Gabriel Picart

Spain

790

Gabriel Picart - Video


Picart's paintings are rendered in a pure realistic style, not hyper realistic, and the imitation of reality is only an illusion created by the brushstrokes of a master painter. Gabriel Picart was born in Barcelona, Spain, 1962. Since birth, he has spent most of his life in the same neighborhood. It is the quarter where the world famous Park Güell is located. Created by the great Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, this park was the realization of his utopian vision – he designed it as a new Arcadia, a Paradise on earth. For more than fifty years, Gabriel's family lived in the concierge's pavilion at the right of the main entrance of the Park. Thus, Gabriel was born and spent his childhood in that historically glorious pavilion Gaudi had designed to emulate the witch's house in Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale Hansel and Gretel. The entire park became Gabriel's playground – it is no wonder that within an artistic milieu such as this he would soon develop an interest in art.

By the time he was a teenager, his parents had rented the other pavilion on the opposite side of the main gate – for $5.00 per month! This building had been for many years Gaudi's workshop. This pavilion was all his to work in as Picart chose. In the very same room that Gaudi executed his designs, Picart set up his first studio. He says that he felt Gaudi's ghost hovering over his shoulder. Gabriel soon became so addicted to painting that he gave up a promising career in architecture.

Not long after he had made the decision to become a professional artist, he had the good luck to meet the famous illustrator Enric Torres. Enric invited Gabriel to visit the studio he shared with the best ink and charcoal illustrator in Spain, one of the creators of the incomparable "Vampirella", Pepe Gonzalez. Pepe was one of the world's foremost comic artists. By the age of 20, Picart became the third member of the studio.

Picart's career as an illustrator blossomed; he worked on commissions throughout Europe. In 1985, he began his collaboration with a New York agency noted for its ability to select the best European artists. Picart quickly won assignments from all the major publishing houses in America and Canada. He worked also for advertising agencies, graphic design firms and catalog houses. Art directors clamored for his paintings because he brought a fine art style to his representational illustrations.

Picart found time to do fine art paintings and began showing his work. In 1996, he had his first one man show at the WolfWalker Gallery in Sedona, Arizona. This was quickly followed by his participation in a group show of Catalan artists at Ambassador Gallery in New York, where he was among some of the leading contemporary figurative painters working in Spain at that time. Gabriel Picart was on his way as a studio painter of fine art. His paintings have attracted special attention of noteworthy critics and collectors, and they have been on display at some of the most recognized galleries in the US were they have hung with titans of the brush, such as Bouguereau, Chagall, Miró, Dalí and Picasso, and some of the leading contemporary art found in the world today, such as Odd Nerdrum. In 2012, Gabriel Picart and the French painter Philippe Pasqua were the two international masters invited by the organization to exhibit their works of art in the Art Revolution Taipei.
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