Monday, March 7, 2016

Scripted Interview with Painter Francisca "Paquita" Esteve Barranca

Christal Rice Cooper


SCRIPTED INTERVIEW:
Painter Francisca “Paquita” Esteve Barranca



1. 
Birthdate and birthplace?
August 17, 1947
Barcelona (Spain)


2.  Education history?
Holy Trinity (Santísima Trinidad), Catholic religious school. All grades and BA. In Barcelona.



3. Career history?
Escuela de Artes Aplicadas Massana (Fine Arts School.) In  Barcelona. Interior Design and Painting Techniques.
I taught Art at a University in China where my husband was teaching. 




4. 
Describe your childhood and how it affected you as an artist?
I always loved design and drawing. My teachers and family encouraged me, but also they wanted me to study something more productive than art. But I went to art school anyway.


5. 
What is your first experience of drawing?
Very early, drawing in our school notebooks was forbidden by the nuns, but one young and very sweet nun allowed me. She made an exception. Then I won some award there, which was important to me as a child. Unfortunately I do not have any of my drawings from that time. Later I moved from Spain to Mexico. In the move, I lost all of my belongings.


 6.
Your first experience of interior design?
During the time I was at the School of Art, I was working with designers and decorators and getting experience. Then, when studies finished, I had my own design company in Barcelona. Luckily Barcelona is a very modern city, and because it was so modern, I didn’t have trouble finding work in interior design. Mexico City, however, was very different. (There isn’t really a market for interior design there.) It was my way of making money and I could paint without being in a hurry.  I lived in Mexico City for 30 years until I married Marlon.


7. 
Who are some artists/interior designers that inspire you?
I liked several designers that had a certain simplicity and elegance in common. Always, Japanese culture inspired me, especially in its aesthetic balance. So I was thrilled two years ago when my husband and I traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto.  


About painters, my preference is the impressionist style (Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin…. Also surrealism: Remedios Varo, Dali, although I myself don’t feel like I have the ability to be minimalist. I seem to be drawn to the realistic and detailed. 


Thanks to my husband, Marlon Fick, I have been learning about American artists: Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth among others. I would like to be closer to that level of simplicity—a simplicity that’s achieved through tremendous struggle.



9. 
What is your day-to-day routine like when it comes to your art form?  
I usually have several projects going on at the same time. Also, for years I only used oil, but I recently changed to acrylic, and now I’m experimenting again with pastel and pencil. 


I have never tried painting for an exhibition, (maybe I will do one some day), rather I paint for myself, my friends, or my husband, our families. as long as they sincerely express a liking for the work. Someone gave me good advice. "Do not give anyone a painting if the person doesn’t ask.  This can make them feel awkward… He or she will not know where to hang it without offending you… if they do not like it."


 

Photo 1
Paquita in her sunroom in Mexico

Photo 2
Painting Green Thumb

Photo 3
Charcoal painting Joan, 1972

Photo 4
Pencil drawing Isa, 1972

Photo 5a
Poster in Chia of Paquita’s art activities at Wenzhou Kean University

Photo 5b and 5c
Paquita’s students in China

Photo 6
Painting Chinese Girl and Lighthouse
“The curiosity of this painting is that I was painting a seascape, and the landscape in front of me in reality was actually of mountains ad a river.”

Photo 7
Painting Translucent Tulips
“I went back to the primary colors for this and oversized everything.  I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I like the idea of a translucent flower.”

Photo 8
Paquita and Marlon at the Government Awards Banquet in China.

Photo 9
Painting Marlon’s World
“Marlon has everything he loves in one place after several years.  I painted his world without walls because his imagination is boundless.”

Photo 10
Painting Morning Coffee in the Tetons:  Portrait of My Husband

Photo 11
Painting Full Moon
“This is only a study which I did of the view from our front door I the Rockies of Colorado.”

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