“When I paint, I forget about my illness, I forget everything,” says Arellano who has diabetes and was recently operated on for cataracts.His paintings have been exhibited in a number of European countries and form part of private collections there, as well as in Nicaragua and other countries of Latin America. The Rural Artists of Solentiname, Nicaragua. That tradition won’t end because now our children are carrying it on. These would later become the first primitivist canvases of Solentiname,” the painter recalls.Rodolfo in turn recalls: “Father Ernesto noticed that there was a talent on Solentiname.
A priest who one fine morning understood that these were magical islands whose inhabitants had been blessed with a very special talent.Elba Jiménez, Arellano’s wife, is a short and slender old woman, so fragile looking that you worry she might break. He formed the Solentiname Development Association to create the tidy communities that visitors see today.
Forty years after founding the artistic community, the first generation of painters is still painting and teaching others. They make toucans, herons, fish, peacocks, and other representations of the wildlife in this paradise, all in bright colors.Mancarrón is also the seat of the utopian community founded by Father Cardenal.
The Solentiname (pronounced so-LEN-teh-NAH-me) archipelago is a cluster of 36 islands near the southern corner of sprawling Lake Nicaragua. Given the beautiful landscapes of the region and abundant wildlife, painters usually create canvases that celebrate nature. She knows first-hand how the primitivist school of art developed, from the time it was discovered by Cardenal and Perez de la Rocha. “We had no schools, no boats,” she said, referring to motorboats.
Also on San Fernando is a haphazardly marked path to a pre-Columbian petroglyph, a volcanic boulder carved with what appear to be intertwining snakes.
Wooden cabins facing the beach serve to house the travelers, attracted not only by the beauty of the place and the possibility of disconnecting from everyday life, but also from the mythology surrounding Ernesto Cardenal.The visitors eat in a common dining room, share the food prepared in the community, all in a communion where the day’s experiences are shared, far away from the controversy currently surrounding Ernesto Cardenal and his legacy.Over the past few months, Ernesto Cardenal has complained of political persecution unleashed against him by the Ortega government. They continue with their routine: the Sunday baseball games, the work in crafts or painting, the motorboat trips to show tourists the attractions of Solentiname.Jeysell, Rodolfo and Elba, the primitivist painters of “It’s because of him that we live with this art of painting here in Solentiname.