Anna

Hello everyone!

I'm going to tell you about this portrait I painted in November 2024. I'll start the story from the very beginning so you can follow along with the succession of related events that reveal how the coincidences or causalities that "spice up" our path are woven together.

One night at the end of November, I was walking through Gràcia, a very colorful and elegant neighborhood in Barcelona.

I'm one of those people who believe that contexts, environments, and cities take on a more authentic meaning when we also get to know them while listening to local music, so I began exploring Barcelona singers and, in the process, getting a little closer to the language. That's how I met Anna Andreu.

The first time I heard "El crit al cel," I was walking down an avenue and had to sit on the first bench I found. The connection I felt with her voice was such that tears began to flow, on their own. It was serendipity, a sonic mirror of what I felt inside.

The song talks about the pandemic period, a time that kept us away from our loved ones and isolated from affection. It also speaks of the immense value placed on the elders of our families, who hold a part of our history in their memories.

Well, I listened to that song many more times and began painting while listening to this talented artist's records.

While searching for materials to practice faces, I found a poster of hers on the web. I grabbed the first piece of cardboard I found and went straight to the brush, without any prior sketches.

The unique thing about cardboard is that it absorbs oil paint very well, so by the time the second record finished playing, I already had the portrait finished.

I took a photograph and sent it to my painting teacher. She immediately recognized it (it was the proof I needed to know if I was on the right track with the techniques she was teaching me). She told me that Anna had been her student and lived very close to the academy.

At that time, I was working in the Sants neighborhood, in a small restaurant on Plaça d'Osca (in addition to being an artist and teacher, I'm a barista).

On Sunday of that same week, as I was crossing the square to open the restaurant, guess who I ran into...

We didn't exchange a word, we just looked at each other in that way where one of us seemed about to say hello and the other was waiting to respond. But we looked at each other and laughed, and I think that was better than anything.

Here I'm sharing some photos of the process, and if you like it, tell me if you liked it.

This is the reference

Have you also been within one degree of separation from an artist you greatly admire?