José Luis Checa

Albufera of Valencia Spain seascape original oil on board painting

c.2000

About the artist: He was born in 1950, Valencia (Spain) but his destiny did not seem to point to the fine arts. His family was quite poor, so he had to start working at a very young age. Following the family tradition he was employed at the local cigarette factory; he also worked as a kitchen assistant. However, he admired the impressionist masters (like Joaquin Sorolla) and was also thrilled with post-impressionism. When he was 25, he started painting in the docks of the Port of Valencia. Checa is an artist with a high visual sensitivity, always moved by the beautiful and changing chromatic skin of nature; he is in love with the fleeting and transitory environment: light, sky, clouds, water .... Therefore Checa is, and always will be, a landscape artist: a theme which is the essence of the most pure and old Impressionist painters. He is a self-taught artist, he paints from nature, and reinterprets what he sees, but without fear, although he later does some final retouching at the studio; but without getting lost in too many changes on first impressions. His paintings has all the influence of the great artist Joaquin Sorolla.