The other day, I stopped in at the studio of Toronto artist Francisco Gomez.

A detail from Empire of Dust, Macca, 2009. All images: VoCA

Born in Caracas Venezuela, he moved to Canada in 1991 and studied at OCAD. Gomez generally works in ink and pastel on mylar – an unusual combination that Gomez tells me is difficult, since the pastel resists the mylar after a certain point, but it’s a very clean, effective look. I can see why he likes it.

A detail from Empire of Dust, Macca, 2009.

You can find his work at Art Interiors, where there are a number of floral works, but the large scale animal paintings that he brought out in his studio are from the series Empire of Dust and are much, much more interesting, to my eye.

Empire of Dust, Macca, 2009.

They are wonderfully drawn & painted, quite magnificent, gothic works of (mostly) tropical beasts and flora inspired by literary influences including Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Ovid’s Metamorphosis and Schopenhauer’s On the Suffering of the World.

More works from the series Empire of Dust.

Artist Francisco Gomez with the works. Here you can see how large they are.

Other works including from the series Architecture of Being.

The studio wall.

Some inspiration for the burning fire works Gomez is currently working on.