WOX: Who are we and why you chose this community (Juan Gallego, @arcoiris)

in hive-185836 •  3 years ago 

Hello steeminians! Here I am, stoically enduring the onslaught of the heat waves with which the weather is pounding us in the Mediterranean area. I wanted to respond to the call made by @stef1 in https://steemit.com/hive-185836/@stef1/wox-who-are-we-and-why-you-chose-this-community-500-steempower-up-voting-event.

I'm Juan Gallego, a Spaniard from a village of La Mancha, like Don Quixote. But I can tell you its name: Daimiel. It is located in the western part of La Mancha, the so-called "Wet-Mancha", around the upper course of the Guadiana river. Precisely, many of the landscapes that surround me I have shared in Steemit through my paintings. This is a rural area of agricultural plains, but also of wild nature, since the Tablas de Daimiel National Park, a European ornithological paradise of the first order, is located in my village municipal area. Hence in my watercolors proliferate all kinds of species of ducks and other waterfowl.


masterclass.jpg
Watercolor masterclass at the Casa de la Cultura of Daimiel

¡Hola steeminianos! Aquí ando, aguantando estoicamente los embates de las olas de calor con el que nos machaca el clima en la zona mediterránea. He querido responder al llamamiento que hizo @stef1.

Soy Juan Gallego, español de un pueblo manchego, como don Quijote. Pero yo sí puedo deciros su nombre: Daimiel. Está situado en la zona occidental de la Mancha, la denominada "Mancha húmeda", en torno al cauce alto del río Guadiana. Precisamente, muchos de las paisajes que me rodean los he compartido en Steemit a través de mis cuadros. Este es un ámbito rural de llanuras agrícolas, pero también de naturaleza salvaje, ya que en el término de mi localidad se encuentra el Parque Nacional de las Tablas de Daimiel, un paraíso ornitológico europeo de primer orden. De ahí que en mis acuarelas proliferen todo tipo de especies de patos y otras aves acuánticas.

I am a retired teacher who has been dedicated to art all my life in many facets. As a teacher I specialized in the area of plastic expression to instill in children the love for art. I have enjoyed working with them on creativity with all kinds of activities and the murals we painted still persist in my old schools.

As I am very restless, I have been involved several times in different enterprises: I had a professional photography studio for a while, later, with my children, a workshop of vehicles artistic customitazion (trucks, cars, motorcycles and even backgrounds for fairground attractions), and then a printing studio of artistic reproductions on fine art paper. I have also worked in advertising, illustration and editorial design for various publications. A few years ago I got into all this blockchain stuff and now I'm getting a lot of attention in the NFT world. Although I still don't understand it very well.

Soy un maestro jubilado que se ha dedicado al arte durante toda la vida en una gran cantidad facetas. Como profesor me especialicé en el área de expresión plástica para inculcar en los niños el amor por el arte. He disfrutado mucho trabajando con ellos la creatividad con todo tipo de actividades y aún persisten en mis antiguos colegios los murales que pintamos.

Como soy muy inquieto, me he embarcado varias veces en diveras empresas: tuve un estudio profesional de fotografía durante un tiempo, más tarde, con mis hijos, un taller de decoración artística de vehículos (camiones, coches, motos e, incluso, atracciones de feria), y luego un estudio de impresión de reproducciones artísticas sobre papel de bellas artes. También he realizado trabajos de publicidad y de ilustración y diseño editorial para diversas publicaciones. Hace unos años me enfrasqué en todo esto de la blockchain y ahora me está llamando mucho la atención el mundo del NFT.



Much of my paintings can be seen on my Steemit profile, or on my website https://pintandoacuarelas.blogspot.com, so below I will share other types of artwork I have done over time.


Carteles.jpg
Some of my posters


ilustraciones.jpg
A selection of my illustration and editorial design work


aerografía.jpg
Airbrush works on a motorcycle and a truck.


DSC01341P.jpg
Painting a van of a tourism company with one of my sons
and working on the ticket office of a fairground attraction.


