Born in San Diego, California 1964

now lives in San Rafael, California.

                                                              Artist Statement

                                                                      Abattoir:

                                            my exploration of meat through painting

 I’m a self-taught artist. I’ve always been uncomfortable with that description. What I mean to 
say is that I’ve never attended any art or trade school. I’ve made my living since high school 
as a professional illustrator, digital artist, and art director in the entertainment industry.  I’ve 
painted on and off all my life, but over the last seven years have committed myself seriously 
to this work.

 My latest body of work "Abattoir" is an exploration of meat through painting. In the tradition 
of Chaim Soutine and more recently, Jenny Saville or Victoria Reynolds, the theme of meat
has become for me, a gentle madness. Years ago, my wife traveled to Istanbul on a business
trip and brought back amazing photos of the Turkish open markets with hanging meat in the 
butcher shops. I was hooked. Ever since then, this theme has dominated my palette To me, 
the obvious sensual beauty of meat is a worthy subject of tactile and linear observation. 
My hope is that my work directs in both bold and subtle ways the way we perceive beauty 
and ugliness, violence and culture. 

 Most recently I wanted to paint a really large canvas of a carcass where the gestures and 
scale of the work would echo Rembrandt’s slaughtered ox or Soutine’s vibrant bloody bovine
series, so I set out to get my own lovely cow. Now this isn’t as easy as it sounds. I had the 
good fortune to meet and work with Mike Gale, the owner of the Chileno Valley Ranch in 
Petaluma, CA. I was invited to view and photograph two cows being butchered in an open 
field. Until that point, most of my paintings were set in refrigerated slaughterhouses. The 
contrast of settings was very striking. I remember it being a beautiful spring morning and the
light cast a very warm glow on everything. To see these carcasses being prepared in the 
open field was such a thrill for me – the flesh contrasted against the grass, the sky. I remember
being so taken with the images that I had to keep reminding myself to keep taking pictures. 
The colors were so saturated that it gave me more of a feeling that my connection with my 
subject was a more complete and visceral one.I painted a 8 ft by 5ft painting from this scene. 
I was constrained by the size of my work space otherwise I would have gone even larger. It 
was a total pleasure.

Sergio A. Lobato

“The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.”

Lucian Freud