Alma Ramirez painted a mural, “River Reverie,” for the St. Johns County Building Department earlier this year, celebrating Northeast Florida’s waterways. Her admiration and respect for nature is evident in her work. Her beautiful creations evoke feelings of joy, peace and calm.
Ramirez studied Fine Arts in Mexico, later lived in Germany and moved to Florida in 2014. She was captivated by the beauty of Florida and the ocean. In the past, she focused on realism and painting portraits. After becoming a mom in 2013, she stepped away from painting for a time and focused on photography.
While painting was her first love, she enjoyed taking pictures of the sunset on walks with her son at the beach. Ramirez said that one day, while she was taking a picture, the camera slipped from her hand and landed in the ocean. She retrieved the camera and decided to deal with it later.
When she looked through the memory stick, she found that the picture she had taken was pixelated but had still captured the vibrant colors of the sunset. Ramirez was inspired to paint again, and the pixelated photograph inspired the contemporary visual language that became her signature style. She said the incident was as an invitation to find beauty in brokenness.
Her first collection of her new style was featured in Plum Gallery in St. Augustine.
Ramirez’s mural, “River Reverie,” features a peaceful scene of Florida’s ecosystem alongside St. Augustine’s architecture, which balances the human-made world with nature. Both are important to our history, Ramirez said. The birds and manatees represent the value of protecting life in our ecosystem.
Ramirez’s artistic process begins with brainstorming color palettes and new ideas. She starts creating by sketching and typically starts three or four paintings at a time. Currently, she is continuing to study abstraction, landscape and color.
Through her work, Ramirez hopes to inspire a sense of peace, joy and reflection. She believes beauty can be found in imperfection and that even brokenness can become the beginning of something meaningful.
To learn more, go to alma-ramirez.com.
