Matthew Alfonso Durante Figurative Paintings

Once upon a time, I used to do horseback riding. I remember how my legs and buttocks used to hurt at first, and I remember the first time I managed to rise in rhythm with the horse i...

This artwork portrays a vast desert scene under a vibrant blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds. In the foreground, two young women stand together, one holding a McDonald's bag, clearl...

Against a vivid blue sky with scattered white clouds, two women dressed in flowing black garments command attention. The foreground figure, holding a striking red umbrella, contrasts...

In this piece, I capture the spirit of independence and defiance. The central figure stands poised yet resolute, a silent assertion of self in a structured environment. The cats, wi...

This artwork depicts a serene coastal scene where a young woman stands beside a vintage white convertible, set against an ocean backdrop and stormy sky. The muted palette of blues an...

This artwork elegantly blends classic and contemporary elements, depicting a young woman in a stylish black outfit holding a phone to her ear. She stands against an endless blue sky...

Fifteen paintings have been donated to a charitable foundation for auctions in various European countries to support the army. It's been four months of work. Now I'm working twice a...

Crafted with acrylics in a symphony of black and gold, this painting captures the essence of strength and elegance. The striking contrast and precise realism convey a sense of intros...

Only the first half of autumn, and I already want in May, at that time when it's already warm in the summer, but the whole summer is still ahead... Dutch acrylic paints Amsterdam an...

Over a year and seven months have passed since I walked the streets at night. But I remember the feeling vividly when walking through the botanical garden at night, tall trees obscur...

Once I lived in a private house. We had four cats, and then we accidentally found the fifth. Where he came from and how long he lived with us is unknown). For texture on the primed c...

Frame size 52x44 Is born in Madrid on the 21st july 1951. After attending primary school, he starts to grow an enormous tendency for drawing. At the age of 14 he begins to work in advertising and attends to the Vallecas school of arts. At the age of 14 he travels to Switzerland and in Geneve he gets intensly into painting and decides to dedicate himself only to it. When he returns to Spain he enrolls Arts Studies, and at the begining of summer '66, he visits Sitges, where he'll come back year after year and where ultimately he'll set his home. At this time he starts selling his painting in the flea market in Madrid and later in Sitges, setting himself on the street, thus completing his studies and making it economically. While he's in Madrid he recives lessons by Pedro Mozas at Bellas Artes and starts to learn profoundly about painting. In 1969 he starts painting portraits in the streets. In Sitges he creates, with other friends, a great artistic atmosphere in the Paseo de la Ribera, by the sea, that today still exists. He starts travelling through Europe, visiting and painting in Paris, London and Amsterdam. In the middle of this bohemian epoque, he moves to the Cannary Islands during the winters for 5 years in a row, he moves in the Parque de Santa Catalina "Las Palmas de Gran Canaria" where he works and meet all sorts of people in the streets, which later would mark his pictoric line. He becomes friend with Sidney Nagley in 1969, who organizes his first exhibition in Toronto, Canada. Afterwards he'll leave his studies and start painting exclusively in his studio. He gathers his first exhibition in the Ateneu of Barcelona in 1970. He befriends with the art critic of La Vanguardia, Fernando Gutierrez and the Count of Caralt orders him a set of illustration for a new edition of Garcia Lorcas Romancero Gitano. His first exhibition in a commercial gallery is done in the Majestic Gallery in Barcelona with a gorgeous collection of nudity drawings. He achieves huge success and for some years he affords his painting thanks to those drawings. During a period in Madrid, Mr Ponce de León, a consul in the Ministry of Exterior Affairs grants him with bachelor degree to study in the prestigious Academia de España in Rome. However, he can't accept it due to militar service obligations. Some days later, before joining the ranks he opens in the Cuatre Gats (Palma de Mallorca) with hiperrealist pieces that already then he presented as the first painter in that city, that later would become a fashion in 1973. After this period he meets José Maria Gudiol who advises positively. Since then, the intense work and the fight for daily improvement that has become the trademark of his life. The seek of styles and situations, the journeys through Europe always aware of all the tendencies that have in the art line that we can see nowadays. At his more than fifty years given to paint, his individual exhibitions beat the 100, his artwork is highly appreciated and valued in the complex market of art. In October 1982 hi makes his first exhibition in Tarragona. In the catalogue, writing of the unforgettable Fernando Gutierrez, he says "Fuentetaja is an artist of character and exceptional upbringing with a masterly knowledge of technique and resourses, and personality completely uncommon to the dimension of his sensitivity, as the richness of his deep and bloomed liricism. A judgement as accurate as foreseeing for the future outstanding of the artist, in where his paint soared through different phases mantaining an unquestionable quality. Lines, cubist, expressionist and hiperrealist till his current realism, in the middle of his creative maturity. Jose Luis Fuentetaja...