From my studio: Felipe San Pedro

My name is Felipe San Pedro. I was born in Madrid in 1954, and this is the city where my life has taken shape, both personally and professionally. I studied Advertising and that was my profession until now, since I've retired. Ever since I was a child I loved drawing and painting, and despite having had a very demanding profession, I've always kept a space for my love of painting. For many years now I've been going to painting classes with my teacher Jose Luis de Antonio, though more than going to class what we do is get together as friends who share the same artistic concerns and share them in class.

I'm also learning at the official ceramics school run by Madrid City Council. It's an ideal complement to any artistic development, you handle volumes and dimensions that take shape in a different way than in a painting, and above all you keep on learning, which is an attitude that has always guided me.

When and why did you start painting?

I started painting seriously about 20 years ago at the school I mentioned. There Jose Luis introduced me to technique but also to creativity, to a way of seeing painting, to how to interpret an idea, a vision, an object, a portrait or a landscape. He also taught me to use photography and the technology computers offer to prepare things before starting an artwork. There are a lot of important things to do before facing a canvas, choosing the subject, interpreting it, fitting together a vision you've had. And that's the most important thing Jose Luis de Antonio taught me.

Why I started painting isn't so clear, it was a need to do something different from what you do in your working life, you need an escape from the everyday, and painting offered me something interesting, artistic, easy to do and not requiring big investments. And most importantly, it gives you a satisfaction that few hobbies can.

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

I don't have a gallery, so I can't say much. The truth is I've tried and I always run into an upfront investment that's hard to get around. Painters like me usually can't cover an initial outlay to guarantee the gallery a sure early profit. I think galleries and painters should share the risk hand in hand. In principle the gallerist should give the artist the chance to exhibit without any outlay, and then base their profit on commissions from any sales.

Lately I've been offered the chance to take part in international fairs where up front you have to pay out something like 1,500 euros to send 3 paintings, and I certainly can't do that.

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

Not to be swayed by the artistic currents of the moment. Every painter or artist has to respect themselves, and if we like exploring a path that isn't in fashion, we should keep going down it. We can't buy into the prevailing herd mentality, "what's in right now" will be old in a year and will probably be bad, because it will have come out of a commercial drive and not from each artist's own independent artistic feeling.

How did you sell your first artwork?

I sold my first artwork at an exhibition I put on in a bar in the Lavapiés neighbourhood. It was really exciting and, above all, fun, because all my friends came to the exhibition and it turned into a very interesting get-together.

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

For me art is an escape from monotony. I like painting, but I also really like seeing work by other colleagues, by other artists, I love going to exhibitions, to museums. Fortunately, Madrid offers plenty of chances to see and enjoy, both the big museums like the Thyssen, the Prado or the Reina Sofía and other spaces that, though more modest, are doing very interesting work to spread art. I love the Fundación Mapfre programme, for example.

I don't make a living from art, I wish I could, but no. As I said, I'm retired and now I throw myself into painting, but sales don't allow me to have art as my main source of income.

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

My sources of inspiration are my experiences, my trips, my outings, my walks. I get around my city by bike, and that gives me the chance to see everything from another angle, the streets, the people, the light of Madrid. I try to capture it all with my camera and then I work the image a lot on the computer, so that when I go to paint I have a fairly close idea of what I'm going to do, although the act of painting always takes you somewhere very different from where you thought you'd land.

I like Sorolla a lot, in fact I live opposite his house museum, and I love strolling through its rooms and its garden. I think he was a great painter, a bit misunderstood and above all a very hard worker. I also admire Hopper and Sargent, two phenomena who have influenced me and will keep on influencing me, it's worth letting yourself be carried along by them.

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

I don't have any particular secret. I like observing and choosing the subject as a result of an experience, everything I paint I've seen, I've taken it in in real life, objects, landscapes, people. I don't make anything up, the creative process always starts from an image I've photographed myself, I always see a painting through the lens, it's a flaw of mine that means I always lug a camera around. Then the creative process is a mental working-over of the image, helped by the computer or simply by choosing a particularly interesting framing.

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

My last exhibition was in Majadahonda, they have a very interesting exhibition space in the town hall, in the Casa de Cultura, and the people there are very helpful, very interested in spreading culture in their town. I really enjoyed it and I sold quite a lot too. Now I'm preparing an exhibition to hold in Comillas (Cantabria), I met the culture councillor the other day and the exhibition may happen in the summer, and I'm also in talks with the Casa de Cultura in Colombres about exhibiting in the summer. Apart from that I'm doing the rounds of the cultural centres in Madrid, though it's getting harder and harder. A very interesting shop window for exhibiting is Artelista, a continuous exhibition that lets you show your work day after day.

Could you recommend us:

An artist: Edward Hopper.

An artwork: La casa del doctor Gachet en Auvers by Cézanne.

A book: The Mist Trilogy by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (I'm reading it right now).

A film: Amarcord by Fellini.

Thank you very much.

We invite you to see Felipe San Pedro's gallery and Artelista's review.