From my studio: Bruno Banalli

I was born in Alguazas, Murcia, 47 years ago, into a humble family. I consider myself a self-taught painter. And as happens in most cases, even as a child I stood out for my creativity and my knack for drawing, which helped me win some of the competitions I entered at school. I remember my passion for comics as a teenager, especially the Marvel ones, which became one of my learning models and helped me understand human anatomy.

When and why did you start painting?

I got into painting as an amateur around the age of 20, after being given a case of oils as a present by my girlfriend at the time. I even took part in a group exhibition or two. But insecurity, a lack of money and the responsibility of finding a future and a job that would let me support a family meant I soon gave up this artistic activity… for a more than considerable stretch of time. Time that I think worked in my favour, giving me the confidence, maturity and strength you can see in my paintings.

So I reckon my serious start in painting comes in 2015, after two years of a hard divorce that turned my life upside down and made me rethink it. That led me to start an inner search which ended in the need to express and bring to light all the repressed or hidden feelings I had in me. So I decided to take a few painting classes at Galería Cobalto with the painter Santi Alfaro Cava, which helped me break out of my shell and, before long, begin my flight from the inside out.

That's why I called my first solo exhibition in 2016 El Despertar, because it marked my reunion with painting, a new opening of my eyes onto a fascinating world that meant rediscovering a creative self I had forgotten after almost twenty years of hibernation.

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

Artists and gallery should go hand in hand. Coldly speaking, the artist is the maker of a product, the paintings in this case, but the artwork needs commercial marketing work to reach the public, and that's where galleries come in. They should care about backing, promoting and spreading the artist's work and the artist's image in a market that is always difficult and competitive.

You can be the best artist in the world, but you have to get yourself seen, through physical galleries, on social media and in virtual galleries like Artelista, which mean your artwork can be seen and bought by someone anywhere in the world

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

My advice to anyone starting out in art, as in anything else they take on, is to be true to themselves. To know how to look inside and paint what really fills them up. Not to be swayed by fads or trends, not to paint to please others. To paint for themselves and to do it with passion, because when you put passion into what you do, in the end that shows in the artwork you create.

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

I sold my first artwork through the gallery Cobalto Art Center, which is the gallery I currently work with for physical artwork and the one in charge of spreading and promoting my work in the USA. I was especially fond of that artwork, of a spot near my house (El Soto de los Álamos), and it was hard to part with it. But I'm also of the opinion that every artwork is like a child, and for that same reason I think that, just like children, the artworks we make have to be let go so they can find their place in the world.

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

For me art is everything we use to express and pass on to others what moves or strikes us in some way, and in my case I do it through painting.

Painting is practically a need. It's my escape, my getaway. My confidant, my obsession. Painting is my lover, when I'm not with her I'm thinking about her. At any hour of the day or night. Any encounter with her is always cause for satisfaction. With my painting I try to convey what I wouldn't know how to say in words.

My income doesn't come exclusively from painting, but, on the other hand, painting takes up an ever more important part of my life.

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

Nature, light, landscape, sky and water, along with the human figure, are my source of inspiration, and I paint them at random or mixed together depending on my mood and on what I want to tell.

I like every kind of art, but I have to admit that the Impressionist movement is the one that has influenced my painting the most, and among my favourite artists I'd single out Monet, Sorolla and John Singer Sargent.

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

As for my artwork, I shouldn't be the one to say whether it's special or different from the rest, but being the good observer I am, I notice how people react when they look at it, and whatever the reason, I know they like it and that it says something to them. And that's what gives me the greatest satisfaction, knowing that my feelings have somehow reached other people.

As a lover of photography too, most of my artworks come from photos I've taken beforehand of places I've been or of situations and moments I've lived. In my mind, and with the help of the photo, I hold on to the sensations I felt, and later, when I find the right moment, I try to take them to the canvas.

Spontaneity arrives at the moment of painting, that is, I don't do a previous, exhaustive drawing, just a few guiding lines with the brush. I go in with an initial idea of what I want. I know how I start, but I never know how I'm going to finish. There comes a point in the creative process when I feel I lose my reason, and that's when the magic happens. It's as if for a while the painting took charge, telling me how I should paint it and my hand obeyed. I want to do one thing and it suggests another, and the result is the fruit of a clash of opinions between reason and heart, which almost always works out well for me.

I don't paint every day, only when I feel I'm carrying something inside that needs to get out. Then I go and put it on the canvas. My paintings are fast, that is, done in a single session (alla prima) and at most two, because I think that if they drag on too long they lose the freshness that creates the visual impact. As if the idea slipped away.

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

Recently, in January this year, I had a solo exhibition with Galería Cobalto in Murcia, and soon I have a project with that same gallery, a group exhibition in San Diego (USA).

After that, in July of the same year, I'm going to take part as an exhibitor in the international art fair held in Málaga (Art Fair Malaga).

Could you recommend us:

An artist: Monet.

An artwork: Cosiendo la vela, by Joaquín Sorolla.

A book: Perfume, by Patrick Suskind.

A film: Cinema Paradiso, by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Thank you very much.

We invite you to visit Bruno Banalli's gallery on Artelista.