I was born in Barcelona in 1952, and come from a working class family. My grandfather together with my father, had a little carpenter’s workshop in the centre of Barcelona. I therefore practically grew up in between the wood, furniture, glue, sandpaper and varnishes used in the workshop.

This learning served a basis for my study in design at the High School of Arts and Crafts in the Masana School, Barcelona. My professional life as an artist began in 1989, when I left the carpentry business, and dedicated myself fulltime to painting. In 1974 I presented my work to the Sala Pares – a prestigious gallery in Barcelona, which was a great opportunity for any young artist. The selection of my work was a pleasant surprise to them, which pleased me greatly as it was the first time that any of the public had viewed my work. In 1985, I entered a competition that was dedicated to sporting artists.

The competition was held because Baron Pierre de Couvertein, the initiator of the modern Olympic Games, wanted to re-create the relationship between art and sports that had existed in ancient Greece. I won first prize in that competition and that award allowed me to introduce my paintings to many art galleries. After this competition came many more like it, as well as numerous exhibitions. I was lucky that just that one painting exposed me to all of that.

At this time the economy was not in a good state, and in Spain it was often said that “hunger sharpens inventiveness”. This was certainly true for me. I had to economize with materials and thus I began to work with oils in a way that I had previously only worked with watercolors (this greatly developed my style of painting). I applied the oil with rags, stumps or capes that were usually only used to varnish or polish the furniture. I used the color very diluted with trementine essence, applying and eliminating it, and letting the paint dry many times over. This is how my technique began. Although it was purely an economical decision to paint in this way back then, this is now not a cheap way for me to paint. It is actually the opposite. I am also not able to use a normal canvas; I have to prepare it first. Also, the pigment of my oils have to be pure and of the highest quality.

The thing that really inspired me to become a painter was Vincent Minelli’s film ‘The Mad Man with the Red Hair’, based on Van Gogh’s life and his relationship with Gaugin. Together with a close friend of mine, who was also interested in art, we used to take boxes of paints (I took my father’s oils box) and head for the countryside to paint ‘au plein air’ landscapes, which we captured in an evidently ‘impressionist’ style. I spent most nights working in my studio, a short distance away from my home. My work could have been classed as too academic up until 1978, when an important event occurred for me that changed my style of painting – the birth of my first daughter, and following that, two more children in 1981 and 1986.