From my studio: Lineth Márquez

Lineth Márquez is a Panamanian painter who got to exhibit her artworks in New York thanks to Artelista. Today she's the star of our "From my studio" section.

1. When and why did you start painting?
Ever since I was a little girl I was drawn to painting, colours wrapped me up, I'd even use my mother's make-up to paint with once I'd worn out my coloured pencils, creativity was always there in me, I liked to imagine and then create from that!! That calling was present in my life even though I studied Marketing and Advertising at university, degrees I consider tied to art because in the same way an artwork makes us stop and reflect on what it conveys, in advertising we need to create in order to convey and get our messages understood.

The big moment came when I finished my university degree, I did a cultural exchange with the Universidad Europea de Madrid and once in Europe I devoted myself to going round museums, it was love at first sight to see the artworks of Velázquez and Goya at the Prado Museum, Sorolla's artworks in his house museum, in Holland Van Gogh's artworks, recently at the Metropolitan museum in New York the artworks of Picasso and all the masters of Art, not forgetting in the Americas the crisp artworks of Botero in Colombia and the great luck of being invited to visit a private Guayasamín collection belonging to some honourable people, now friends too.

Visiting museums I feel like a child in a toy shop, excited and happy, in front of an artwork I can lose all sense of time, I put myself in the skin of the artist who painted it and I try to work out what they were thinking as they created it.

2. What time of day do you prefer for painting? How much time do you devote to painting?
I don't have a specific time of day, at any moment I can turn to my brushes, when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when something or someone inspires me, but right now, because I'm organising my next national and international exhibitions for the start of 2013, I'm completely immersed all day long, no set hours, on my canvas, taken over the whole day by my passion for painting. That said, my best brushstrokes have come in the small hours, there are lark people, "early risers", and owls, "night owls", I consider myself an owl person, I start creating with an unstoppable torrent of energy from nightfall until dawn, and after watching the moon go down and the first strong rays of sun peek out, then I sleep for a few little hours and carry on afterwards.

3. Of all the paintings you've done, which is your favourite? Why?
My paintings are, to me, the children I don't have, because I gave birth to every one of them with feelings, sleepless nights, affection, joys, sorrows, I created them with a lot of love and in the end they give me many rewards, they make me feel fulfilled. I love them all equally, though there's one I'm especially fond of for being the "first", my firstborn, the one that awoke my passion for what is native to my country and has brought me so much satisfaction, its title is "Esplendor precolombino indígena" and from that artwork on I started painting native Panamanian motifs, but they're all my favourites, I love them all the same!!

4. If you could be reincarnated as a master of art, who would you have liked to be?
Life is so beautiful that I wouldn't want to have to die to be reincarnated as one of them, if I can choose, I'd rather that, carrying on in this life, their virtues came along with me, a little bit of each of them, I want a little of Goya's passion, Velázquez's delicate brushstrokes, Botero's crispness, Van Gogh's persistence, Sorolla's force, Frida's rawness, Guayasamín's indigenous pride and I could go on forever... all the masters of art inspire me! I want a little of all of them in me, but most important of all! "without stopping being me".

5. What is or are your sources of inspiration?
Everything inspires me, they say we all have a bit of the artist, the poet and the madman in us, I like writing poems and I'm part of a network of writers, some poems inspire artworks in me, some artworks inspire poems, but also the dawn, the moon in all its splendour, what is native to my country. I have a special attraction to gazes because I agree that they reflect the soul, I think that "Silence can tie up our words but nothing and nobody can tie up our soul when it shines through our gaze", so I like to paint the expressive gazes of indigenous people, country folk, and also dances and folklore, everything that speaks of my roots, I love anything that shouts Panama, I'm aware that every artist evolves and maybe at some point I'll find other sources of inspiration, but for now I'm enjoying this moment.

6. Of all the art movements, which one has the most influence on your artwork?
Just as I proudly say that I'm a mixture of races, the product of the flow of different cultures into Panama, my artworks are a mixture of everything, because I believe that in life mixing refreshes us, adds something and enriches us, it's like adding and not subtracting, and although I can switch techniques and tendencies from one moment to the next, what always prevails in me is Impressionism, "the impression", capturing reality, I like doing it specifically in faces and gazes, I want them clear and defined, I'd like to take them to the point of hyperrealism, almost photographic, even if the rest blurs and almost disappears on the canvas, but I'll try to make sure people always remember the gazes, faces and expressions on my canvases.

On the other hand I like Expressionism for its handling of light, for letting me express myself intuitively without censoring any of what flows out of my being, with contrasting, almost violent colours, because I like colour and life on my canvases, specifically red, the colour of blood, and green, the colour of nature, I consider both of them the elixir of life, the colours of creation.

7. What does art mean to you? What part does it play in your life?
Art for me means Expression, it lets us convey what we feel, understand what others feel or felt, it's present in my life every day, everything I see, everything I touch, everything I hear conveys something to me that turns into a lesson, a poem that inspires me to create, to paint, I relate everything to art, it lets me be who I am and convey what I feel, and in life itself we have the challenge of getting ourselves understood every single day.

Art has given me many rewards, it has led me to cross borders, to meet interesting people, it has given me a name in my country and now abroad too, it lets me be myself and put my ideas on the canvas, it pushes me to build my dreams, it gives me a reason every day.

I think life is like a canvas, with our actions we add brushstrokes to our great artwork every day, its colours, its contrasts, its highlights, its shadows are up to you, in the end each of us will be responsible for our own creation, so "Try to add colour to the canvas of your life".

8. This year you had the chance to exhibit your artworks at the New York show Eclecticism. What can you tell us about that experience?
First of all I want to thank Artelista for the opportunity it gives all of us who show our artworks here to have them discovered and appreciated. In my case I'd been hanging my artworks for a couple of years when suddenly one day they contacted me to take part in the Eclecticism exhibition in New York, Artelista gives us all the same chance because it seems curators and art evaluators follow the artworks on Artelista and they'd been looking at mine, I even thought it was a bad joke when they contacted me because I didn't know anyone in the competitive art world in the United States, let alone in New York, I couldn't believe it!! but after a few calls and some emails back and forth I was able to confirm it was true, I felt nervous but very excited, deep down I'll always be grateful because Artelista made it possible.

The experience was unforgettable, the news made it into the media and from that moment on they called me "The artist who reflects what is native to Panama", I started to feel like an artist!! I proudly took my roots, captured on my canvases, to New York, specifically to Soho, the world-famous artistic neighbourhood of Manhattan, with my artworks I explained the reason behind indigenous body paintings, the folklore, our clothing, pre-Columbian vessels, for a moment I felt like an Ambassador for my country abroad, representing my culture, it was my first exhibition and an international one at that!! In New York!! an amazing place, as full of contrasts as my canvases, where I walked the streets and enjoyed art in all its splendour, from the museums to street art, all of it enriched and inspired me.

Thanks be to God, and also to Artelista, to the Universidad de Arte Ganexa in Panama where I had my first classes and made my first brushstrokes, to my teacher, the Panamanian artist Blas Petit, to all my family, friends and followers who pushed me on, thanks also to the Ward Nasse Gallery, to the curators Leda Prado and Gigi Gafoglio, who without knowing me, on discovering my artworks on this Artelista site, saw the potential for me to be part of that great experience, thanks to all of them doors keep opening for me for new national and international exhibitions.
Discover all her artworks here