Bernardino Celià 1921–1985 was born in Sóller and from a very young age he knew  that his life would be painting. In his canvas he captured the raw, untouched beauty  of Majorca as it was in the mid-20th century. A Majorca almost unchanged in  appearance and tradition for many hundreds of years. A landscape which  Bernardino knew intimately and painted ceaselessly. Self taught, spontaneous and  disciplined, Bernardino enjoyed immediate success upon his first exhibit in 1947 and  quickly became a collected and widely exhibited painter. Bernardino Celia was far  from conventional (he lived an almost 24 hour clock). Bernardino was a raconteur, a  good host, bon vivant, generous and valued companion to his friends. His Sòller  studio doubled as a work space and celebrated social space.   Much of his work featured the Serra de Tramuntana, a landscape which presents  mountains, calas, working farmland and broad open spaces. Bernardino´s paintings  reflect a symbiosis of man and nature – the stillness and purity of Majorca in its last  decades of innocence.

Carmen Celià