"Toros, Mujeres y Naranjas Sanguinas" (Bulls, Women and Blood Oranges)

Toros, Mujeres y Naranjas Sanguinas (Bulls, Women and Blood Oranges). Jaime Carmona. 2026. Acrylic on Canvas. 91 × 121 cm.

Toros, Mujeres y Naranjas Sanguinas is the third and final work in a trilogy that gradually moves from observation toward mythology, and from reality toward the realm of dreams. In this painting, the symbolic universe developed throughout the series reaches its most surreal expression, unfolding within a landscape governed not by logic but by association, memory, and imagination.

The work originated from a dream experienced shortly after the artist's return from Spain. In that dream, an unexpected connection emerged between the blood of the bull, the flesh of a blood orange, and the cyclical vitality embodied by the female body. Rather than seeking a literal explanation, the painting embraces the poetic power of these associations, allowing symbols to communicate through intuition rather than narrative.

The scene unfolds within what the artist describes as the “Citrus Way,” a dreamlike counterpart to the Milky Way. Here, the center of the universe is not a sun but a radiant blood orange whose presence illuminates the entire composition. This celestial fruit becomes a symbol of life, sacrifice, fertility, and transformation, linking together the various elements that populate the painting's imaginative landscape.

Underlying this vision is an interest in ancient conceptions of the bull as a sacred and solar being. Across numerous civilizations, the bull has been associated with fertility, cosmic power, and divine energy. By replacing the sun with a blood orange, Carmona reimagines these ancient relationships through a personal symbolic language, creating a universe where nature, mythology, and memory merge into a single visual system.

The painting also reflects recurring motifs that have become central to the artist's practice. Bulls, oranges, and female figures appear not as isolated subjects but as interconnected symbols that speak to cycles of creation, abundance, desire, mortality, and renewal. Their presence suggests an invisible order beneath the surface of reality, where seemingly unrelated forms reveal profound affinities.

As the culmination of the trilogy, Toros, Mujeres y Naranjas Sanguinas abandons the boundaries between the real and the imagined. It proposes a world in which dreams possess the same legitimacy as memory, where myths continue to evolve, and where symbols retain the power to reveal truths that cannot be expressed through reason alone. The result is a deeply personal cosmology that invites viewers to enter a universe suspended between the ancestral and the surreal, between the earthly and the celestial.