Ana del Castillo - Colorado Villa

I continue with my paintings of avant-garde architecture, one of the two themes that I am passionate about, architecture and landscapes. A modern residence with an outdoor pool. The house facade combines gray stone and concrete, highlighting a wide glass wall that reveals a warm, lit interior. The pool in the foreground reflects the structure and the sky, creating a play of light and shadows. The composition is enriched by lush green vegetation on the left and autumn foliage on the right, framing the architecture and bringing vitality to the scene.

It is a villa that exists in Colorado, USA, viewed at dusk; the painting is finished with epoxy resin, giving it a photographic look that is what I seek in my architectural paintings. This finish reflects light, it’s like a mirror.

Economist and multidisciplinary artist (Godella, Valencia. 1963). Professionally, she is an economist, active in online commerce in recent years, a activity she has delayed to devote herself almost exclusively to traveling, to experimenting as a painter, and to working for various international agencies as a photographer.

Her beginnings in photography go back to her childhood; she has work published in the ABC daily, in publications of the Ministry of Culture, various books, catalogs, or on the billboards of Castellón buses, in addition to various 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 by leaps and bounds, in each country and its cities, unique characteristics that she tries to capture in her images, both of people she encounters on the street and of buildings of every age, 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 at both the painterly and photographic levels.

Her dedication to painting came later. She began her artistic training with artist Álvaro Romero in the nineties, continued with the godellense painter Germá Llorís, then with painter Fernando Jiménez and with Lucía Peiró i Lloret, a renowned plastic artist. “At the start of the new century she co-founded a heterogeneous group of artists named Equipo-Argo, currently composed of thirteen women, who carry out their activity in a warehouse near the city of Valencia; the group keeps permanent contact among themselves and with the artistic vanguards in different fields. One of the group’s goals is to mount one or two annual exhibitions. Many exhibitions have already been held by this group in our geography.

Technically, for the creation of her paintings she uses powdered pigments, “their tonal range is ideal for my paintings, turning the studio into a kind of laboratory of plates and powders in which binders, resins, etc., form a chaotic universe where I feel absolutely serene and creative.”

In recent years her artistic production has been showcased in exhibitions, mentions, and awards. Notable early achievements include 2016 with Equipo-Argo: a collective at the Centre dArt Taller d’Ivars in Benissa (Alicante); a May collective at espai.inf, an exhibition space at the Polytechnic University of Valencia; and the collective exhibition Sala Virgen de la Fuente (Teruel); a collective at Casa Cultura Rocafort “La Superficie del Círculo”; in 2017, with the same collective, Mirada de Dona at La Marina El Puig de Santa María (Valencia), Sala Exposiciones Antiguo Ayuntamiento Bétera (Valencia), Sala Exposiciones Museros (Valencia), Mirada de Dona at Sala Exposiciones La Eliana (Valencia), Paisatge Urbà at Sala Exposiciones Náquera (Valencia); and in 2018 also with Equipo-Argo at Sala Exposiciones Villa Eugenia in Godella (Valencia) with “Abstractus”, collective at Sala Exposiciones Municipal de Mislata (Valencia) and Sala Exposiciones Biblioteca Dénia (Alicante), with “Abstractus”, and a collective at Sala Exposiciones Massamagrell (Valencia) with “Black and White.”

She has been selected in the XXXIV Certamen Pintura “Salvador Soria” Vila de Benissa (Alicante), in the Festival D’Arts Quart de Poblet (Valencia) exhibition, in the XIII Premio de pintura Desideri Llombarte in Peñarroya de Tastavins (Teruel) in 2016. The following year she is selected by the Fundación Legado Andalusí, touring her work nationwide; she is a finalist in Premi de Pintura Ciutat de Manises (Valencia), selected in Valencia Ciutat Oberta Bienal de las Artes de Valencia. For 2018 her work is selected for the Dances de Alcalá series in the photography prize of the Asociación Turística Gúdar-Javalambre (Teruel), she wins later editions, and is selected in the International Art Contest “José Camarón” in Segorbe.

In awards she obtains in 2014 the Camarón prize of the Segorbe Art Contest (Castellón), exhibits individually with her series Europa en Instantes at the Bancaja foundation in Segorbe, in 2016 wins the Las Provincias Photographic Marathon in Dénia (Alicante), wins the Balearia prize, and the runner-up in the I Eurostars Hotel Real Photography Prize. She is selected and exhibits at the hall of the Valencian Cultural Entity El Piló in 2016 and 2023, and along with Equipo-Argo she conducts a collective exhibition at the prestigious Villa Eugenia exhibition hall in Godella in 2018, an exhibition later moved to the municipal exhibition hall of Mislata.

She is once 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 carries out a collective exhibition at Galería Ronda in Valencia, and is represented by Galería del Sol also located in Valencia.

They award her the National Heritage photography prize by the hands of the Infanta in Madrid in December 2024.

She continues receiving numerous awards for her photographs and paintings, and has several exhibitions on her schedule for the coming months across Spain.

According to the prestigious critic LFMM, “her architectural works transcend the photographic plane to be endowed with a surrealist touch that gives them undeniable value.”

Patxi Guerrero Carot (Professor at Universidad Jaime I) published in various media.

Edition
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