Vicente with a Russian artist in St. Petersburg.
My attraction to art started with my brother Gonzalo, a much greater artist than I, but he paints only abstract art, very similar to Rothko. He teaches drawing classes at the Instituto de Santurce. He lives in Bilbao, in the local old town called Casco Viejo. When I was only eight or ten years old, he taught me oil painting and how to use colors similar to the ones found in nature. He showed me the chiaroscuro effect that draws lines in the heart. He explained how lights in nature always are different, never repeated, that the black color doesn’t exist in nature and that all stains can be created using four primary paint tubes: blue, red, yellow, and white. Around the same time, I also learned veladuras, or the glazing process. He wanted to ingrain the idea of painting from nature, so he took me to the beaches and mountains for inspiration; we came home with some lovely creations from those trips.
Vicente's pet cat in front of a Reagan bust that he created.
He studied Fine Arts, and so did I upon realizing that science was not my cup of tea after a year of studying Geology at the University of the Basque Country. I failed all other science subjects except Geology! After finishing my Fine Arts degree, I married and had two kids. I tried to sell my paintings and sculptures to an art gallery. To my surprise, the owner told me that I was more talented as a sculptor than a painter. He commissioned me to do some works focusing on rural life typical of the Basque Country, including fishing sceneries. Llamas art gallery is in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It has a catalog of my works exhibited sold there.
But income was so irregular (my family and I have to eat every day, not just at certain times of the year) that I had to look for a “normal” job, first as a Customs tax agent, mainly handling bureaucratic paperwork and later as a salesman. I sold all sorts of things: office furniture, padlocks, locks, antitheft devices, helmets, insecticides, wheels--you name it—mainly in the export business. I spent six years living in the UK, near London. There, I did market research for the Spanish Commercial Office under the Spanish Embassy for a little while and then established a daughter company of a Spanish padlock manufacturer to distribute the product in the UK and Ireland.
But income was so irregular (my family and I have to eat every day, not just at certain times of the year) that I had to look for a “normal” job, first as a Customs tax agent, mainly handling bureaucratic paperwork and later as a salesman. I sold all sorts of things: office furniture, padlocks, locks, antitheft devices, helmets, insecticides, wheels--you name it—mainly in the export business. I spent six years living in the UK, near London. There, I did market research for the Spanish Commercial Office under the Spanish Embassy for a little while and then established a daughter company of a Spanish padlock manufacturer to distribute the product in the UK and Ireland.
A close-up view of one of Vicente Jáuregui's creations, which he holds for the camera in the deck of his apartment in Laredo, Spain. Vicente is considered one of the Basque Country's influential contemporary artists. |
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