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ESPAÑA ON HIMSELF (1991) Hard work and a sense of vocation, these are the most important qualities for an artist, painting is all about dedication. This is the way I think and paint. Being creative and independent, knowing what you want to say to other people. Naturalness, love, pain and human experience, having your own distinct methods of painting and drawing, that is the essence of art. Creativity is important. You cannot simply copy what you know and see. You have to do it in your own way, using your own artistic language. Some people paint well but are not creative. You have to open up and know how you do it. Having the courage to be different, that is the way to do it, giving your pictures that certain something. A painter or artist who puts something of himself in his work, whose pictures give other people a sense of life, something that is more than simply soulless technical drawing, that is a true artist. He imparts his style, a certain poetry and his personality to other people, and I think this is a very good thing. When I paint I put all of me into it and I take pleasure in what I am doing, or suffer. My whole being is filled with emotion. I always wanted to be a painter. Drawing is a compulsion for me. Ever since I was born I have carried the line inside me and even as a child colours were the thing that gave me the greatest enjoyment. I have always admired the great draughtsmen. Having your own drawing and seeing it is simply tremendous. For me drawing is my artistic language. I communicate with others through my drawings. You can say such a lot with your own lines! Providing you know how to use them of course. Colour is a means of expression but also of escape and the artist uses it according to his feelings and desires. Drawing meanwhile is the foundation stone of art. Looking for a message is something else again. I simply paint and express myself in my own way: as a man of the south, which is exactly what I am. I have carried the light of my country inside me since I was born there. Whether I'm in Malaga, Castile or the north, my perception is the same, only the time and place around me change. But I do not stop being myself. I am very interested in people, in their doubts, their struggles and their joys. Without meaning to, all this comes out and is reflected naturally in my pictures. People find messages and suchlike in them. I paint. To me the picture is something else. A way of feeling, of expressing myself. And when it goes on its way and touches other people, that makes me even happier. The secret in a work cannot be learnt. The artist carries it inside himself from the moment he takes his first steps as an artist or painter. The artist is a person who moves in a particular society, a particular time. He too is affected by and interested in all the love and pain and everything else which goes on in this world and - sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally - this comes out in his paintings, his work, this secret which other people sense when they look at his pictures. The artist always has doubts because he sets himself such high standards. And this dissatisfaction spurs him on to find things and work creatively. Being a painter involves constant struggle. Those who love and esteem art have noble minds. Monotony tires me, which is never a good thing, least of all in art. Painting and drawing should find fresh expression and personality in their interpretation. Dedication and hard work are my guiding principles. The great masters I particularly like and admire are Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Goya, Michelangelo, El Greco.
• Julian Sesmero Ruiz – Crossing Space • Peter Killer – Pepe España, Expression and Forcet • back |
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