This sketch dates from early in the career of Miki Leal, following the success of his Balada Heavy ['Heavy Ballad'] exhibition, at which his work was first shown in Madrid, though he was already a big hit in his home town of Seville with the Richard Channing Foundation. It contains all the essential features of his work. It is fresh in appearance, though it is painted on paper, with pace and simple motifs, but also an attractive hint of intrigue. He is a great jazz fan. In his painting he seems to recreate a melodic structure in his main themes and to produce memorable choruses, but every verse is left open to instil in the viewer a sense of anticipation for the final explosion that completes the composition.

The iconography from which he draws inspiration is highly varied but recognisable in his work. He uses motifs drawn from pop art, from US lifestyles, from music and even from his interest in philosophy. Leal sifts all these factors through the filter of his own life experience and attachments with his customary boldness and impassioned touches of colour, which are clear evidence that he emerged from the Seville school. He is a 21st century artist, but from Seville. The blend of ingredients could not be more varied or more global.

Beau Brummell (2008) is a case in point. The theme takes us into the world of the dandy and of fashion, set off by a hint of arrogance that the artist is perhaps borrowing from his subject; Beau Brummell, born in the late 18th century, was a member of the British court whose style and attitude led him to become friends with the Prince of Wales. He is said to have been an ingenious, original show-off with good taste and a forceful personality. Who knows whether we might be looking at the alter ego of the artist himself, as he paints the so-called 'arbiter of style' without actually depicting him? What is important is what he represents rather than the person himself. This can be seen as a metaphor for Miki Leal's work, in which the intangible predominates over the visible.

Jorge Pallarés