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Soledad Fernan
“I was born in Madrid in 1949, and I still live and work in a town on the outskirts of this city.
Every time I look back I see myself with a pencil in my hand, wanting to express myself through
this medium. In 1965, still a student, when I finished class I used to go to the artist José Gutierrez
Valle’s studio, where I spent eight years studying everything: from how to view an object, how
to prepare a canvas, to how to draw a figure. I worked all techniques: drawing, watercolors, pastel,
oils... Nowadays I feel very proud of all those years of training... of being a “studio painter”.
I used to sell my paintings in minor galleries and also to private clients. During several years I
continued in this way and in the meantime I got married and started a family. Although this
lured me away from the world of art galleries, to be perfectly honest, it did not stop me from
painting every single day. During that period I used to do portraits.
In the 80’s I restarted my career and attended the Group of Fine Arts of Madrid (Círculo de
Bellas Artes) where I drew and painted live models. I also took various modern art courses and
travelled to Rome, Venice and Paris to learn in depth the techniques of the great Masters.
I exhibited again in 1985, this time with a monographic show of urban landscapes of the Escorial.
This show was presented by the writer and art critic Mr. Santiago Amón, with the title
“Soledad Fernández and the other side of the Escorial”.
Later on, I had other shows and in 1987 I had my first exhibition abroad, at the Sammer Gallery
in London. Before the opening it was featured in its entirety in the TVE programme “My way”
presented by the inimitable Jesús Hermida. Many important figures visited the exhibition, among
them the Spanish Ambassador in London. The show was filmed by TVE-2 abroad.
With that show I started another period, not finished as yet: the human figure, nearly always
female and mainly nude: fragments of the bodies, mainly hands.
During the next few years my works were shown in galleries of many cities in Spain such as Madrid,
Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife, Zaragoza and also abroad: Brussels, Amsterdam
and Lisbon, where I hold shows periodically, as well as in a number of places in Mexico and in
the U.S.A., such as Washington, Chicago, New York and Miami.
I would like to mention the retrospective show I had in “Sala Imagen” of Caja de San Fernando
in Seville, Spain in 1996 where works of the last ten years were shown. It was marvelous seeing
all my works together again. There is a video lasting 45 minutes on this exhibition.
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