Ana del Castillo - Gallocanta 2 XXL

The Gallocanta Lagoon Directed Nature Reserve is the largest saline wetland in the Iberian Peninsula and the best-preserved salt lake in Western Europe. Located at over 1,000 meters above sea level between the provinces of Zaragoza and Teruel (Aragon), this protected area of 6,720 hectares worldwide stands out for being the key strategic point in the migration of the common crane. Every winter, tens of thousands of these birds transform the skies and farmlands into an unforgettable visual and auditory spectacle.
The landscape is inspired by one of the photos I try to take each year during crane passage season.
I have used powdered pigments and acrylics on paper glued to canvas.
The painting is sent with a whitewashed wood frame of 7 cm width; the total measurement is as stated. There are two slight defects in the wood of the frame, one on the top part and another in the upper right corner; please refer to the photos.
A certificate of authenticity is attached; the artwork can be shipped insured, with tracking number and as quickly as possible.
Economist and multidisciplinary artist (Godella, Valencia. 1963). Professionally she is an economist, dedicated to online commerce in recent years, activity she has postponed to travel, paint, and work for various international agencies as a photographer.
Her beginnings in photography go back to childhood; she has work published in ABC newspaper, in publications of the Ministry of Culture, various books, catalogs, or on the bus shelters in Castellón, in addition to several awards and exhibitions in London or Madrid. Her academic training spanned several years with photographer Tere Arcos.
She finds in Europe, even as globalization advances in leaps and bounds, in each country and its cities, unique characteristics that she tries to capture in her images, whether of people she encounters on the street, buildings of all ages, or moments in any location.
Her trips to Iceland, Switzerland, South America, Africa or Norway have influenced her with their mountains, architectures, and seas, another of her major themes both pictorially and photographically.
Her dedication to painting came later. She began her artistic training with the artist Álvaro Romero in the nineties, continued with the godellense painter Germá Llorís, then with the painter Fernando Jiménez and with Lucía Peiró i Lloret, a renowned plastic artist. “At the start of the new century she became co-founder of a heterogeneous group of artists called Equipo-Argo, now composed of thirteen women, who work in an industrial warehouse on the outskirts of Valencia. The group remains in constant contact among themselves and with the artistic vanguards in various fields. One of the group’s aims is to curate and carry out one or two annual exhibitions. The group has already organized many exhibitions across our geography.

Technically, for the creation of her paintings she uses powdered pigments; “their tonal breadth is ideal for my paintings, turning the studio into a kind of laboratory of dishes and powders in which binders, resins, etc., compose a chaotic universe where I feel absolutely serene and creative.”
In recent years, her artistic production has been showcased in exhibitions, mentions and awards. Highlights include, in 2016, with Equipo-Argo, the collective exhibition at Centre d’Art Taller d’Ivars in Benissa (Alicante); the May collective at espai.inf, a space at the Polytechnic University of Valencia; and the collective exhibition Sala Virgen de la Fuente (Teruel), as well as Colectiva at Casa Cultura Rocafort “La Superficie del Círculo”; in 2017, with the same group, Mirada de Dona at La Marina El Puig de Santa Maria (Valencia), Antiguo Ayuntamiento Bétera (Valencia), Museros (Valencia), Mirada de Dona at La Eliana (Valencia), Paisatge Urbà at Sala Exposiciones Náquera (Valencia); and in 2018 also with Equipo-Argo at Villa Eugenia de Godella (Valencia) with “Abstractus”, collective at Sala Exposiciones Municipal de Mislata (Valencia) and Sala Exposiciones Biblioteca Dénia (Alicante), with “Abstractus”, and collective at Sala Exposiciones Massamagrell (Valencia) with “Black and White.”
She has been selected for the XXXIV Painting Contest “Salvador Soria” Vila de Benissa (Alicante), for the Festival D’Arts Quart de Poblet (Valencia), and for the XIII Premio de pintura Desideri Llombarte in Peñarroya de Tastavins (Teruel) in 2016. The following year she was selected by the Fundación Legado Andalusí, touring her work nationwide; she was a finalist in Premi de Pintura Ciutat de Manises (Valencia), and selected in Valencia Ciutat Oberta Biennial of the Arts of Valencia. For 2018 her work was selected for the Dances de Alcalá series in the photography prize of the Turística Association Gúdar-Javalambre (Teruel), later winning subsequent editions, and selected in the International Art Competition “José Camarón” of Segorbe.
In 2014 she won the Camarón prize at the Segorbe Art Contest (Castellón), she has had solo shows with her series Europa en Instantes at the Bancaja Segorbe foundation, in 2016 she won the Las Provincias Photographic Marathon in Dénia (Alicante), won the Balearia prize, and the runner-up in the I Eurostars Hotel Real Photography Prize. She has been selected and exhibited at the hall of the Valencian Cultural Entity El Piló in 2016 and 2023, and she carried out, together with Equipo-Argo, a collective at the prestigious Godella Villa Eugenia exhibition hall in 2018, an exhibition later moved to the municipal exhibition hall in Mislata.
She was again selected with work exhibited in the José Camarón International Art Contest in Segorbe in 2020, 2023 and 2024.
At the end of 2024 she held a collective exhibition at Galería Ronda in Valencia, and is represented by Galería del Sol located in Valencia as well.
She received the National Heritage photography prize from the Infanta in Madrid in December 2024.
She continues to receive numerous awards for her photographs and paintings, and has several exhibitions scheduled for the coming months across Spain.
According to the prestigious critic LFMM, “her architectural works transcend the photographic plane to be endowed with a surreal touch that gives them undeniable value.”

Patxi Guerrero Carot (Professor at Jaume I University) published in various media.

Edition
Unique