The popularity of Joana Santamans goes beyond her success on social media and connects with a way of painting, of fitting in with the world or not fitting in, that moves an increasingly large audience. One might say that the result of her works mixes art with design, but you quickly realize that beauty is more abstract than it seems: behind the signature there is an attitude, a gaze, and a risk that has little to do with classical landscape or nature painting. We are facing a contemporary, modern, quite transgressive work, hidden behind simplicity. A simplicity that can always be stimulating and even dangerous.
--- Who are you and what do you do in Barcelona?
--- I am a painter, I am from Barcelona (although I now live in Empordà) and I have just opened an exhibition at Espai París, on París street.
--- Are you a painter or a designer?
--- I am a painter and I always have been. What happens is that now it has fully emerged, with plenitude, through the front door. And I like this because it simplifies me, I do only one thing. Leaving aside that this, having a small daughter, helps. For me it is like my step into maturity: I have always been very Peter Pan, and now it was my turn to settle down. To decide. To bet.
--- And where are we now?
--- We are at Espai París, inaugurated in 2016 by the architecture firm The Room Studio. My exhibition consists of large-format oil paintings of landscapes and flowers on canvas. I had already exhibited twice, once showing works already exhibited at Espai Guinovart in Agramunt, and the other at the inauguration of the space. Then they were works of 120x120, oil on wood, about animals. Not being an art gallery, apart from taking less commission per sale (and that we can even share clients), the works coexist in a space that could look like a house. It is not directed at art, but open to art. Besides, today galleries in Barcelona are very dead, and that must change. Meanwhile, this space favors the works in the sense that they are hung in reality, in the daily and professional activity of the Eixample, and not in a parenthesis for artists. I think it is much more pleasant that way.
--- And what do we do with the galleries?
--- The world changes, and it's possible that galleries are too far behind in adapting to it. Some are, though, right? A few, very few, mix art with design objects, or with farmhouse settings, or focus on online sales. I sell a lot through Instagram, for example. The market is out there!
--- So, there's no trace left of the illustrator and designer?
--- I've been focused on nature as a theme for a long time, and this has defined me quite a bit. I think what defines me is the stain and the color, the personal brushstroke, the identity. But besides being known for my animal portraits, I have also collaborated on books that have given me a lot of exposure and audience, such as the dictionaries of flora and fauna. I have worked as if I were a 19th-century naturalist, but I remember something always worried me: a flower has no eyes! And I solve this apparent obstacle through the color stain, or by putting a black background, or mixing oil and watercolor, or opting for a large format. Suddenly, the flower looks at you. Of course, a flower has a gaze!
--- That and the landscapes.
--- Landscapes come to me mainly through having my studio in Empordà, a house/studio/atelier that is 60 square meters just for me, with large windows, and close to great opportunities for walks. With my daughter. I like to capture the essence of the landscape, only the essence, the stain, the color, the light, the volume. Blur the figure, dance with the work. Completely abandon this damned urge for control, be both solid and liquid.
--- Is that why you're moving towards abstraction?
---Exactly. In the stain, forgive me for repeating myself. Going to the essence, to the spirit. Sometimes, for example, I visualize a painting and write it down. I make notes, with words. So it doesn't escape me.
--- And what are you doing now?
--- When I finish some Christmas commissions, I want to get started with the idea of abstract art. I've already made sketches, in fact, I've been making them for four years. And I've taken many of those quick notes in the field.
--- Tell me about London and New York.
--- London was a whole year, as a graphic designer with people like Enric Jardí or Pilar Gorriz. Although I learned a lot, I felt incomplete. New York was two months, plus a small exhibition in San Francisco with Betty Bigas. In New York I experimented with the city, and there I got married. When I return is when I do the postgraduate degree in creative illustration, at Eina.
--- Is it hard to make a living from painting?
--- It was harder to make a living from other things, that's what I've finally learned. The thing is, it's a long process: first you have to make a name for yourself, feel secure, believe in yourself, create a style, do something that defines you. It has a lot of psychology or spirituality: knowing who you are, accepting how you are, and saying it.
--- Well, give us a self-portrait.
--- How? Should I paint myself?
--- No, quick sketches with words.
--- Very hardworking, very persistent. In love with beauty and life, attracted by color, sensitive, (what they call HSP), dyslexic, striking, unpunctual. Optimistic, hopeful. With character, but tender. And if I like beauty, it's above all for its mystery, I'm not talking about sweetened or easy beauty, but the one that has a story, the one found in reality, however crude it may be. I am a person who, when I enter a hotel, moves things around because simply as they are, they don't seem right to me.
--- And what do you want to be?
--- Apart from happy, I want to be a better mother, and a painter who lives peacefully, dedicating herself only to painting. In the end, an artist is a channel between reality and the work, and therefore requires a time of meditation. To find that unique gaze, which makes people see you. If they see you, it's because you are real.