“I paint the human figure and explore further till I reach the Beauty of Being, the Soul.. the part of Human Being where everything is in total Serenity, Goodness and Harmony, where no noise exists.”
Montse Valdés never gets tired of recreating and evoking this state of mind constantly and of reflecting this in her paintings. And she really achieves it; her works, made with a genuine, loose and contemporary technique, bring serenity wherever they go.
The technique:
Having studied the technique of oil painting, first at several important academies of Barcelona (1981-84) and later at the École de Beaux Arts in Paris (1985-88), she came to the strong belief that the artist makes him- or herself.
In her relentless search for a satisfying technique she achieved an extraordinary, genuine, very realistic but at the same time very free technique, which characterizes her and which makes her paintings very appreciated and valued by numerous art collectors in the world.
She is specialized in large format oil canvasses. Up close you only see strokes of the palette knife or large volumes of colour, but from a distance they compose the face or the bodies with great definition. And above all, the Being of the image is then revealed. You are penetrated, transformed, and never left indifferent.
The artist remembers drawing from an early age, after which she hesitated for a short period with the world of theater. It was at age 21 that she was being revealed that painting was the artistic medium through which she wanted to express herself.
Montse Valdés recreates herself (as she says) in an ideal world where the mind is peaceful and silent and where all voices are integrated in one melody. The person can then be free of thoughts, loving and creative. This is the world the artist wants to see and inhabit and through her paintings she tries to transmit a pacific world, where every human being is at Peace.
It also should be mentioned that she is an excellent portrait painter, being able to make an accurate, though loose, proper, authentic and contemporary portrait. She puts the Peace of the Soul -of any person who asks her to be portrayed- in relevance.
Valdés was born in Barcelona and at a very young age she traveled to Paris, where she lived for four years. She also spent a year traveling around Asia. Both experiences are key pillars in her personal and artistic trajectory. Currently she lives and works in Barcelona (surroundings).
