Manuel Santelices

In a world increasingly dominated by AI, Manuel Santelices’ haphazard and natural style feels incredibly refreshing. His watercolors are not about perfection; they are about observation. Loose lines, washes of color, moments caught before they vanish. The kind of work that carries the speed of thought and the intimacy of memory.

He paints with the eye of a journalist, which of course he once was. That perspective lingers: framing scenes from just outside the center, capturing mood as much as likeness. There’s always a sense of immediacy, as if you’ve been granted a fleeting glimpse of something usually kept behind closed doors.

What makes his work resonate is restraint. He avoids the clichés of fashion illustration, the sterility of interior renderings, the gloss of celebrity portraiture. Instead he offers impressions: sharp, elegant and often quietly funny. These paintings are dispatches rather than statements, fragments that say more for their brevity.

In an art world oversaturated with spectacle and a culture tilting towards digital perfection, Santelices reminds us of the value of imperfection. His work is proof that what’s human, instinctive, slightly uneven, entirely individual, is what feels most alive.

Instagram: manuelsantelices