Ateca Painting

Born in 1978 in Sabiñánigo, since I was a child I have shown interest in drawing, winning several awards in children's drawing competitions in my hometown. In those childhood years I took drawing classes with the Zaragoza painter Miguel Mainar, which strengthened my attention to drawing and painting. In 1996 I moved to study Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza, the city where I have lived since then. Although my academic training was not related to art, that interest never disappears and I continue my self-taught learning by trying different painting techniques, finding in watercolor the technique that most fulfills me and allows me to express myself. Around 2015, thanks to social networks, I began to learn about the work of great watercolor artists such as Joseph Zbukvic, Álvaro Castagnet or Thomas Schaller and I became aware of the need to support this self-taught path with more specific training in the watercolor technique. In this way, since then my training has been fundamentally with online courses complemented by in-person masterclasses and workshops as well as all the resources that many artists selflessly offer through social networks. Since 2018 I have been a member of the Aragon Watercolor Association of which I was Secretary during 2019. In 2020 I established my painting studio in Zaragoza where I have a permanent exhibition of my watercolors. Since the end of 2022, I have begun to upload educational content about watercolor to my YouTube channel "Acuarelas Carmen Alvarez" to share my knowledge about materials and techniques, aimed primarily at amateurs and beginners.