LÓPEZ OLIVARES, Mari Carmen

Born in Navas de San Juan, Jaén, in 1961. With a degree in Education, she worked as a substitute teacher (1986 pool) in Castellón until 1997, the year she decided to leave teaching to dedicate herself to painting. Although she considers herself self-taught, she has perfected various pictorial techniques under the guidance of renowned artists linked to Castellón: J. Porcar Queralt (1981) and Amáury Suárez (1998–2000), and has participated in several plastic arts and printmaking workshops. In 2005, she was selected for a course at the Ateneo Madrid XXI taught by the prestigious Manchegan artist Antonio López García (Prince of Asturias Award and Velázquez Arts Award). That same year, she won first prize in the 2nd Painting and Sculpture Biennial. In 2009, she entered the Charles Cecil Studios school in Florence for a course in oil portraiture using chiaroscuro (the Baroque technique used by Van Dyck, Velázquez, or Sorolla).