DSCF0548.JPG
Painting a mural for the reception of a student residence
(Ciudad Real campus of the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)



But, above all, I am a painter. And, more than anything, I consider myself a watercolorist.I have many exhibitions behind me, individual and collective, and when I have been motivated, I have participated in various painting contests. In the last few years, I have tried with the fast painting contests, but I have realized that I am too slow in creating my watercolors and that, more than copying reality, I like to create fantasies and strange dreamlike and alien landscapes. As an artist, one of the most fulfilling things for me in the last fifteen years has been discovering the Hispacuarela forum, a group of Spanish and Latin American watercolorists. We started to get to know each other and to make constructive criticism of the paintings we shared, and then we have been organizing meetings to get to know each other personally and to paint all together in different corners of Spain. We have had several exhibitions, both here and on the other side of the Atlantic (in Puerto de Santa María and Montevideo).

Pero, ante todo, soy pintor. Y, más que nada, me considero acuarelista. Llevo muchas exposiciones a mis espaldas, individuales y colectivas y, cuando me he visto motivado, he participado en concursos de pintura. En los últimos años, lo he intentado con los certámenes pintura rápida, pero me he dado cuenta de que soy demasiado lento al elaborar mis acuarelas y que, más que copiar la realidad, a mí me gusta crear fantasías y paisajes oníricos y alienígenas. Como artista, una de las cosas que más me ha llenado en estos últimos quince años ha sido descubrir el foro de Hispacuarela, un grupo de acuarelistas españoles e hispanoamericanos. Empezamos a conocernos y a hacer crítica constructiva de los cuadros que compartíamos, y luego hemos estado organizando encuentros para conocernos personalmente y pintar todos juntos en diversos rincones de España. Hemos llegado a hacer varias exposiciones, tanto aquí como en el otro lado del charco (en Puerto de Santa María y en Montevideo).



These are some pictures of our Hispacuarela meetings.


image.png

IMG_3706.JPG

SABIOTE 014.JPG

IMG_3693.JPG



Why do I like so much the World of Xpilax community?

I discovered Steemit about four years ago, through one of my sons. I was immediately interested in the same international and multi-cultural spirit that attracted me to Hispacuarela. I enjoyed discovering artists from all over the world with whom to share experiences. However, the beginnings were quite hard, because I felt that my art was hardly reaching people. The biggest support at that time came from a few users organized in what they called The Talent Club.

After a couple of years, my presence on Steemit became intermittent, until the Steemit / Hive split. That situation, added to other circumstances, and then the arrival of the pandemic, kept me away from this social network. When I returned, a few months ago, I discovered that, among other developements, the main new feature was the implementation of the "communities". And immediately it was in World of Xpilar where I saw that my shared works were really appreciated. Not only because they were voting me, but also because of their feedback. Their comments motivated me to make a small watercolor tutorial, for example. Anyway, I recognize that I practically only move on the artistic side of the community. I would like to be more participative but it takes me quite a while to post on my own blog, as I try to make it bilingual, English/Spanish, and I have to ask my sons for help in translations. Certainly, I'm not too sure if English speakers understand my posts well.

In the future, I would like to get more and more involved in the activities of the community and learn how to record and publish videos, since I want to start sharing watercolor tutorials for beginners, even if they are simple, about mixing colors, types of brushstrokes...

Finally, I would like to nominate this community as Community of the Month for their excellent work supporting culture and art, dynamizing the community with a multitude of proposals and contests, for their willingness to help Steemit users, no matter how small they are, and for the diffusion they make of the work of many artists with projects such as Art-Venture Magazine.

Regards!

¿Por qué me gusta tanto la comunidad World of Xpilar?

Descubrí Steemit hace unos cuatro años, por medio de uno de mis hijos. Enseguida me interesó por ese mismo espíritu internacional y multcultural que me atrajo de Hispacuarela. Me gustaba descubrir artistas de todo el mundo con los que compartir experiencias. Aunque los inicios fueron bastante costosos, pues sentía que mi arte apenas llegaba a la gente. El mayor apoyo me llegó de unos cuantos usuarios organizados en lo que llamaron The Talent Club.

Después de un par de años, mi presencia en Steemit se hizo intermitente, hasta que llegó la división Steemit/Hive. Esa situación, sumada a otras circunstancias, y luego a la llegada de la pandemia, me mantuvieron alejado de esta red social. Cuando regresé, hace unos meses, descubrí que, entre otras novedades, se habían formado esto de las "comunidades". Y enseguida fue World of Xpilar donde vi que se apreciaba de verdad las obras que compartía. No solo porque me votasen, sino por su feedback. Sus comentarios me motivaron a hacer un pequeño tutorial de acuarela, por ejemplo. De todos modos, reconozco que prácticamente me muevo por la faceta artística de la comunidad. Me gustaría ser más participativo, pero soy bastante lento publicando en mi propio blog, ya que intento hacerlo bilingüe, inglés/español, y debo pedir bastante ayuda a mis hijos en las traducciones. La verdad es que no estoy muy seguro de si los angloparlantes entienden bien mis posts.

