The Oma Forest

Agustín Ibarrola's Painted Forest, 1993

It was a misty day in 1993 when I arrived at the Oma Forest in Kortezubi, Bizkaia. I was on assignment for the Diari de Barcelona, but what I found there went far beyond any assignment brief. The green was overwhelming—dense, wet, almost breathing—and then, gradually, those touches of man-made colour began to emerge from the trees: geometric shapes, spirals, bands of red, yellow, white and blue, quietly claiming a space that had never been built for art.

What drew me was exactly that: a human being choosing a pine forest as his canvas, not a gallery wall, not a white cube, but the living bark of nearly 800 trees. It is precisely the kind of encounter I look for—humans, nature, and the tension between them.

I worked as I always do: strolling, observing, letting the place encode itself into me before raising the camera. The mist softened the light and flattened the distances, making Ibarrola's painted marks feel almost fluorescent against the dark trunks and ferns. Agustín Ibarrola was present during part of the shoot, composed and quiet among his own painted trees, before returning to his studio. That brief shared presence in the forest was the extent of our encounter—and it was enough.

These images are frozen frames of a place that no longer exists in the form I photographed. Between 2018 and 2019, the original pine trees became diseased due to a fungus, forcing the closure of the forest for safety reasons and the subsequent relocation of the project to a new plot. What you see here is the Oma Forest as it was: a misty morning in 1993, colour meeting nature, a man's vision absorbed quietly into the Basque landscape.

Oma Forest

Agustín Ibarrola standing in a pine forest with a painted yellow arrow on a tree trunk

Agustín Ibarrola, renowned Basque artist, pauses among his painted trees in the celebrated Oma Forest.

 

Tree trunks painted with blue and purple shapes, spirals, and diagonal stripes in Oma Forest.

Blue and purple motifs add vibrancy to the pines, blending abstraction and nature in the Painted Forest.

 

Pine tree trunks in the Oma Forest decorated with purple spiral and striped patterns.

Purple spiral stripes encircle tree trunks, adding mystical energy to the Basque landscape.

 

Pine trees painted with vertical red stripes and yellow diamond shapes along a forest path.

Bright red and yellow geometric shapes energize the path through Agustín Ibarrola’s Painted Forest.

 

Pine forest with trunks painted in zigzag white lines and deep red shapes in the Oma Forest.

White zigzag and red markings on Oma Forest pines reveal Ibarrola's creative play with depth and perspective.

 

Pine forest scene with tree trunks painted in vertical and diagonal stripes of bright colours.

Vivid stripes of yellow, red, green, blue, and white cover tree trunks, transforming nature into a living artwork.

 

Pine trees in the Oma Forest painted with multicoloured horizontal and diagonal bands.

Bright, multicoloured bands enliven the pine trunks, showcasing Ibarrola’s signature style in the Painted Forest.

 

Pine trees in the Oma Forest with zigzag white painted lines on their trunks.

Zigzag white lines painted on tree trunks create visual pathways through the verdant Oma Forest.

 

Tree trunks in Oma Forest painted with large interlocking white circular bands

White rings stretch across pine trunks, creating a seamless optical illusion amid the greenery.