Biography
About the artist Juan Martinez
Self-taught painter with a rather atypical background who has always practiced painting and drawing since his youngest age. Lives in Lot-et-Garonne. Later, he lived in the north of Yorkshire in England, where he still has works on display.
He has an art education from Harrogate College in North Yorkshire, England.
He often says that painting helps him express his emotions, that he draws on his subconscious and thus transmits his ideas by sharing them.
His works are marked by the intensity of bright and saturated colors. He tries to convey emotional ideas, while seeking connectivity in the composition.
The story of the artist Juan Martinez
"Since my childhood, very young, I loved to draw. I suppose it was to invent new friends for myself. I did not try to copy identically, but just to let my creative thoughts draw something that would resemble a more or less familiar shape. Drawing for me was a kind of escape from loneliness.
I remember painting a mural during my years at the technical high school. It was in the foyer, I had painted an excerpt from 101 Dalmatians while my classmates painted more Rock'n Roll works. But why 101 Dalmatians, but because I mastered the form; the pencil stroke.
Many years passed and here I am, after a back operation, discovering watercolors. That was in 1988.
I bought my first Rafael brushes, which I still have, and my first pans of Winsor and Newton extra fine watercolours. I improved and became more and more interested. I learned almost everything by myself. I am a pure autodidact. I paint for myself and for my friends, my family.
1993, I left to work in England and stayed there for a while. The years went by very quickly, but I still continued with watercolors.
2017, I decide to take the plunge and exhibit my watercolors to a wider audience. I am still in England and I exhibit for the first time at an exhibition organized in an old train station. I am very proud of my adventure.
Over the years, I continue this exciting adventure. I document myself on new techniques used in watercolor by contemporary watercolor masters.
Due to personal reasons; I am back in France at the end of 2020. We are in the middle of COVID. I am moving in the middle of COVID. From one week to the next, Great Britain and France are paralyzed again.
September 2021, after contracting COVID, I exhibit my works in a gallery in Entre-deux-mer in Monségur.
I met quite a few artists, in particular, I became friends with Marina Desportes and Annabelle de Miras.
We exhibit together with the gallery and then without the gallery.
June 2022, we have our first exhibition at the Citadel of Blaye in Gironde, France. From there, my adventure as an artist continues. Three years and some dust that I have lived in France, I am quite proud of my more or less chaotic and so exciting artistic journey."
— Juan Martinez, Visual Artist.