Marta Alonso Canillar

I was born in Spain but have made my home in California since 1991.

As a young girl growing up in Spain in the seventies and eighties I was never encouraged to pursue a career in the arts so my artistic inclinations were put in the background as something I did on occasion, never a priority.

I am an emerging artist with no formal academic training in the arts. Nevertheless, art has always been an important focus in my life. Over the years, I have taken occasional classes either in Junior Colleges or private studios in photography and ceramics. In 2014, I took oil painting lessons for the first time, from Cynda Valle in Willits, and soon after I got a commission to do a large painting at Mariposa Market portraying a collage look of rural Mendocino.

A year later, the newly built hospital in Willits commissioned me to do another painting of the same scale. This time, it depicted a more representational look of their kitchen garden. Early on, portraiture became a favorite of mine and got a few commissions, some of which are in San Diego and Spain. I have been working very “diligently” over the past 3 years to produce a body of work ready to show at some venue.

I started the year 2018 presenting three paintings at the Mendocino Art Center, in Mendocino, for their juried exhibit and took Best-in-Show for one of them. I had an exhibit in Willits at the Brickhouse Coffee for the months of February, March and April of 2018 and am currently showing at Edgewater Gallery in Fort Bragg.

This year too, I am going to venture into doing Murals in Fort Bragg for the newly established Mural Project and have already lined up a commission for that.

Working with Cynda Valle was a reawakening experience. Not only did she teach me the technicalities of oil painting but has encouraged me to look at my art as part of my self, and extension of my being, allowing me to understand that there are no wrongs in the process of making art, helping me to discard those insecurities and replacing them with confidence, as a woman and an artist.