PRESENTATION By Luis Peña

It was at the home of a couple of beloved friends, Guayo and Karla where I saw Doniel's Work for the first time and I should say it shocked me in a very positive way. I was drawn immediately to his command of technique and use of color, even more so (give the fact that i wanted to know more of the Artist) when my friends had told me that he was a young Guatemalan Fine Art Representative, contrary to what i had supposed. Not being able to make out his almost imperceptible signature at the bottom of the painting, believing that it was a renowned master, with an old background and lots of experience.

I maintained an interest in his work and few months later I had acquired a couple of paintings by Doniel. We started a friendly relationship to the point that I got involved in designing the catalog for his show at El Túnel Gallery on March the 14th, 2002.

I find a special charm in Doniel's work in it he aspects and characteristics of our colors and traditions gather together without being conventionally folkloric; a distinction he achieves thanks to a combination of his strong sense of magic realism and a subtle suggestion of surrealism with which he composes his themes.

Through the use of hues, textures, expressions and colors in varied scale, Doniel synthesizes characters and elements of our surroundings into compositions. That reflect activities and natures present in our provinces, but that due to the everyday exposure and the frequency with which they present themselves to our inadvertent eyes, we are not able to observe (much less interpret) the magic the artist captures in his work.

Very skillful in the "fade away" pastel technique, Doniel knows how to offer an excellent and rich production. Characteristic in artist with a challenge to search. He keeps himself in constant evolution and change, thereby presenting us Today with a New Series of polychromatic and stylized paintings.
Doniel has a long way ahead of him, he is young, original and his art proposal is fresh, no doubt he will go far.