Paco Lafarga's Artwork Captures the Essence of Life

Paco Lafarga was born in Zaragoza in 1977. The truth is that, like other painters, the Aragonese artist's beginnings in the world of art go back to his childhood. He has been drawing and has been attracted to these disciplines since he was very young; however, when the time came to choose a university degree on which to build his future, Paco opted for Tourism.

 "At that critical moment of deciding what you want to do with your life, I was not prepared. At 18 I was almost a child, and I felt incapable of going to study fine arts outside my city, even with the great support of my parents, so I decided to take another path that apparently had more job opportunities", the artist tells Artemirandalab.

However, "the years went by and little by little I began to feel closer to what I had given up and I started to paint and draw on my own until today". Paco Lafarga has not studied art academically speaking, he has been "learning and discovering things always on my own, making small progress little by little, and that's where I am, 'searching'".

This is how he began and how he continued to become one of the leading figures in figurative painting on the current art scene.

PACO LAFARGA'S STYLE AND SUBJECT AREA

It is more than evident that Paco Lafarga's work is in line with realistic figurative painting, "perhaps it is with this language that I feel most comfortable, although it is only an excuse or an appearance, as I am very interested in what is not said", he explains to thalamusmagazine.com. He adds: "It's clear that I'm inclined towards the human being, towards nudity, the flesh, sensuality, digging, although honestly the reasons why I choose something in particular and not something else are beyond me".

In contrast to how other artists explain their connection with painting, Paco says that his relationship with it is much more "prosaic". "I won't say things like that I try to find myself through painting or that I try to discover aspects of myself that I don't know or that I express myself better by painting or simply - and let this sound very solemn, please - that I can't live without painting, that I need to create, that it's like the air I breathe or that what I try to do is fill the world with beauty to make it a little better. All that is a LIE," he told the digital magazine.

"I only draw or paint what I feel like drawing or painting. For me, painting is intuition, seduction, intimacy, desire and, above all, preventing reason from interfering in this strange process. I don't know why I paint, nor do I care. I just try to convert into painting, in the most convincing way, all that mess of ideas and desires, with hardly any planning, no barbed wire". As simple as that.

SUPPORTS AND MATERIALS

The truth is that it would be a mistake to try to explain Paco Lafarga's technique exactly. He himself describes it perfectly, he simply begins to paint and goes one way or another according to his instinct; there is no exact why or how. However, we can say that he chooses board and oil painting as the medium and technique for his painting. Beyond that, perhaps because of his closest influences - as will be seen in future sections - or because of his eagerness to discover new ways of creating, Paco uses materials such as the blade to give a different texture and approach to his work. He also works with drawing, using both graphite and charcoal.

Here are some of Paco Lafarga's works:

V and the suicide birds (V y los pájaros suicidas)

Oil on board

128 x 123 cms.

2017

Blue Nude (Desnudo Azul)

Oil on board

110 x 105 cms

2017

Honorable mention 2017

Figurativas Painting & Sculpture Competition

M. A.

Graphite on paper

96 x 88,5 cms

2014

Pool V (Piscina V)

Oil on board

118 x 122 cms

2011

Always with me (Siempre conmigo)

Oil on canvas

97 x 130 cms

2005

Babe (Nena)

Graphite on paper

11,9 x 16,1 cms

2012 / 2013

Nude (Desnudo)

Graphite on paper

11,3 x 16,1 cms

2012 / 2013

PACO LAFARGA'S REFERENCES AND TEACHERS

It has taken (and still takes) many years of observing the great artists to reach the level that Paco Lafarga possesses today. A childhood idol for the painter from Zaragoza is the surrealist Salvador Dalí; "his overflowing drawings left me speechless". Later, he started observing Rembrandt: "always a reference, his flesh and his subterranean gaze like a cry".

Antonio López, an established Spanish artist, is also one of Paco Lafarga's influences; the artist from Tomelloso helped him to know which path he wanted to follow.

However, if there is one artist who marked a before and after in Paco's career, it was undoubtedly Golucho: "in my life a gentleman crossed my path, or perhaps I sought him out, the only true living artist I know, the master Golucho, who took me into his home and taught me to discover where dreams and desire flee to, who with his sharp gaze traced a risky and definitive path for me, a lesson in poetry and life", says Lafarga. She met him back in 2005, and since then they have had more of a friendship than a teacher-disciple relationship, which has grown stronger over the years.

