An old refrain goes, “How blue is the ocean, how blue is the sky?” We suspect this was ruminated on by Barcelona-born Joan Punyet Miró, grandson of the celebrated Catalan surrealist Joan Miró, in a reflective murmur.

For Miró, everything is blue. The color is not just pigment — it is pure emotion, evocative atmosphere and treasured memory. In this tropical archipelago which reminds him so deeply of his native Mallorca, he dreams of Manila and the Mediterranean — oceans blending and skies converging over the horizon.

He has radiantly splashed on Manila’s vibrant art scene with a breathtaking exhibit that is, quite literally, true blue. Entitled Punyet L’Azur: A Homage to Mallarmé, the 10-piece series — painted entirely in humid climate of our islands, which assisted in its rapid drying process — is on view at León Gallery International, another Jaime Ponce de León coup. It is a homage to poetry, to legacy and, most visibly, to blue.

As the only nieto of the inimitable Joan Miró — whose masterpieces hang in the hallowed walls of prestigious museums from Paris to New York and who shared 20th-century artistic brilliance with Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Marcel Duchamp — Joan Punyet Miró has long lived within the shadows and spotlight of greatness.

Like grandfather, like grandson, he is a multi-disciplinary creative — once a musician, performer, sculptor, poet, even exhibitionist. But today, he is solely un pintor, channeling all his energies through canvas, and the purest shades of cobalt, cerulean, navy and ultramarine.