María Ángeles Fernández Cuesta (La Pinturitas) (born 1950) is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

self-taught artist known for her ongoing painting work which has transformed the facade of a derelict restaurant in

Arguedas, Navarre Arguedas is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto ...

into a continuously evolving visionary environment.

Life

María Ángeles Fernández Cuesta was born in 1950 in

Toledo, Spain Toledo ( , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the ''de jure'' seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESC ...

. Before she was ten her mother died in childbirth. She spent her childhood in Toledo until moving with her father to Arguedas. In 1973 she married Miguel Galarret and they soon had three children. Much later she gave birth to another child. At times Fernández experienced emotional agitation, including an episode which led to her youngest child being taken into care by social services and housed elsewhere, resulting in a situation in which Fernández could not determine her child's location. Villagers mockingly called her La Pinturitas because of the extravagant makeup she often covered her face with. At 50 “para olvidar las penas”, to forget her pains, she began to paint. This activity became central to her existence, and a decade later she felt that “Me he ganado el respeto de los jóvenes”, she had gained the respect of the young people. She continues to paint as of 2018.

Work

María Ángeles Fernández Cuesta began creating works which blended image: people, animals and faces, with text, as a means to express and ease troubling emotions, in 2000 when she was 50 years old. She chose to make her paintings on the exterior walls of a derelict building in Arguedas that was near a busy roadway. Her paintings came to completely cover the walls of the building in bright primary colored paintings that stretch fifty meters.

Recognition

Photographer Hervé Couton discovered María Ángeles Fernández Cuesta's paintings in 2009 and has returned yearly to create photographs of her work, which have been published internationally in periodicals such as

Raw Vision ''Raw Vision''rawvision.com is a British magazine devoted to outsider art and edited by John Maizels. It features content about the subject worldwide. History ''Raw Vision'' was founded by John Maizels in 1989 as a way of telling people about ou ...

and on the internet. In 2015 the society "Les Amis de La Pinturitas D'Arguedas", Friends of La Pinturitas of Arguedas, was established in

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

, France.

References

External links

La Pinturitas workVideo footage of La Pinturitas painting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez Cuesta, María Ángeles 1950 births Living people 20th-century Spanish women artists 21st-century Spanish women artists 20th-century Spanish painters 21st-century Spanish painters People from Toledo, Spain Outsider artists Women outsider artists Visionary artists Visionary environments