A life by the sea, a room full of light, and the patience to keep looking

Before she painted, Angeles M Pomata spent many years as a clinical psychologist in one of the most prestigious private practices in Madrid. That work left her with a way of looking: attentive, patient, able to see what lies beneath the surface. And a conviction: beauty can do a great deal for someone who is going through a hard time.

In 2007 she withdrew to devote herself to writing and settled in the Cabo de Gata Natural Park, on the wild south-eastern coast of Andalucía, “because of the serenity and candid beauty here.” There she finished her first three books. Painting began as a break from writing, “a manual activity, something to rest my mind on”, and little by little it took over everything.

She began with oil; then came a few forays into watercolour for birds and animals and, later, mixed media. In 2013 she published her first catalogue, and she has not stopped painting since.

Angeles never went to an academy and follows no school. She taught herself, by trial and error and long days at the easel, keeping only what truly served her, and out of that practice of the craft a style was born that cannot be copied or labelled, because it is genuinely her own. Whatever she paints, and in whatever technique, every painting pursues the same thing in its own way: the good, the true and the beautiful, which she considers the essence of art. That is her distinctive signature, and it shows on any wall where her work hangs.