Cobbled streets of Altea Old Town

The town of Altea is renowned for being very bohemian, with art galleries and street artists plentiful. Part of this is explained due to the fact that Altea houses the fine arts faculty of Alicante University.
Throughout the summer months, if you wonder up the cobbled streets of the old town towards the church, you are flanked by galleries and exhibits displayed on the white washed walls of buildings.

Altea is very quaint in that respect - they seem to follow the same train of thought as Henry Ford when he said you can have any colour of the Model T Ford so long as its black. Here its "you can paint your house any colour so long as its white"!

During the Altea Feria held last month I came across the stand of "Tachi" - a local artist. His works were like nothing I have ever seen before... for one they were ginormous! I took his card and contacted him the following week to arrange a meeting with him, which was easier said than done as he must be one of the very few who does not have a mobile! Rather unusual in this day and age but once he is immersed in his work he does not want the distraction.... I feel like that sometimes!

Famous faces - giant works on display in Altea

Tachi is 39 years old and studied art in Valencia, then took his doctorate in Altea, where he lives. Art is his life and he lives to paint rather than paints to live. I met him at an adult painting class which he runs every Tuesday and Thursday in Altea, run by the council. One thing which I do find here in Spain is that the local authorities really look after their senior citizens well and provide a multitude of services and activities for them, all free of charge.

At his art class in Altea

He told me that he prefers working with older people as they have experience of life and a history. The problem with teachers now is that they all appear to be so young with no experience of life. By working and teaching older people he can absorb their feelings and experiences of life and express these in his paintings. His passion is painting peoples faces, but he always choses those that show character, which normally equates to older people. The pieces he had on display at the Feria were all famous figures but I could see what he meant about character.

Those large portraits measured 1.95m x 1.30m and took him between four and ten hours to paint - he gets totally submerged when at work. He has painted over 100 pieces this year alone... that must be some storage space he has! He does not sell any of his painting at the moment but exhibits them around the world.

You can see the scale of the paintings

In July he spent 3 days in Hyde Park, London at an exhibition sponsored by the "Hard Rock Cafe" - there he demonstrated his skill and raised money for charity at the same time. He took 4 of his huge pieces and 13 small ones. Next year he will be off to Italy at the end of January and then Dubai in March.

His most memorable experience was probably painting under water he told me... yes I had to ask him to repeat that as I thought I had misunderstood. He actually donned a wet suit and took his easel and oils to the bottom of the sea off the Altea coastline! I watched the video on You Tube - yes he did actually paint under water....

Tachi is hoping that one of the large hotels in Benidorm may display some of his pieces - they are certainly eye catching and would give you something to talk about. He isn´t interested in selling any but just wants others to indulge and share his passion.

You can view more of his pieces at:  http://tachipintor.com/