From my studio: Elena Barón

I was born in Ayamonte (Huelva) in the seventy-somethings (I don't like giving away my age), but I lived in Seville all my life and in 2007 I moved to Madrid. I'm also very attached to Extremadura through my mother's family. As a teenager I took classes at a fine arts school in Seville and although I got a good artistic grounding, I consider myself practically self-taught, constantly learning, researching and experimenting.

Art has always been my calling, but, influenced by the people around me, I studied Agricultural Engineering in Seville (and far from regretting it, it has enriched me in every way). When I finished my degree I moved to Madrid to work as an engineer, until I decided to drop everything and change course, jumping on the "Slow Movement" bandwagon and heading towards what really makes me happy, art.

My hobbies include music, film and food, and every now and then I take part, with great success, in a project of collaborative-economy gastronomic experiences.

When and why did you start painting?

For as long as I can remember, I've been creating. Even as a little girl the grown-ups nicknamed me "the artist". At primary and secondary school I stood out in a few artistic areas such as dance, writing and, of course, painting, winning every competition I entered.

I had a break during university and the years after that and, although I never stopped painting, it's only been two and a half years since I've devoted myself to it fully and started showing my artworks to the public. It was thanks to the crisis that my way of seeing life changed, and even though before I had more security, more money and a good salary every month, I wouldn't swap it for the freedom and the happiness that art gives me.

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

For now I feel very comfortable going it alone and at the moment I'm only on online galleries. Just as everything is changing with new technologies, art must change too, and it is. It's a more democratic way than conventional galleries, with its advantages, people all over the world can see your work, and its disadvantages, users have no physical interaction with the pieces, for example.

As for the conventional ones, I have mixed feelings, I know there's a lot of truth in them, but also a lot of lies. There's a lot of snobbery, a lot of pulling strings, a lot of marketing product, a lot of tall tales, a lot of nonsense, and I also think there are many good galleries where a total and fruitful symbiosis exists, where both sides win in every sense. There are so many new and old talents still to be discovered and it's such a subjective world...

To make a decent living from art it seems you need a godfather. By the way, here's a wink and a chance to say that I'm open to worthwhile offers from any godfathers/galleries reading this!

I'd like to see more of a bet on women, who, as in other professions, still don't have the place and the recognition they deserve.

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

They should be the ones giving me advice, really... I'm extremely optimistic but with my feet on the ground. Based on my experience I'd say: first of all, have self-respect and believe in yourselves if you think you have the necessary qualities and abilities, never lose the excitement, be very patient because art and haste don't get along, and be steady and tenacious.

Just as you get to know yourself as a person, you have to get to know yourself as an artist, and you must never stop learning. But above all, enjoy your art without letting anything or anyone influence you, because it's a great stroke of luck to have one of the most complicated and at the same time most rewarding professions.

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

The first artwork I sold was a commission for someone I knew, but it was the second one I sold, to a stranger, that gave me the most emotion, excitement and motivation, it was Trópico 2 and I sold it on Artelista in 2014, not long after signing up to the site. Although every one I sell gives me an indescribable satisfaction, especially when they travel to countries I haven't even been to (let me take the chance to thank everyone who has bought a piece of mine, I hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoyed painting them).

Right now there are two artworks with a special sentimental value for me, from my early days, and they are Montañas de perros and Vestida de campo. They're precisely the ones with a higher price than the rest, because I couldn't part with them for less.

What is art for you? What part does it play in your life? Do you live off art?

Right now I'm lucky not to depend exclusively on my income from art, and let's say that if I did depend on it I could "survive" financially. What's beyond doubt is that I do live by and for art.

Despite my short experience as a professional artist showing my work to the public, I feel very satisfied and proud of the path I've taken, I think I have good prospects, edging my way in little by little and getting the greatest recognition an artist can have: that my artworks sell.

Of course my aim is to get as far as possible and to be able to keep creating all my life. I'll have made it when my only worry is, for example, that I've run out of Naples yellow and not the money side of things.

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

I don't identify with any artist in particular but I do with all of them in general, classical and contemporary, established and emerging... Learn from everyone without imitating anyone, creating a personal stamp.

The love I share with my partner and life alongside him is my main source of inspiration and motivation. He's my "muse". Neither of us would be the same without the other. We're a team, we complement each other and we chase our dreams together (this year we're getting married after 19 years. That's why, in some of my artworks, I like to paint the two of us in the distance, walking together).

Among my other sources of inspiration is nature above all (it has influenced me since I was a child), my travels, my dreams, my longings and everything that makes me tingle.

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

Maybe that I have no particular habit, and I don't follow the established rules, I just let myself go, depending on the moment, on what I feel like. I enjoy painting, I have a blast, for me it's like playing.

My creative process is very varied, my mind never stops, day or night, in fact many times the artwork has been in my head longer than it takes me to make it real. Other times it's pure improvisation, or a mix of both. I get bored if I always paint the same thing in the same way, I need to keep changing, to try new things. I never settle for what I already know.

I need my studio to be in my house, so I don't have a set timetable and I do have all the hours in the world. The only thing I miss is a bigger house-studio, because it limits how many large-format artworks I can paint (there's hardly room to swing a cat now).

I like to look at the artworks before going to sleep and to retouch them at any moment, sometimes I even forget to eat. I like living with my art.

I paint on the floor, on an easel, on the wall, on tables, indoors, outdoors, with sketches or without them, with all kinds of implements, lately, for example, using cooking techniques and making my own tools. I paint abstract and figurative but I don't like painting reality as it is, I like inventing the settings and transforming my world.

I think one life won't be enough to develop all the artworks my imagination hands me!

Have you had an exhibition recently, what can you tell us? Do you have any project in mind?

In fact, I've only just started my professional career as an artist and even with the recognition I've had, I still have a long road ahead, this is a long-distance race that never ends...

I exhibited recently in Barcelona, but right now I'm only devoting myself to painting, without worrying too much about exhibiting, and besides, this year I don't have the time because of the wedding preparations.

On the other hand I'm a bit reluctant to exhibit just for the sake of it, and although I have the chance to do it in restaurants and other kinds of venues, cultural centres or savings banks, they're a risk for the artworks, a financial cost for the artist and, generally speaking, I think they only serve to add lines to your CV. I've also received plenty of offers to exhibit in galleries abroad, provided I pay up first...

After my wedding I'll look at the offers that seem most interesting, both from galleries and to exhibit inside and outside Spain. For now, carrying on creating and creating is my most immediate project.

Could you recommend us:

An artist: Lita Cabellut "La gitana".

An artwork: El beso by Gustav Klimt.

A book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (I've reread it loads of times and I think it's more for adults than for children).

A film: Out of Africa (classic) and The Broken Circle Breakdown (recent).

Many thanks to Artelista.

We invite you to visit Elena Barón's gallery on Artelista.