PACO LAFARGA'S RESUME

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

• 2014 Museum Pablo Serrano. Zaragoza. December - January.
• 2013 “Pequeño” Carolina Rojo Gallery. Zaragoza. May - June.
• 2011 Torreón Fortea Hall, Zaragoza City Council.
• 2009 CAI Barabasán Hall, Zaragoza, Sala CAI Huesca, Huesca.
• 2007 Association of Plastic Artists K- Pintas, Zaragoza.
• 2007 Hall of Culture, City Hall of Zuera (Zaragoza).
• 2006 Association of Plastic Artists K- Pintas K-Pintas, Zaragoza.
• 2005 Art Room of the "Escuela de Artes y Oficios" (School of Arts and Crafts), Zaragoza.
• 2003 Caja Rural of Teruel. Zaragoza.
• 2001 G.P.M (Management of Movable Assets). Zaragoza

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS

• 2015 Modportrait 2014 International Portrait Competition Exhibition, Bantierra Exhibition Hall, Zaragoza.
• 2015 Modportrait 2014 International Portrait Competition Exhibition, MEAM Museum, Barcelona, June.
• 2014 Moving, Joaquín Roncal Center, Zaragoza. January Collective ASDES. December.
• 2013 Collaboration with the book Rocío erótico edited by Paco Rallo.
• 2013 Drawing Award Guadalajara.
• 2013 "Faces/Portraits, from the Past to the Future. Aljafería Palace.
• 2012 "Figurations" Karton Gallery. Almería.
• 2012 House of culture of Villanueva de Gállego. Zaragoza.
• 2012 Palace of the Lonja. Emotional visions of a city. Zaragoza.
• 2010 Guadalajara Drawing Award. Guadalajara.
• 2010 Drawing Prize Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias, Granada.
• 2009 Aragonese artistic grouping. Artelibre Gallery, Zaragoza.
• 2009 COLOURS Gallery. Edinburgh. Scotland.
• 2009 Genius Loci, "Artistic visions of a city, 1908-2008" Cajalón. Zaragoza.
• 2007 Drawing Award Province of Guadalajara, Guadalajara.
• 2007 Colectart Gallery. Sos del Rey Católico. (Zaragoza)
• 2007 XXIV Penagos Drawing Award, Mapfre Foundation, Madrid.
• 2007 Colectart Gallery, Palacio del Niño, Sos del Rey Católico, Zaragoza.
• 2005 Association of Plastic Artists K-pintas.
• 2004 K-pintas Plastic Artists Group.
• 2003 K-pintas Plastic Artists Group.

CONTESTS AND AWARDS

• 2015 First Prize in the International Portrait Competition Modportrait 2014.
• 2014 Antonio López García Drawing and Painting Acquisition Award.
• 2014 First Honorable Mention in the International Portrait Contest Modportrait 2013.
• 2013 Selected for the Guadalajara Drawing Award.
• 2013 Collaboration with the book Rocío erótico edited by Paco Rallo.
• 2013 Guadalajara Drawing Award.
• 2012 Selected Francisco Pradilla Painting Award 2012.
• 2012 2nd prize in the drawing contest of Guadalajara 2010.
• 2012 Only finalist in drawing award of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias. Granada.
• 2012 Finalist in the Drawing Prize "Province of Guadalajara".
• 2012 Selected Painting Contest "City of Alora" (Malaga).
• 2006 Selected Penagos Drawing Prize.
• 2006 Madrid 1st Honorable Mention Painting Contest "City of Alora" (Malaga).
• 2005 Selected Drawing Award "Province of Guadalajara 2005.

MUSEUMS Y COLLECTIONS

• European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM in Spanish) of Barcelona.
• Zaragoza City Council.
• Joseph Ribera Foundation
• Museum of the drawing of Larrés. Huesca.
• Museum Ibáñez of Melilla of modern and contemporary Spanish painting. Melilla.
• Deputation of Guadalajara.
• Heraldo de Aragón Collection.
• CAI Zaragoza Collection.
• CAI Huesca Collection.
• Caja Rural de Teruel Collection.
• Fomento Aragón Collection.