From my studio: Antonia Portalo

I was born in a small town in Extremadura, Higuera de la Serena. I spent my childhood there with my six brothers and sisters. I remember one day in particular, at my grandmother María's house, I was very little, maybe 5 or 6, and, as almost always, I was drawing. My grandmother looked at my drawing and showered it with praise, the way all grandmothers in the world do. That day she declared that I would be an artist, and ever since then that has been the goal I've chased my whole life. I'm also an art teacher and I understand how important motivation and encouragement are for children if they're going to fulfil their dreams.

My next memory is a huge box of watercolours my father gave me. I didn't stop using them until they ran out. I would lose myself on the old broken rooftops with my cat, my watercolours and my poems. I was always working on creative projects, dolls made out of all sorts of materials, improvised canvases from T-shirts I tore up, frames carved with a knife in my own way, little sculptures with the clay from the ditches they dug to channel the water, floats for the San Isidro parade with my friends, and so on. My whole childhood was full of dreams that I built myself, making reality a kinder place.

At 13 I was awarded a scholarship to study at the Universidad Laboral de Cáceres. My painting teacher knew how to keep me motivated. I spent the hours of my other classes doing little ballpoint portraits of my classmates.

At 15 I moved to Madrid with my family, my parents wanted to give us all a chance to study. I had to work, like my brothers and sisters, to help support the family. I worked by day and studied by night, always with the aim of training myself to develop my artistic side. The years I spent studying Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid were intense years, I kept working while I studied.

When I finished my studies I wanted to open a parenthesis in my life to start a family. Although I stepped away from painting for a while as a daily need for expression, I always found moments to enjoy it and my family always supported me and encouraged me to do it.

My whole life has revolved around creative and artistic projects. Right now I teach art at a school in Valdemoro (Madrid), I like sharing what I know with young people and children, and they constantly enrich my world. Unfortunately art is nowhere near the most important thing in our education, which strikes me as an enormous mistake.

When and why did you start painting?

I've painted and drawn since I can remember. I've never considered the possibility of not doing it. It's a way of living, of feeling, of expressing yourself. Often a struggle with yourself, between intangible feelings and emotions and the way to give them a shape so you can pass them on.

How do you think a gallery and its artists should help each other?

Galleries and artists should have a warm, interactive relationship. We artists benefit from their shop window and their publicity, and they benefit from our work. It's important to reach a good understanding so we make life easier for each other.

Virtual galleries have now opened up a faster, more convenient way of getting art out there. Artelista in particular and, more generally, some social networks gave me a platform to launch my work and show it to a much wider audience.

What advice would you give artists who are starting to show their artwork?

Artists who are starting to show their artwork should do it without fear, feeling confident about their work and staying true to their way of communicating, we're all different, and that's what makes it rich. It's true that we can't please everyone, "each to their own", and never was it truer. But if on top of that they manage to capture the truth, "Their Truth", they'll have won half the battle.

What is art for you? What part does it play in your life? Do you make a living from art?

Art is the soul that sets out from inside a person to go out into the world and stay there forever, regardless of fashions and tastes, and that artist's soul passes into the other souls that connect with the essence.

That's my definition of art, it's something sublime, hard to explain in words and not understood by the vast majority. Of course, telling what is genuinely artistic from what isn't can be difficult sometimes, all the more so when this "anything goes" attitude mixes in a lot of leg-pulling.

Although I've sold the odd painting, I hadn't focused on making a living from art until a few years ago. I'm starting to get my name out there, exhibiting everywhere that accepts my artwork. I decided the moment had come to show myself after many years of work and I hope I'm lucky along the way.

How did you sell your first artwork? Is there one you feel a stronger connection with?

The first painting I sold was a seascape: it was a commission. I was about 16, and I was really proud, because until then I'd given all my work away.

As for my favourite painting, I'd have to think about it, because to me they're like children, they all have a part of me in them, the good and the not so good, and although it always makes me sad to part with them, they have to become independent and reach other souls that understand them. But there's one in particular that got me going on this adventure, one my husband asked me for, for his new office, and which I painted for him as thanks for his unconditional support, his love, his understanding and above all his patience, because artists aren't usually easy, all that feeling sometimes plays tricks on us.

It's La Creación I, on show in your gallery along with the rest, it was the start of the creation series, the seasons, the maternities and so on.

What are your sources of inspiration? Do you identify with any other artist?

Although I've always been self-taught, in this series Art Nouveau really did inspire me, modernism with its posters and flat colours, Klimt's golds, along with geometry, which is the compositional structure that dominates the artwork.

Picasso, his blue period in particular, inspired Mis desnudos azules, and his Guernica, of course, inspired the very particular version of it that I made.

My artwork has evolved in other directions, my way of working has changed. Now it matters more to convey my emotions than to fuss so much over form, though always respecting the basics of the artistic language. The materials and the formats are different. I prefer to try things and experiment, I think getting stuck is not a good thing, even if it's sometimes mistaken for having a style of your own.

What is it about your creative process that makes it special?

I try to put all my passion into my artwork: I stain, I scratch, I paint, I draw, anything goes when it comes to expressing yourself, without forgetting to think through the form, the composition and the visual elements to use, in order to get to the heart of it. Other artists guided me on this new path and I don't want to miss the chance to thank them. That's the case with my colleague and friend Gonzho, an artist who also exhibits in your gallery.

Have you had any exhibitions lately, what can you tell us? Do you have any projects in mind?

This year is turning out to be intense in terms of exhibitions. The first one I did was a solo show here in Valdemoro, Tiempo de mujer, which opened to coincide with International Women's Day, women being the main subject of my artwork. After that I exhibited in Málaga, through Malakarte, in a group show, Olor a azahar. The artworks are still on show.

I'm currently also taking part in another group exhibition in Barcelona, II Saló de Primavera at Tándem art galery. On 6 May the group exhibition De mi madre by Feeding Art opens in Madrid, and I'll be taking part in that too.

At the end of May, on the 20th, the Aires gallery in Córdoba is showing some of my artwork alongside three other colleagues. And finally, in August I want to take my artwork to my home town, Higuera de la Serena, because I think it's important to go back to my roots and show what I always wanted to do.

Could you recommend us:

An artist:

It's from Impressionism onwards that art has interested me most, I identify more with figuration than with realism. I feel freer to create and change things as I please.

Van Gogh was always my favourite artist, his passion for art, his obsessive search to capture the essence and the soul of things. The overflowing expressiveness of his work, together with his tormented life, made me admire him from childhood, even more so when I read Letters to Theo.

An artwork: As for a favourite painting, I'd go for van Gogh's La Noche Estrellada.

A book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

A film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by David Fincher.

We invite you to visit Antonia Portalo's gallery on Artelista and the review of her artwork.