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| Biography: |
I was born in Madrid and I think that, on my mother's side, my ancestors from Madrid go back to the seventeenth century, something that, in the case of a city that is so alluvial, should not be very common. My father's family comes from Asturias, from the Council of Salas, a land full of history and myths, castros and enchanted (which is what the xanas call this village).
Links with art I have had since I have use of reason, because I remember how my father instilled in me the admiration I should feel for the magnificent mausoleum of the Colegiata salense that the Grand Duke of Alba entrusted to Pompeyo Leoni, in honor of the Inquisitor General Mr. Fernando Valdés, outstanding son of this corner of the Asturian West. And how not to feel devotion for the Most Holy Christ of Velarde of the cathedral of Oviedo! However, it is my mother, a very cultured woman and an economist like my father, to whom I owe most of my approach to the art world. She took us, from very small, through the different corners of Spain, to see monuments and works of art that I, contemptuously, called "preciousness". -Today we're not going to see more precious things, right mom? - she said, tired of so much history and so much art. But now I understand that these were the roots of my passion for History and for painting. In Geography and History I studied my university studies, specializing in Modern History of Spain, which culminated with the best record of my promotion. From the Hispanic Monarchy of the first half of the seventeenth century and its relationship with the provinces of Ultramar was my Bachelor's Degree and the contents of my Doctoral Thesis, and research and teaching at the university devoted the following years. Ungrateful work, in many cases, the teacher who, I recognize, was undermining my illusions in that area and I was waking up the artist. When do I start painting? I believe that, always, an inclination for painting has been present in me. At home, my older sister and I, as children, made a perfect tandem: she thought stories and I painted them. We made a detective novel like that, with his script and my illustrations; and the comic strips (with vignettes) that we composed and that I still keep with love were infinite. On vacations, from a very young age, she painted Smurfs, Disney characters and portrayed people. My first "serious" portrait, in pencil, was from Charlot, at Christmas 1975, when he died. I was eight years old and I remember that impressed me a lot and I wanted to do my little tribute, painting him in a huge sketchbook. I still have it. I also remember to paint a pen, in class, the face of the teachers (usually, in the form of a caricature), while explaining. There are hundreds of notebooks among the notebooks. I saw that they liked it because they were a reason to be classy and applause at home. A little older, I started caricaturing bullfighters and classical movie actors (other of my great hobbies). I have opted for the bullfighting theme in my oil paintings, because I do not think there is a show more swollen with chromaticism and more inspiring, than that of bullfighting. I try in my paintings, from the bull in the plaza, the bull in the field, in the richness of the pasture of bravo; the bullfighter, with its interiors, and any detail of the ring or the alley, a day of bullfighting. All this exciting world in which all the arts merge, I could not escape my brush. My pictorial background, however, is the above. No assistance to any School of Fine Arts, nor any teacher in the matter. Only my inveterate hobby and, as I always say, a little common sense. Both in the more 140 portraits in pencil and pastel that I have been able to do since that year, as in the oil painting -from the autumn of 2017-, I intend to paint what I see, my reality. This apparent realism is not reduced, therefore, to "repeat" reality, but to paint mine. Heidegger said that "Art is putting the truth into the work"; but I understand it as the truth in each one, which, in the portraits, is the interpretation that I make of the soul of the person portrayed. I want to bring it to light. I want her and me to be present in every stroke or brushstroke that she gives. And is there something that is fuller than the face of a bullfighter? Whether he gets it or not is another story. |
| English speaker: | Si |
| Website: | https://www.palomavelarde.com/ |
| Participation Date: | Jul 22 2019 |