Walking into the studio of Maria Dolores Rubio, known to all of her dear friends as “Maloles,” is a delight and a revelation. One feels her presence in the compact two-room space, a happy and yet frenetic atmosphere of imagination. She says to the visitor “don’t clean my dust”…meaning that everything here has purpose for her. One feels an atmosphere of playfulness and contentment in her presence.
Her creative process is unique and exciting. She has “magical boxes,” one filled with brilliantly colored fabric samples, patchworks of discarded clothing, another with sketches, still another with pages cut out of innumerable magazines, folded and scored to the image which may have caught her imagination at a moment in time. Boxes of these treasures and things which only have meaning to her are strewn throughout. It is a scene of controlled chaos….she knows where everything is and the intents inherent in the scene.
One can divine of her process the following: She is intrigued by scenes…moments in time…which can be derived from something she has seen while walking “Free” her devoted golden retriever, from a photo in a magazine, an advertisement…from innumerable points of sensory experience. When she determines that she is prepared to put her ideas/concepts on canvas (or wood or papyrus), she first roughly sketches her idea with pencil, crayon or whatever, onto the intended surface in any kind of iconography known only to her. She is balancing her initial concept of the composition’s symmetry. Then she will begin adding/pasting elements of collage onto the surface utilizing a fabric, a segment of a page from a magazine, a piece of a cereal box with text on it…whatever she spontaneously wishes to incorporate into the texture of that specific creation. She does not struggle with the process…it evolves as naturally as breathing and she smiles, delightedly throughout. She next begins to add color with a brush using fast-drying acrylic paints, blocking in and defining direction of the composition. She may have originally been inspired by a scene with a cream-colored wall, and then, while in the process of creation determines that it must be a lavender or green wall!
She then must wait. The partially completed composition must dry before it can receive its final and concluding steps. This is a time of great anticipation for her. This is why there are usually two or three works in progress in her studio. The wait is agonizing for her. Once the work is dry enough she will begin applying oil paints. Rich gobs of buttery color are applied lovingly, in broad and small strokes completing and enriching the composition until she is satisfied. This is her happiest time. At completion and once dry, she will sign and seal all with varnish signifying her approval. And another canvas awaits…
Maria Dolores Rubio has had a gratifying career as a full-time artist since the 1970’s. she studied with the master teachers of her city, Barcelona, until she developed her own signature style which we now admire. She is shown in galleries and museums in Spain, France and in the United States to great acclaim and success.

600 Fifth Avenue South, Naples, Fl 34201 (239)435-4515
914 East Las Olas Blvd. Ft Lauderdale, Fl 33301 (954)524-2100
www.newriverfineart.com