camp stove in the kitchen and a seatless toilet that flushes with a bucket of water.

The Ruanos make no apology for their material lives.  This is Cuba, and that's just the way it is. Their total concern right now is for their 10 year old daugher who is recovering from cancer.

As we leave, Luis presents us with a gift of his poetry, his book, B-Flat for a Brief Act.  We give him a fat tube of titanium white oil paint, which he brings to his lips in gratitude with both hands.

 - Notes from Cuba! Gallery of Fine Art -