From my studio: Álvaro Suárez Vértiz

This week in the "From my studio" section, painter Álvaro Suárez Vértiz.

My father was Director of the National School of Fine Arts and I spent a large part of my life, my childhood and my youth in the Suárez Vértiz Painting Studio. Where every material and medium to do with art was within my reach. Being the eighth of twelve siblings, I was the one my parents decided should be an artist.

2. What time of day do you prefer for painting? How much time do you devote to painting?

I make the most of daylight. I don't like putting down colour at night, only drawing or lines without colour. The time I spend painting varies, no less than four and no more than twelve hours on average, though I have had jobs of four or five weeks without stopping.

3. Of all the paintings you have painted, which is your favourite? Why?

It's hard for me to decide which is my favourite. One of them is the Quijote con los molinos viento that I did in 2011, the Quijote y los molinos de viento from 2006, El toro enamorado de la luna, and I have some small paintings hanging in the bathroom that I also consider very good. Maybe I think of them as having a lot of artistic value because of the colour, the looseness of the line, which stand out more among the rest.

4. There have been great artists in the history of art. Who would you have liked to be?

I would have to choose between Pablo Picasso and Joaquín Sorolla. But I think I'd lean more towards Picasso, whom I think very highly of for his infinite creativity, his colour, his different periods, the many schools he created and his huge output, for being a complete artist: painter, sculptor, ceramist, engraver, etc. And on top of that he was born on 25 October, like me. You could talk about Picasso for hours.

5. What is or are your sources of inspiration?

Well, mostly I look for whatever is playful. I carry movement and a decisive stroke in the lines, looking on the canvas for what brings out my spirit, and often it flows unconsciously.

6. Of all the artistic movements, which one has the greatest influence on your artwork?

I think my artwork is classed within surrealism, but the style I have been working with for some years now, I call it Garabaticismo. It's a school that doesn't exist, and I believe I created it.

7. What does art mean to you? What part does it play in your life?

For me art is the pleasure of being able to create harmonies, movements, poetry, beauty, messages by any medium, be it painting, sculpture, music, dance and many other forms of art like conceptual art, which is very much in fashion right now. The part it plays in my life is connected to everything I do. For example, I apply it to palaeontology when reconstructing my fossils, and I feel like I hear music when I paint in my colours.

See the artworks by Álvaro Suárez Vértiz