Pio De Lima

I have been making art since 2001 — not as a hobby, but as a discipline. Over 25 years I have worked across acrylic on canvas and wood panel, pen and ink, and my own developed approach to Prismacolor wax-based colored pencils on multi-layered textured paper — a technique in which each element of a composition is individually hand-cut, colored, and assembled, creating work that is part drawing, part construction, entirely original.

My subjects are drawn from the natural world. Wildlife — birds of prey, desert animals, exotic species — rendered with what I call the Honesty of the Eye. Not idealized. Not decorative. Observed, studied, and built by hand with materials chosen for permanence.

I work in small format deliberately. A 7x5 inch piece demands the same commitment as a canvas ten times its size — every mark is visible, every decision permanent. There is nowhere to hide in small format work, and I find that discipline clarifying.

Original art is a physical asset. In a world increasingly made of pixels and approximations, a hand-made object that took hours to build and will last generations is not a commodity. It is a record — of a moment in nature, and of the hand that captured it.

Every piece I make is signed, dated, and one...

Independent Study in Fine Art — 2000–Present

• College of the Desert Street Fair — Palm Desert, CA (2002–2009)
• Under the Umbrellas Street Fair — La Quinta, CA (2002–2009)