Born in the mid 40's and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Rafael received early training from the age of 10 in tempera, watercolors and oils.  He attended private ateliers run by local artists.

Entering university when he was 16 years, he continued painting during college and his early career as a professional electrical engineer.

He restarted study and training in oils in 2010 after an interesting period in R & D, corporate management, lighting design and sales.  He has lived and traveled extensively in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the U. S. and Europe.

Artistic tendencies lean towards representational painting.  Favorite subjects are figures, still life, and landscapes. The preferred mediums are oil, watercolor and gouache.

Rafael is a strong advocate of pictorial composition and design.  The same as buildings, paintings need an unseen framework for them to do their task.  For him a painting's purpose is to bring an emotional response to the viewer, perhaps a smile, an old memory, awe, maybe a bit of nostalgia or a whisper of romance.

Most of his studio paintings take considerably longer time in the gestation and planning stage than in the actual rendering.

His statement regarding life and art is:

"We cannot copy reality.  Art at the most can only offer an illusory suggestion that has been filtered and interpreted within the limits of our senses."