Joana Santamans, nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration
She has designed everything from murals in luxury hotels to illustrated books and is a collaborator of famous fashion brands.
In this interview, we explore the creative world of Joana Santamans, a multidisciplinary artist who fuses painting, illustration and design to create works inspired by nature.
Tell us about yourself and your work. Where did your vocation come from?
Since I was a child my favourite games have been painting and creative crafts of all kinds. I studied graphic design at EINA because I thought that within the artistic field it was perhaps the closest existing profession to what I was interested in, but I soon saw that with graphic design I felt limited, so I took a postgraduate course in creative illustration and started painting.
Little by little between painting, design and illustration I have been finding my creative world and different outlets in the professional world where I make murals for hotels and restaurants, illustrated books with different publishers, special collaborations with companies for different products and exhibitions of my oil painting collections and other techniques.
What do you find most satisfying about your work, and is there anything you are particularly proud of?
I am very happy to have published my two books. LIFE. Illustrated Bestiary y LIFE. Illustrated Herbarium and recently Invisible Animals with a foreword by Viggo Mortensen.
I am passionate about making prints and recently I have been able to collaborate with the fashion brand YERSE and my designs have taken the form of fabrics for dresses. I am very excited about the wallpaper collection "Naturae" that I have created with Coordonné, it's a wish that has been coming true for a long time, interior design has attracted me a lot since I was a child!
I have recently painted two large murals in two very nice five-star hotels. Specifically, I painted a line landscape in the new Boutique Hotel Palau Fugit in the old town of Girona and a very bestial mural with a Japanese feel in the reception of the OHLA hotel in the Quadrat d'Or de l'Eixample in Barcelona. But at the moment, what I find most satisfying is painting in oil in large format. I have just opened a solo exhibition of landscapes and flowers at Espai París by The Room Estudio in Barcelona.
I have also opened a large and bright new studio in the Empordà and I am devoting myself fully to painting. I am looking for a new plastic language and, after the revolution of my recent maternity, I am certain that my path will now lead me to new landscapes and new exhibitions full of colour.
What is your creative process like, what are your sources of inspiration, any particular music while working?
All my work to date is essentially characterised by depicting plants and animals. Nature in general is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As a child I was lucky enough to grow up in a rural environment and I was in close contact with my father's farm. I am drawn to look into the eyes of all the species with which we share the planet and marvel at their existence.
For me, painting is searching for the essence to touch the soul of the viewer. In the process of painting I try to be very present and connected to the action I am doing. Painting for me is a necessity and that is what I have come to do in this world. In my paintings I focus mainly on composition and colour. I am very interested in stain and texture.
Beauty is an essential part of my work. And art, as a universal language, should connect us with beauty. I have often been told that I look like a naturalist painter because, in the process of painting, what I like most is to observe. I am interested in meditation painting, in observing and discovering a landscape in a fur. It's like zooming in to see a whole universe... And that intensity in painting interests me. A certain mysticism.
Music inspires me a lot and I manage to create atmospheres that support me in the creative process, especially during the realisation. To paint I listen to a wide variety of music: pop, folk... but lately mostly jazz and classical music. A track I love at the moment is this one: by Lakmé/ ACT1: "Dôme épais
Favourite colour, book, film and record - in that order! ;D
Is your home a reflection of who you are? Tell us what it smells like, your favourite corner, your favourite decorative object or piece of furniture, if you treasure a collection... And if you have a pet, introduce it to us!
Of course I do! I live and work in my own homes. Both the one in Barcelona and the one in the Empordà speak about me. I like warm, bright spaces with lots of wood and natural fabrics. I love spaces with woollen rugs and sofas and beds full of cushions.
I like the smell of clean, fresh air and woody scents. I prefer white walls to free my mind and fill them with colours in my imagination. The bathrooms with wallpapers from my Coordonné collection and the lamps throughout the house with indirect and very warm light.
My little chihuahua dog is small, affectionate and funny, a real character that gives a lot of joy and affection at home, I have her as a goddaughter and her name is Mica, I take her everywhere!
If you could buy anything right now and take it home, what would it be? Anything!
A bigger garden with a pool, as I love swimming and open spaces. Although having a swimming pool is totally out of the question now with the little rainfall, but if I were to dream, I would love it if it rained a lot and the rivers filled up, I really wish for that!
A great plan at home always includes...
Painting with my daughter, crazy dancing, and quiet jazz music in the background.
Do you have a signature dish?
I love market cuisine, without a lot of frills or sauces, for example: fresh grilled fish with boiled potatoes and tomatoes that taste like real tomatoes! Simple, tasty, well-balanced, and it suits me perfectly.
Where is your favourite place in your city and abroad?
Strolling through Barcelona's Barrio de Gracia and walking along Collserola with views of the sea. Hampsted Heath in London.
Anything you want to tell us that we haven't asked you, speak now or forever hold your peace!
I would like the industry in general to be more ecological, more sustainable, more responsible and therefore not to produce so many products and for those that are designed to be one hundred per cent pampered.
