The painter Fina Escandell, known in Ibiza as Fina de sa Real, is exhibiting a selection of her best paintings at the Ses Casetes restaurant in Sant Mateu until the end of next month, October.
In total, there are about twenty small, medium, and large-format works that have been painted since 2014, including some very recent ones from 2020 and 2021. They are all painted in oil on canvas, except for one that is made in oil and water on paper and six others made in mixed media on canvas. All of them have a style that the artist herself defined in the Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera as “a mixture of realism and impressionism.”
Indeed, Fina Escandell considers herself “a painter who works with realism but with a clear tendency towards impressionism,” which causes her works to have “a very personal interpretation.”
The theme of the exhibition is very varied since, as she explained herself, she loves to paint “nature, landscape, architecture, Ibizan dances and customs, the human figure, horses, floral themes, still lifes, and, in short, anything that seems beautiful to me, produces pleasant sensations or transmits emotions.” All this “without forgetting situations and landscapes that have impressed her living outside the island of Ibiza.”
Regarding her creative process, the Ibizan painter told this newspaper that the most frequent thing is to start with a photograph of a subject that interests her. From there, she begins to develop her work in her studio, although what she likes best is to be able to paint from life “because it is where the essence of the model to be represented is captured much better.”
Sometimes, she imagines a work and mentally matures it for several days before “mentally painting it and transferring it to the canvas, with a preliminary sketch or directly.” She even wakes up with a theme in her head on other occasions, to pass it on to a sketch and not forget it. This happened during the confinement with the work Tànit, protector of Eivissa, which can still be seen at the Cultural Center of Jesús.
However, in her last two years, she is giving a turn to her work by painting clearer and brighter themes, which may “be a turn towards a new stage.”
Student of Ferrer Guasch
Fina Escandell entered the Santa Maria Institute in the city of Ibiza when she was ten years old and had Vicent Ferrer Guasch as her teacher, who motivated her love for painting.
At fifteen, she had the opportunity to visit the studios of Puget, Pomar, and Ferrer Guasch and meet painters like Elmyr de Hory, Frank El Punto, or Grimes. An experience that “was unforgettable” and helped her “open her mind.”
Later, she had the opportunity to attend courses with Pomar, Carlos Genicio, Carla de Angelis in Italy, or with the Russian painter Vladimir Volegov. In this sense, she remembers how much she enjoyed Italian art when she lived in this country between 2017 and 2018, both from classical and contemporary painters. Thus, she was impressed by the work of the master Virginio Rossi, of the Venetian School, “a person of great simplicity and humanity” whom she was able to meet and know when she lived there, and the “grandeur and colorfulness” of the work of Mauro Capitani, whom she met in Florence.
Escandell has participated in numerous group exhibitions, most of them within the AMAE Association, of which she has been a member since 2014, and, in the last two years, within the group of the I
Incluso, en otras ocasiones suele imaginar una obra y madurarla mentalmente durante varios día para después «pintarla mentalmente trasladándola a la tela, previo boceto o directamente». Incluso en otras ocasiones se despierta con algún tema en la cabeza para pasarlo después a un boceto y no olvidarse. Algo que sucedió durante el confinamiento con la obra Tànit, protectora d’Eivissa, que todavía se puede ver en el Centro Cultural de Jesús.
Sin embargo, en sus dos últimos años está dando un giro a su obra pintando temas más claros y mas luminosos en lo que posiblemente «sea un giro hacia una nueva etapa».
Alumna de Ferrer Guasch
Fina Escandell entró con diez años en el Instituto Santa María de la ciudad de Ibiza y tuvo de profesor a Vicent Ferrer Guasch, quien fue quien le motivó su amor por la pintura.
Con quince años tuvo ocasión de visitar el estudio de los Puget, Pomar y Ferrer Guasch y conocer en sus estudios a pintores como Elmyr de Hory, Frank El Punto o Grimes. Una experiencia que «fue inolvidable» y le ayudó «a abrir la mente».
Después ha tenido ocasión de asistir a cursos con Pomar, Carlos Genicio, Carla de Angelis en Italia o con el pintor ruso Vladimir Volegov. En este sentido recuerda como «disfrutó mucho» del arte italiano cuando vivió en este país entre 2017 y 2018, tanto de los pintores clásicos como de los contemporáneos. Así, quedó impresionada por la obra del maestro Virginio Rossi, de la Escuela Veneciana, «una persona de un gran sencillez y humanidad» a pudo conocer y tratar cuando vivió allí, y la «grandiosidad y el colorido» de la obra de Mauro Capitani, a quien conoció en Florencia.
Escandell ha participado en numerosas exposiciones colectivas, la mayoría dentro de la Asociación AMAE, de la que es miembro desde 2014, y, en los dos últimos años, dentro del grupo de la revista IbizArt Guide. También ha presentado sus obras en diferentes salas de forma individual o compartiendo con algún otro pintor en la isla y fuera de ella.
Se considera una gran admiradora de los grandes impresionistas del siglo XIX y principios del XX, especialmente de Monet, Renoir y, sobre todo, de Sorolla. También han sido referentes para ella, Narcís Puget Viñas, Narcís Puget Riquer y Toni Pomar, quien le enseñó «casi todo lo que sabe en la antigua Escola d’Arts i Oficis».