Para un futuro, me gustaría poder implicarme cada vez más en las actividades de la comunidad y aprender a grabar y publicar vídeos, ya que quiero empezar a compartir tutoriales de acuarela, aunque sean sencillos, para principiantes, sobre mezcla de colores, tipos de pinceladas...

Me gustaría nominar a esta comunidad como Comunidad del mes por su excelente labor apoynando la cultura y el arte, dinamizando la comunidad con multitud de propuestas y concursos, por su disposición a la hora de ayudar a los usuarios de Steemit, por pequeños que sean, y por la difusión que hacen del trabajo de multitud de artistas con proyectos como Art-Venture Magazine.

¡Un saludo!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Thank you for sharing your story behind and choosing our community with our project. We are grateful for this introduction into the world of creativity and beauty of Art.


Dear @steemcurator01, please stop on this post, Juan Gallego is a professional Artist and he presented his artistic background, his biography and his Art events. This is exclusive post on Steemit, as your team prefer.

Would be grateful if you could support it too,

Thanks,

It's the least I could do. The WOX community also has supported me a lot and has very interesting projects. I wish I could find more time to participate in contests and other events. But of course, if I don't paint, I won't have any more watercolors to share, hehehehe.

Hermosa labor y gran trayectoria artística. Bendiciones y éxitos para usted en esta gran comunidad de arte.😄🎨❤️

Mirando tu trabajo, veo la experiencia de un profesional. Has trabajado en diferentes áreas de la creatividad artística y tienes algo que compartir con tus amigos.
Gracias por sus amables palabras a la comunidad WOX y su apoyo.
No se preocupe por traducir al inglés. El inglés tampoco es mi lengua materna, pero el traductor de Google hace un buen trabajo. Especialmente si construye oraciones simples.
¡Te deseo salud y éxito!

  ·  3 years ago (edited)

¡Muchas gracias! La verdad es que los traductores ayudan mucho.

de acuerdo :)

Hi Juan, that is a beautiful surprise to see your post, I knew that you are busy and also I read in one of the comment that you wrote to @romanie that writing in English is difficult for you and that your sons helping you. To reassure you I have not noticed any problems when reading your post. It is understandable and well written. As you might heard many times English language is one of the simple languages with simple grammar.

I would like to thank you sons for their help with translating your posts and really appreciate for doing English version too.

When I saw first time your profile I thought that there is more behind only an illustration because the works were so unique and of course very high quality. I am pleased that you started to do proper posts and sharing your world with us. I am pretty sure there are much to tell with your lifelong experience.

When seeing such variety of Art area that you did I can only say wow!. I really love your watercolour classes and would would be love to attend them. The painting outside with group of friends sounds very relaxing and enjoyable.

The illustration on truck, motorbike and murals are unique examples too.Your post deserves more attention and I hope many will discover your too like me.

Thank you for being a part of our community and also for your beautiful contribution :)

Thank you very much for all those words. The truth is that it is exciting when you see that your art is appreciated. And really, thank you very much to you for keeping the spirit of this community so high.

Thank you @arcoiris for your review of WOX, appreciate it

Your post is manually rewarded by the
World of Xpilar Community Curation Trail

STEEM AUTO OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY XPILAR TEAM

Saludos amigo @arcoiris

Es un honor ver a artistas como usted, compartiendo su talento en nuestra comunidad, gracias por su apoyo.

Muchas gracias por el comentario. La verdad es que soy yo el que está agradecido por el apoyo que brinda la comunidad.

Wonderful works of art, @arcoiris. I have enjoyed reading your post a lot!

Thank you very much!
¡Muchas gracias!

You post is nominated for „@art-venture“ Support Program, @booming account upvote. Only the posts that are not cross posted, original and posted from Xpilar community page and using tag #art-venturehave priority. If your post gets approval, then you get upvote within few days. Good luck!