In the frame
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Blanca Troughton's studio is in a secluded wooden hut, a little away from the family home. Here, is where the works which form her series of paintings 'Pinceladas de Universo' (Brushstrokes of the Universe) were created. "They aim to bring the cosmos closer to the public through art," she said of her artworks. And they are not pure figurations, they have a scientific basis, she said. The key lies in the palette of colours she uses and in the references to the structures and evolutionary stages of the cosmos, Troughton added.
Nothing is haphazard in her creations. The artist has been a mathematics teacher all her life and has been at the head of the Malaga Astronomy Society and the Andalusian and Spanish federations of this discipline. This passion resulted in her participating in a dozen exhibitions and projects such as Artist4SDGs, in Benalmádena; the Jornadas DDD, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid; the Galería Origen, also in the Spanish capital, and a couple of exhibitions in Oklahoma City.
"My interest comes from when I was a teenager living in El Palo. Back then I used to make reproductions of record covers for parties. But then, between my professional dedication to mathematics, with classes at Los Manantiales secondary school, my love of astronomy and my family, my time was occupied," Troughton said. The confinement forced on her by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that, like many people, a passion that had been lying dormant was awakened and, since then, her paintbrushes no longer gather dust.
Her studio has produced artworks such as Hambre de Luz (Hunger for Light). Against a very thick darkness, a glowing, snowy halo stands out, around which there are other tones. "It is the representation of a black hole, which is not black, but has such a force of absorption that it swallows even light, which travels at 300,000 kilometres per hour," Troughton said.
It is a way of transferring the knowledge of years of study to anyone, as is the case with another artwork entitled Sobrevolando el Mar Espectral (Flying over the Spectral Sea). The water, over which a bird soars, is not as you might expect, it has a wide chromatic range. "It symbolises the profound transformation that astronomy underwent with the advent of spectroscopy. Since starlight could be broken down into its spectrum, a great scientific revolution took place, which allowed us to get into the true nature of the stars. Thus began astrophysics, for example, it is now possible to explore the processes that govern the birth, life and death of everything in the cosmos," Troughton said.
With another evocative name, there is Una del Triplete de Leo (One of Leo's triplet) the pictorial translation of the observation of object M 66. This is how phenomena are christened. The letter, in this case, is the first surname of Charles Messier, a French astronomer, and the number is the number it occupies in her catalogue of artworks. The fact is that there are few named galaxies, with exceptions such as Andromeda or the Milky Way, said the artist. "There is a sidereal trio that goes by the name of the 'Leo triplet of galaxies'. This celestial ensemble, located some 35 million light years away, weaves its luminous dance in the vast cosmic tapestry," Troughton pointed out.
And she provides yet another lesson, in the artwork entitled Leaving the Universe: "There are hypotheses that claim that there are infinite parallel worlds, separated by unimaginable distances, beyond a googolplex (10 to the power of 10 to the power of 100 metres). Are there any connections between them? Are there versions of ourselves living radically different lives? Like the scissor-tailed bird taking to the skies, we yearn for a pair of cosmic wings to escape this reality and enter those unknown realms, where the laws of physics and reality might be completely different".
With the reading of the titles, the transmission of knowledge begins. In this artwork, in a rather psychedelic spiral on a black background, yellows, reds and muted blues vibrate. Everything has an astronomical reason. Apart from the dance of colours, there is a kind of bombshell, a break from white towards intense indigo. It is NGC 4981 on a canvas. Two supernovae shone there between 1968 and 2007. In the Milky Way, she pointed out, a similar event occurred in 1572 and 1604, described by Tycho and Kepler. "The glowing star does not come from a distant galaxy, but from our own, it is a beacon that evokes that explosive past," she said.
Troughton's eagerness to bring science to all has opened the door to expert forums, as was the case at a state conference of autonomy, where she participated alongside Nacho Pérez, another of the few in Spain who has taken the same path as the teacher from Torremolinos. "This is the first time that something of this type has been programmed, there have been competitions and exhibitions, but of photography," she said. Troughton, who also paints theorems and Neolithic women, is willing to follow this path, convinced of the "absurdity of the separation of science and literature". "Before, the wise men were astronomers and philosophers," she added.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para suscriptores.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.