"Picador of the Tides"

"Picador of the Tides". Jaime Carmona. 2026. Oil on Canvas. 41 × 51 cm

Part of Jaime Carmona’s 2026 series on Hispanic paintings, Picador de Mareas reimagines the act of fishing through a distinctly Hispanic symbolic language. Four men stand ankle-deep in the sea, engaged in an invented ritual of fishing that merges ancient labor with theatrical tradition.

At the center, a woman sits elevated on the backs of two men, holding a pike in a posture reminiscent of a picador. The bodies beneath her suggest the shape of a horse, creating an ambiguous hybrid between human effort and mounted spectacle. Through this gesture, Carmona transforms fishing into a picador-style act of harvest, where the lance becomes both a tool of survival and a cultural symbol.

The scene remains peaceful, almost ceremonial. Fish are gathered, exchanged, and lifted from the sea in a choreography of cooperation. The relationship between the male and female figures speaks not of hierarchy but of complementarity, reflecting on shared roles within collective tradition.

In this work, Carmona blends the everyday with the mythical, turning a simple act of fishing into a meditation on labor, ritual, and the enduring imagination of Hispanic culture.