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Born in Cali, Colombia, Francisco Merino studied Tourism and Hotel Management. He launched his own business in the hospitality industry, and later moved to the Caribbean island of San Andrés, where he lived twelve years developing his great passions: painting, gastronomy and deep sea diving. As an accomplished chef and a self-taught artist, Francisco has studied the masters on his own and experimented with technique in his work. He comes from a family of writers and artists including his uncle Hernan Merino, an illustrator, political cartoonist and former drawing instructor of Master Fernando Botero, in Colombia. Francisco’s work has been exhibited widely in Colombia and most recently in New York. His works are included in “Resources of the Imagination: Visual Arts from the Caribbean in Colombia” by Eduardo Marceles Daconte, which will be published in October, 2007. Francisco’s paintings echo his submarine\ explorations and convey simultaneously a sense of speed and tranquility. The protagonists of his works, the fish, glance at times at the viewer with a look that is funny and inquisitive. In other works these marine creatures merge with their environment, resembling sparkles of light. These paintings are a portrait of a diver’s view. They are an instant, skillfully caught, crossing in front of his mask. Francisco lives and works in Brazil.