From my studio: Olga Armand Ugon

Born in Montevideo (Uruguay), Olga Armand Ugon trained with artists of the stature of Clever Lara and Guillermo Fernández. Since 2005 she has exhibited in Uruguay, as well as in Buenos Aires and New York, and has received numerous awards that recognise the quality of her work.

When and why did you start painting?

I started at 17 or 18, honestly I don't know why, I loved art, maybe because at home they took me to museums from the time I was tiny, I come from a family of artists and politicians (4 presidents of the Republic of Uruguay, an uncle very well known abroad as a pianist, Luis Batlle), I was always surrounded by a lot of culture.

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

We artists are usually solitary, art is a very solitary thing, we shut ourselves in our studio and talk to ourselves. That's why I think a gallery that manages us and shows what we do is fundamental for us.

What advice would you give to artists who are starting to show their artwork, either physically or online?

My advice is to work and to always want to get better.

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

I started painting at 17 but then, for financial reasons, I studied fashion design because for me it was like making sculptures on a mannequin, until I became a businesswoman and realised life was taking me down the wrong road. I went back to painting at 40, with my daughters still small and, of course, with my husband's total support. Not long after, the people at the studio started buying my artwork. My first sale was a swap for art books, I was embarrassed to charge him.

There are always favourite artworks. These are some of them:

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

Art is like living in another world, it's a feeling that's hard to explain, and that's exactly what I love, the inexplicable, mysterious side of it. Art is what has got me through my difficult times, I think a lot when I paint and it carries me away, it helps me.

I think that to make a living from art you have to work, work and work, as Picasso rightly said, "may inspiration find you working".

How would you explain to someone who doesn't know about art that you try to bring figuration and abstraction together?

This year I'm working with the human figure again, but I'm an expressionist at heart, so what I try to do is disfigure those human images to the point that sometimes even I can't make out the initial figures, I even work on the paintings upside down so I forget those figures exist.

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

My sources of inspiration are my art books, my travels, museums, I'm looking at the artworks of the greats all the time, Velázquez, Leonardo, Singer, Tàpies, Rauschenberg, Giacometti, Freud, Basquiat, Kieffer, Egon Schiele, the list is endless.

In your creative process, do you have any habit, practice or quirk that's peculiar or curious?

I eat a lot of sweet things, I need a lot of energy!!

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

In April this year I was exhibiting in Washington, at the IDB, I loved the experience, and out of that came invitations to exhibit next year at the OAS and at the Uruguayan Embassy in Washington. I also have a pending invitation from the Uruguayan Consulate in NY. I have to get organised with all of this and, while I'm at it, I'd like to run a workshop over there, but I have a family and that comes first in my life, so I have to get organised.

Could you recommend us:

• Un artista: Tàpies
• Una obra: El Guernica de Picasso, en vivo es muy impactante!
• Un libro: No hay causa perdida de Uribe, ex-presidente de Colombia.
• Una película: Birdman, la última película buena que vi.

Thank you very much, Olga.

Enjoy Olga Armand's artwork on Artelista and the review we wrote about her.