Every time we suggested her to show her paintings in an exhibition, grandma Montserrat said that she painted only for her relatives and closest friends. And she worked hard: more than 150 of her paintings are exhibited in various households. I post a small selection of her canvas in this “virtual gallery”.
See, mountain, town, city
Already at a young age, grandma began to show that she had an innate ability for drawing. Her time at the School of Fine Arts helped her perfect her technique.
This selection of her works reflects the variety of motifs in his painting, which include the Mediterranean and towns on the Costa Brava – such as Cadaqués. From the Riba d’en Pitxot, the view shows the church of Santa Maria, Port d’Alguer beach and the well-known arcades of this promenade where Salvador Dalí had his studio.
She drew other towns in Empordà. Pals, for example, which has a remarkable medieval historic center that grandma Montserrat perfectly knew how to capture with her paint brush. Or Calella de Palafrugell, with its famous vaults and Port Bo beach.
The sea often features in her grandmother’s paintings, but so do mountain landscapes – and Barcelona, the city where she was born in 1917. That year, the great Exposition d ‘French Art. Maybe the fact that the grandma was born in the year of that exceptional exhibition had something to do with her passion for painting, who knows!
Versions … and family houses
In addition to seascapes and interiors, she also did her own interpretation of works by renowned painters. This is the case of Plein Air, by Ramon Casas, one of the Barcelona-born artist’s most paradigmatic paintings; or a detail from The spinners (Las hilanderas) by the baroque painter Diego Velázquez. In terms of technique, although she usually painted watercolors she also did some oil, pen drawing, and charcoal.
Either motu proprio or at the request of one of us, grandma painted family houses and views of the family villages. The scenes of her paintings are mostly in Catalonia – from the Priorat to the Empordà regions through the Maresme and the Vallès – but also in Galicia on the border with Portugal, and even in Ecuador.
One of the last motifs she painted were the bridges of La Vilella Baixa, in the Priorat, another of the familiar towns. Grandma painted in a room in her house, her “atelier” at home, the place where she created her works.
Montserrat Vendrell Salvia in her studio (2006)