From my studio: Sócrates Rízquez

I'm Sócrates Rízquez García, I was born in Málaga in 1966 and thanks to my father I picked up the brushes when I was very little, so I'm a great lover and student of painting.
During the 80s I explored Surrealism using all sorts of techniques. In 1987 I exhibited at the Tourist Office Hall in La Línea de la Concepción. That same year I discovered, almost entirely by accident, painting with synthetic enamels, and I developed new techniques to be able to create artworks using such an industrial medium.
In those years I discovered Pop painting and got into it, producing artworks for posters and the like. I adopted enamel almost exclusively as my means of expression, and encouraged by the brilliance of the colours this kind of paint gives, I used it in many different projects.

I travelled frequently to European museums to study painting directly from the pictures, especially the Impressionist masters, and more regularly to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the cradle of my inspiration. I studied Impressionism on my own but intensively, and after going to a Richard Estes exhibition I approached the hyperrealist style with curiosity and a wish to learn from its most outstanding practitioners.
Meanwhile I took on commissions in very different disciplines and the odd competition, but without letting these tasks distract me from my main and almost exclusive dedication, which is the study, the experimentation and, later, the specialisation in the use of enamel as a cutting-edge artistic expression.
Alongside my painting I've also acquired a deep knowledge of artistic design, above all on the digital side, where I've had success generating 3D artistic images and vector creations.

During 2007, as an exercise in the use of enamels, I did a specific series of urban landscapes of the city of Tokyo. And since 2014, in a much more intensive and specialised way, I've been working on a series of enamels about New York faithful to the evolved style that came out of my research.

When and why did you start painting?

I started painting when I was very small, in fact I can't remember myself without a brush in my hand. My father has always been a great painting enthusiast and an art lover. The knowledge he acquired on his own he passed straight on to me, since he always had me as his faithful spectator and therefore as his pupil. My dedication both to painting and to studying art has been continuous ever since.

How do you think a gallery and its artists should help each other?
Until recently I hadn't felt the need to make my artwork known, so I've only had a handful of exhibitions and never ones aimed at selling. When I recognised an original style and technique in myself was when I saw myself ready to go to a gallery, in my case Artelista, because as I don't live in a capital or a city with facilities for exhibiting, I chose to try to be visible internationally and to have my artwork seen by as many people as possible. My experience tells me that an artist shouldn't spend their time on anything but their art and their artwork, and should leave the rest to the professionals. You need a lot of salesman's talent and a lot of time for an artist, at least at the beginning, to be able to create and sell at the same time.

What advice would you give to artists who are starting to show their artwork?
I start from the fact that I'm one of those artists who are starting to show their artwork, but to my colleagues with the same concerns I'd say that on the technical side they should build a style of their own, that they should try to find a path nobody has explored before and that makes them feel proud and satisfied with their work. That they should focus on developing their style and give meaning to what they do, above all thinking about the people who are going to be the spectators of their artwork, since I consider art an exercise in communication. If you don't convince or communicate with whoever is on the other side of your artwork, you've done nothing. And on the more practical side I go back to what I said in the previous question, trust the professionals and the institutions with the projection of your art.

How did you sell your first artwork? Is there one you feel a stronger connection with?
In 1987 I had my first solo exhibition while I was doing my military service. The Ministry of Defence saw fit to acquire a surrealist picture for one of its buildings. That was my first sale.
Almost always the latest artwork is the one I feel closest to, the one that satisfies me most, maybe because I have fresher in my mind the reason for every brushstroke, the "logistics" of the creative process, the thrill of seeing on the board the picture I'd imagined. Prince used to say that every song he wrote was like a child of his, and that as such it was impossible for him to show favouritism for one over another. The same happens to me, there's something of me in every picture and evaluating or grading them isn't my business. But even so, I had a great time painting New York #37 and I'm very happy with the result because it's a picture that conveys feelings.

What is art for you? What role does it play in your life? Do you make a living from art?
Art, as I understand it, is an intimately human act with which some of us generously widen the range of our personality that others can perceive. Or to put it another way, through art we show aspects of our personality that otherwise would never be known.
There are many ways of showing yourself through art, mine is very direct, it hides nothing, I leave no room for interpretation, since I think it can be distorted somehow or simply not be understood correctly.
I fully understand the commercial side of things, art included, but so far I haven't allowed myself to expand my artwork commercially in a general way.

I don't even know if I've "broken even" so far, I imagine not. But it is among my current plans to try to live from my art, mainly because it forces you to keep up a constant dedication, apart from the personal satisfaction of finding that my pictures arouse enough interest for someone to want one for themselves.

What are your sources of inspiration? Do you identify with any other artist?
For me inspiration can be any stimulus that makes you create, and create in a particular way you're happy with. For a visual artist it doesn't have to be another artist's work in the same field. The many artworks and painters I admire will be reflected somehow in my artwork, but that's all it is, pure admiration. Admiration can lead to imitation and in art that's very dangerous.

Inspiration is something that instils in you a series of feelings or experiences that the artist will need to put down somehow. My main source of inspiration is music, and above all the music of that genius called Prince. But on the painting side, artists I admire as different as Velázquez, Richard Estes, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh or Edward Hopper surely influence my style.

The particularities of painting with enamels bring out in me a spontaneous, close style, very much inspired by the Impressionism of the great masters, but my needs of artistic expression are still firmly grounded in hyperrealism and pop art. All the factors explained above have made my style different from any other already established one, and so I've defined it and given it a name: "Hyperimpressionism".

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

My creative process starts right at the carpenter's shop, where after ordering the cuts I need, I assemble the boards and their frames myself.
The peculiarities of the enamels I work with, such as how quickly they dry, constantly condition my methods when painting. Blending over large surfaces has to be thought through carefully before I get to it, since I only have seconds to do it, it allows no hesitation or imprecision, you have to mix so fast that the mixing has to be done directly on the board while you paint. In the same way and for the same reasons, colour mixes dry immediately on the palette, so you're forced to be mixing and painting continuously.

My studio is very small, just enough for me, my picture and my paints. What I do have is plenty of light, so necessary for me. And the second pillar I lean on when I sit down to paint is, as I've already explained, music. I think that if I had to paint without music my pictures would be very different.

Have you had any exhibition lately you can tell us about? Do you have any project in mind?
For more than three years I've been working on a series about New York. They're enamels on board, in very panoramic proportions, almost exclusively 120 by 48 centimetres in both orientations. It's the first project I've taken on that's homogeneous and continuous. Throughout my career my output has been erratic and eclectic, not at all suited to preparing exhibitions, and besides many works were commissions, that is, unconnected artworks made with different techniques, which is why I never considered bringing them together to exhibit them.
This last series about New York, where I bring together various scenes, everyday moments and corners of the metropolis, and which already runs to some forty artworks, is indeed suited to being exhibited.

And as a future project I can say that I'm really excited about taking part in the 1st International Contemporary Art Fair of Málaga (Art Fair Málaga '17) where, despite the small size of the stand, I plan to show a selection of my latest works. I'll be very motivated given the characteristics of this fair, where I'll be able to show my pictures to galleries, artists, collectors, critics and people involved in art in general.

Could you recommend us:

An artist: Prince.
An artwork: Las Meninas by Velázquez.
A book: the El Juez de Egipto trilogy by Christian Jacq.
A film: Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola.

Thank you very much.

We invite you to visit Sócrates Rízquez's gallery on Artelista.