francisco adolfo gutierrez

Artistic background

Francisco A. Gutierrez born in Chile in 1963, now based in London, trained as an architect from the Northern Catholic University in Chile, he came to London in 2004 where he has been working as an architectural assistant and capturing his own experiences and impressions of London through his sketches and watercolours whose main theme has been pubs an cityscapes. For some years he has been focused in doing a collection of paintings to capture the disappearing world of the old traditional pubs of London. The techniques of sketch and watercolour have been the most familiar to the artist. Every painting is time for meditation, reflection and a glimpse of a real experience. Few years ago the artist returned to work with acrylic and canvas as well. This artist always inspired for the drama of light, reflections, the impression of a wet city and atmosphere. From his arrival to London he fell in love with the traditional English architecture and especially the pubs. Sadly he realized that the world of traditional pubs was disappearing and then decided to create a collection of watercolour of pubs of London in which he has been working for some years .Thirty five of these paintings were exhibited in the Hall Library at the Barbican in July 2013. The artist paints these iconic buildings to show their beautiful traditional architecture, their customers, ornaments and style. Each one is unique and they are portrayed surrounded by the drama of the London light, seasons and new buildings. He paints what he sees and his intention is to keep a record of places which are ingrained in the culture. These images are recorded into our collective memories, full of emotions, experiences and reminiscences. In August and September 2013 after the exhibition in the Hall Library at the Barbican, Francisco exhibited in the City of Split in Croatia in the exhibition hall of the main library there as well. In this opportunity the artist shown watercolour paintings of Split city; place which the artist has been permanently visiting. He was member of Islington Art Society from 2009 to 2017 exhibiting with the group permanently. On 2017 Francisco exhibited again in the Hall of the Barbican Library in this time showing a retrospective of his work. The last years he has been painting landscapes from holidays and parks of London, some of these paintings are acrylic on canvas. On 2019 he decided to retire completely from architecture and dedicate full time to painting. His studio is at home and is permanently open and the artist is inviting people constantly. Exhibiting in local coffee shops and local church has been a good experience as well.