Hernan was born in Buenos Aires where he attended a the National Conservatory of Music In Buenos Aires. He graduated with degrees piano, harpsichord and conducting there, and later obtained a Doctorate Degree in music composition at Ball State University. He had a successful career both as a pianist and conductor, in his native Argentina, England and the United States.
Upon retiring, he decided to pursue painting, starting with watercolor, and studied at the Alexandria Art League School, and participated in workshops in the US and abroad. In 2015, he became interested in abstraction and acrylics and since then has had an active career as an artist both here and in his native country of Argentina. He is now a US citizen.
The artist has had pieces shown at the Art League Gallery in Alexandria, Capitol Hill Arts League, Touchstone Gallery, Fairfax Arts Gallery, Del Ray Artisans, VMRC, Hill Center and The Embassies of Argentina and Chile in Washington DC, among others. He has also been recipient of several awards at shows organized at some of the above mentioned institutions.
An exhibit of his latest work, Called “Klimtmania and Company” was on view at 1st Stage Theater Gallery, in Tysons, VA, from September to November of 2019. Consequently, an exhibition of his work called “Perceptions in colors, lines and layers,” at the Embassy of Argentina, in Washington DC, was cut short by the pandemic, and, with new works, will go up again in December of this year. Plans for the coming year are exhibits at Gallery Underground, in Arlington VA, and the TFAA Artists’s @ Mosaic Gallery in Fairfax
He was accepted by jury into the Potomac Valley Watercolorists in 2015 and to the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association in 2020.
Artist Statement
“Painting is so damn difficult…..; when you think you’ve got it, you really haven’t”
Paul Cezanne
Once, at a local art museum, I read this quote from Paul Cezanne who, by then, was already in his early sixties. I am someone who started painting not so long ago, and that statement has had a great influence in the way I approach art-making. Painting it is another way of expressing my feelings and emotions as music once was; a two dimensional way of depicting the world as I might see it at one particular moment. But, above all, it is a never ending learning process that, through new ideas, styles and techniques, enriches the means and ways I have to express myself through art.
I am selfish, because I paint mainly for myself. Nevertheless, it gives me immense pleasure when others are moved (however that might be) when they are exposed to my work. It doesn't matter if they see what I see in it or not, as long as it touches them somehow.
Whether representational or totally abstract, what I paint is always based on something real, usually from the natural world I enjoy and love so much. I hope that I will be successful in exposing others to see the world that way too.