Artists

Interview with Alejos Lorenzo

How did you come to art, or how did art come to you?

Since my childhood I liked to draw and I was fascinated with a cartoonist who went on TV during a children’s program. Then I began to copy everything I saw at home: pots, chairs, people, etc. I feel art deeply but I can only express myself more or less well through drawing and painting. Music is perhaps the art that attracts me the most: I prefer a good music concert than going to a painting exhibition. I understand art as something essentially spiritual, very connected in some way with religion and I believe that this is the only valid objective.

Ya puedo sentir el mar, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

In which way does music inspire your work?

Music is the kind of art that has the most influence on me and with which I identify the most, even though I am a painter. That’s why I always say that the artist who most influences me is Mike Oldfield, a British musician. I am a big fan of him and I have been following him since I was 5-6 years old, which is more or less the age when I started to draw.

Art is for me a path that can not be separated from the artist’s life, it is his way of expression and communication, at the same level as speech or writing, but in a different way. I like to think that on that vital path, painting is like a set, a stage, while music is the light that illuminates the path. I do not conceive one without the other. I still remember that on my eighth birthday I asked my parents to buy me a small electronic keyboard instead of my first bicycle… but playing music is almost impossible for me. In my opinion, musicians are the most expressive and direct artists. I value their work very much.

En la piscina, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm

When working on a new project, what are the first steps you take?

Actually I do not work in a methodical way, because art is for me the opposite: a confrontation or distancing with “reality”, not to destroy it but to try to improve it, starting with oneself. Mark Sandman of the Morphine group sang that “someday there will be a cure for pain” and I believe that this cure is none other than art. It’s like a kind of drug that heals. Personally, I let life inspire me. The initial idea can arise from an infinity of places: browsing a magazine, listening to music, playing with my children, traveling physically or through the net, etc. I’ve always been very curious and observant, I like to look at those little details that often go unnoticed, but that make you reflect on many issues.

Do you change your techniques from time to time?

When I was little I liked to draw with pencil and little by little I incorporated new techniques: dry pastel, charcoal, ink. Then one day came when I felt the need to paint in oil, I was 18 years old, I went down to the supermarket and bought a canvas, a black oil painting and a brush. Later I started adding colors, always in a self-taught way, as I am very stubborn and I like to learn and achieve things by myself. I firmly believe that in the effort lies a great part of the success that can be achieved, such as mastering a technique or achieve a style of your own in which you see yourself reflected. Now I paint with acrylics on canvas, because I like cleaning and coloring very much. I also like IT and computer science a lot, which is why I often start doing the sketches directly with the iPad or image editing programs.

Se acerca el verano, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

What have been the highlights of your artistic career?

Although it is true that there are works of mine in important collections and I have exhibited in places that were initially unthinkable for me, I think that the most outstanding aspect of my artistic career has not been in the artistic field, but in the (rather abrupt) change that I experienced in my life. A few years ago several facts made me abandon my profession as a Technical Architect within the furniture design and distribution company that I created, to dedicate myself fully to the three most important things in my life: my family, painting and music.

Alejos Lorenzo’s profile on Singulart:https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/alejos-lorenzo-2011

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