Mario Castillo was born in the city of San Pedro Sula, north of the country in 1932. is another artist who had to leave the country to be convinced of his virtues. His artistic training came directly from the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. In 1958, upon graduation, he returned to Honduras to meet the same fate as Hooch and Becerra: to become a professor at the Honduran Fine Arts Academy. Now, unlike them, Castillo returned to stay and teach art to future generations.

Mario Castillo is considered by critics as being the best portrait artist in Honduras. He has continuously and actively participated in many expositions in Honduras and other countries. He is a permanent expositor at the Foundation for the Museum of the Honduran Culture. Among his well deserved awards are the Honorary Mention in the First Annual Gallery for Painting; diploma granted in the First Painting Contest by the National Autonomous University of Honduras; the Great Prize of the IV Annual Gallery for Painting in Tegucigalpa; and the San Vito Romero Medal granted in Italy. In 1995 he received the José Miguel Gómez Golden Crown granted by the foundation for the Museum of the Honduran Culture. On May 1996 he was chosen by Trio’s Gallery to participate at the Biennial Exposition of Central American Galleries in Guatemala.

Honduran Painter, Julio Visquerra was born in 1943.

He arrived in Europe in the ’60s, after graduating from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Honduras. In Spain, Barcelona he established his workplace and hub, from where he could travel to the neighboring countries, mainly France.

Visquerra’s mission in Europe was not to study more art, but to identify and be identified with the Renaissance realism, Baroque and Surrealism. He visited local museums, galleries and artist workshops regularly to achieve his goal.

On his return in 1988, his painting was already final, codified in theme and style “through the creation of images such as fruit or Mediterranean barroque flowers …” according to the historian Leticia Oyuela.

Gregorio Sabillón was born in 1945. His works may be associated by location and language to the artist Julio Visquerra, as both went to Barcelona to learn the ways of Surrealism art style.

In 1971, three years after his arrival in Spain, his work seemed to express his true inspirations and ideas, as stated in the book Honduras: overview of his painting.

That year, his work took a major turn away from figuration, enough to provide an abstract painting, endowed with mysterious and delicate colors, a concept he followed until 1974.

After showing an inclination to the neofigurative branch at the end of the 70′s, he began creating works of art with a surrealism style, which is the artistic line he is currently focused in.

Enjoy a tour of the Lenca Museum in Comayagua. This virtual tour is very interesting since it talks about the history of the Lencas. Since the video is in Spanish, I have transcribed it in English, you can read this summary of what is shown on the video, I hope you enjoy this virtual visit.

The Museum of anthropology and history in Comayagua, is the only museum in Honduras that has information about the history of the Lencas. Comayagua was the capital of Honduras from 1824 until 1880, when the capital was moved to Tegucigalpa, current capital of the country.

When you see the video the first images inside the house, are of fossilized bones of sloths and jaguars that lived in the region. Also, you will be able to see some petrified sea shells, which leads to believe that a long time ago the main land was covered by the ocean.

Lenca Prehistoric Art of Honduras– Arte Rupestre

The first carved stone was found near the Yohoa Lake in the center of Honduras, it has the image of a feathered serpent, which symbolized the fertility of the land and abundance of water.

Behind the carved stone we can see a replica of caves found in La Paz, which are around 14,000 years old, making it the oldest cave in America that contains pictographic drawings. The Lencas were nomads, so this is why the archeologist have found paintings and sculptures all over the country. The paintings were used to teach children the importance of the ceremonies, in one of the paintings it is possible to observe that the whole tribe, several snakes and the shaman are painted on the stone. Also at the bottom right hand corner, we can see a painting of a ball, which leads the archeologists to believe that the Lencas invented the ball game that the Mayans are famous for. The Mayans came to this region 400 year later than the Lencas.

The main archeological finding of the Lencas is known as Chircal or Miravalle Village. On the video you can observe a model with one pyramid and several houses of the village, the Lencas had to leave their village because a volcanic eruption in El Salvador.

Lenca Cermics and Colored Pottery

First, we can see several small carved stones used to make tattoos and several small statues. Then it is possible to observe different types of pottery with drawings. The pottery usually uses three colors: black, brown and white. Also, the Lencas made collars and earrings of jade and other types of stone.

In the final room, which used to be part of the president’s main office, we can see several oil paintings. In the room we can see that now different types of clothing used by the Lencas are being displayed. If you continue to see the video, there will be no more objects used or made by Lencas. All of the other rooms contain objects of the time that the museum was the presidential house when Comayagua was the capital of Honduras.