Maria Villares at her first individual exhibition introduces in her works a profound confrontation of exuberant cromative painting with firm and direct design. The maturity exhibited in her works clearly shows her obstinate dominance of the art forms. Her paintings portray an underlying profound knowledge of traditional techniques that is supported by the results of her artistic experiments. She exhibits impulsiveness and restraint, lyricism and dramatics: “faithful efforts and intentional suprises” (G.Bachelard).
The poetry of Maria Villares envolves the resistant struggle of materials in the process of transformation. The battle of be or not to be is what inspires her creativity.
From the early days of her children she envolved herself with ceramics, creating utilitarian objects until she immersed herself in sculpture. Combining her  expertise of painting with sculpturing in bronze she created works that portray botanical images of seeds and tree barks, enameled earthy globules surrounded by wrinkled metal. Tiny objects loom out free from obvious grandeur.
The change from pottery to watercolor occurred after a period of intense personal turbulence. In an improvised studio with no natural light, the artist dedicated herself to charcoal and chalk drawing, and on leaving this restricted area for a larger environment, colors exploded into her creations.
We now arrive at her dry aquarium phase, source of plastic inspiration, from where the images of her future work evolve. Maria collected in glass containers souvenirs from the strolls along her native beaches, shells, peri-winkles, pebbles, driftwood, and pieces of rocks. From these objects she captured the joy of exquisite shapes and color, caused by the eroding sea and wind. We are presented with an archaic beauty.
Her watercolors and then her oil paintings resulted from her contemplation of these simple objects. Her watercolor shapes form subtle compositions accentuated by well articulated strokes. Initially on her canvasses the translucent techniques of her watercolors were maintained. Having surpassed the transition to the new technique, the working area began to grow and she opted for oil. The density of her paintings is enhanced by the application of various layers and through the addtion of other materials. Her colors vary throughout the chromatic scale until saturation. The firm unhesitant strokes energizes her painting. Her recent works bring out the uniqueness. The way she uses material and paint, enhances her creativity.
In 1992 during a trip to Northern Brazil the artist collected driftwood. She portrayed in a series of small drawings this driftwood eroded by the sea sand and wind.

The aggressive action of Nature formed furrows and grooves. Bulges and hollows formed on previously smooth surfaces, created tortured shapes; a history was engraved in these shapes.
On her return to São Paulo Maria Villares transformed these small sketches on a far larger scale onto paper, canvas or polyester. It was the beginning of a new phase.

These relics take the shape of ancestral beings dramatically transformed in Black or white or shaded Gray. They float like meteorites. Alone or in couples they appear whimsically from empty space, approaching slowly or emerging from a turbulence of light. The work of Maria Villares matures. From small forms it bursts with impact into greater dimensions bringing together hugeness with minute detail, painting with drawing. Exposed to the immensity of the cosmos we are made aware of our insignificance.

Maria Villares