Premio Combat Prize

DAVID ANOCIBAR ARROQUI
I am a deep admirer of the tradition and the principles of Realism in painting and, at the same time, I am keen on matterism and conceptual aspects. Every day events of daily life inspire my work. In essence, I like portraying people connected to me which I try to create evoking images. I have been attracted to the language of painting since I was a child. However, the process to consider myself as an artist has been long and gradual.
Because of my initial training as a fine art restorer, I care about making good choices in materials to work with. I use traditional raw materials of high quality and I like assembling and priming my handcrafted canvases.
I mainly deal with oil-painting in a realistic/naturalistic style. I learned life drawing in the Mikel Esparza’s studio for five years, who encouraged me to expand my knowledge in this traditional craftin the Art Student League and the National Academy of Design located in New York City. Thereby, I was able to research and learn the technique of several realistic American masters such as Mary Beth Mckenzie, Max Guinsburg and Peter Cox.
Among thetop prizes I have accumulatedin a number of art contests in the last five years, I would like to highlight those ones received in 2015: 1stprize XIX National Painting Contest ”Ciudad de Calahorra” and 1stPrize VII Painting Contest ”Aguas de Barbastro”. Likewise, my artwork was also selected for the ModPortrait exhibition in MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain) last year.