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Immensely creative, sensitive and hugely talented, Alejos Lorenzo is an artist dedicated to art.

Embracing everything that the life of an artist entails, from the risk that comes with it to the life-affirming creativity that fuels his magnificent creations, Alejos lives life through art. Despite

being an architect and designer, he switched careers to become a full-time artist to fully engage with his inspiration.

One of Alejos’ exhibitions

One of Alejos’ works

Childhood was about drawing everything

Since I was little I always had two dreams. One was to dedicate myself to the world of painting and the other was to have a family with many children. As a child, at home I used to draw everything that I saw around me, from family to plants and any object that I liked. I also spent many hours hours copying other paintings, which served as a great training for me.

Water Balloons painting by Alejos

I always wanted to be a painter, but a friend who had studied Fine Arts advised me not to choose that path in university. Since architecture is also related to drawing and since there were also members in my family who were working in architecture, I decided to follow that path. After several years of designing and building buildings, I specialized in interior design and industrial design. Eventually I gave up everything for painting, since I had always known that it was something more than a hobby.

I always wanted to be a painter but...

I do not view painting as a profession, meaning just as an avenue to earn money or as being routine. For me it is a way of being... a vital necessity. I paint in the mornings but I am someone who can also get up at midnight and pick up my brushes. I spend my afternoons with my children. My understanding of being an artist is that it is something you carry inside you.

Painting is a vital necessity

Alejos in one of the exhibitions

In my case, I gradually realized that I did not want ‘to be’ a painter, but that I ‘am’ a painter. All I had to do was find out. I have never had a creative block because I am not predictable. I work compulsively and intuitively, not methodically. I believe in inspiration and not in what Picasso has said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” On the contrary, I believe that inspiration must come fully alive and then I paint.

Alejos’ study

Devoting my life to art is a risk in terms of job stability. It is a profession meant for people who are restless, curious and eager to learn every day. But it is true that some months may bring you great sales while others not so much. In that sense it is a risk, but it is a risk that is worth taking because to paint is to take hold of the reins of your life, to live life with full freedom, without any schedule but on the flip side without a fixed salary.

Devoting my life to art is a risk

Flowering an Ocean by

Alejos

ukiyo-e art

I love nature and am greatly influenced by ukiyo-e

My work is greatly influenced by the love I feel for nature. I've been evolving from a surrealist style, ever since I read Andre Breton, to a style that is influenced more by Japanese art of ukiyo-e. I am fascinated by cultures that are very sensitive to nature. That’s the reason my landscapes are full of flowers and trees. I want to convey the love that I feel for mother nature.

David Hockney’s painting

There are so many artists that I admire. From the surrealists— Dalí, Miro, Tanguy to Picasso and the impressionists, I have been influenced by their work. The Japanese masters, Hiroshige and Hokusai are also artists I look up to. Of the painters who are still active, I really like the work of David Hockney because it is very colorful and vital.

My biggest compliment was when I was compared to one of the Japanese masters

I believe that western society with its cities of gray cement has left nature behind and that makes us colder, more rational and calculating and less sensitive and therefore less happy. My biggest compliment was when I was compared to one of the Japanese masters. I believe that Western art owes a great deal to oriental art, especially to the delicacy and sensitivity that it derives from it.

One of the Exhibitions

I believe an artist is evolving just as his life is. There is nothing better than staying simple and letting yourself be carried away by life. Although many fellow painters have said that I already have a style of my own, I do not like the idea of that. This is because I believe that an artist should not get predictable once his work becomes successful. It is always necessary to investigate and to evolve as an artist and as a person because life is full of infinite paths that can be explored. Sometimes you have to go forward, sometimes back, but never should you give up.

I believe an artist is evolving just as his life is

Ocean of Flowers by Alejos