As you can read in his biography, you love to reflect reality through the potrets, you are interested in faces and their intimacy. Why?

I compare with the contemplation the painting of potrets. It gives me the opportunity to meet a person differently, in a relaxed way, because the project brings us together and we share an incredible moment. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we shut up, recording sensations with sweetness. Most of all, I like to paint my face because it's the key part of people I like. Cicero said that the eyes are the windows of the soul, that there is so much on the face, not only the physiognomy, but the being of the person, the character, the humor. To witness it, to appreciate individuality, to go beyond the surface fascinates me. But at the same time, I want to reflect on the whole, the individual. Who is it? Holistically, I'm not just trying to paint by focusing on the face, putting people in their space and in their time. I want to catch the person in his everyday, dressed, in his usual environment.

What does this motivation have to do with their studies and research in anthropology and social sciences?

In the social sciences, the objective is to understand the social position, explain it and construct theories about it, to apply it to other social facts. The uniqueness of social anthropology is its research method, ethnography, which demands that the researcher spend a lot of time in a space that explores, with people, communicating with them, knowing their experiences and trying to understand their lives in the light of their experiences. Also in realistic painting. What I see is reviving. Consideration should be given to objective elements, such as the effect of light on the face. Their duplication is difficult if there are many people on the move. I look for improvisation and naturalism, and I try to create the image with an analytical approach. But I choose the angle from which I look at people, so I unconsciously paint what I feel about that being and make a social comment. It's also very important to make sense of beauty: I love seeing the effect of light on things.

Do they throw you other ways besides the realistic line?

The portrait fascinates me and never sinks. The more I know the possibilities and dimensions of the dye, the more I like it. At the same time, I'm always afraid before the new portrait begins. It's not easy to do it, but this big challenge excites me and keeps me in uncertainty. Every face is so unrepeatable and unique, that I can't afford to fall into the routine. Making a new portrait is like doing it for the first time.
I am very inspired by artists who have made compositions in many ways. In them, the Mexican muralists, the French of the Italian Renaissance and the Basque realists of the 19th century. Six years ago, I've been aroused by the ambition to produce such a big scene to tell people's experiences. I haven't executed it yet for lack of means, but at the same time I think I should concentrate to dye individuals on a canvas, to show their uniqueness. I want to explore that, and then I'm going to start a harder project of the big scenes.
Painting with pencil also drives me crazy. I have fun making croquis of invented characters. As I'm in Reno, I'm going to start again the series of pencils that I produced a few years ago. So I reflected the day-to-day life of the Basque Country. Among other things, I had the idea of showing the different aspect of this people, far from the clichés. Finally, since January 1 of this year I have launched a blog http://bit.ly/uQKZe5 with the aim of showing an image every day. I will keep it all year. On the one hand, to force me to take a pencil every day. And on the other hand, to be dedicated to preparing bigger projects that I have in painting.

Where do you look in today's painting? What work, what direction inspires you?

Like many painters, I don't tire of looking at works of painting or chisel from the 15th to the 19th century. Not in the very subtle way that every artist has to capture the light, reflect nature and compose and translate form. I love Joaquín Sorolla and Antonio Ortiz de Echague. They paint ethnographically close to my interests. The German Kathe Kollwitz inspires me a lot. Because in addition to the sensitivity and strength of his work, he was a committed artist. Today's realistic painters, on the other hand, interest me less. It seems to me that they often use artificial colors, they have too much technicality and too little emotion. In contemporary art, I get closer to installations, photography, videos or abstract painting and carving. In them, I feel the technical virtuosity, the strength of the image and the ability to tell a story.

Do you need to look for today's trends? Where do you do this search?

I usually make the knowledge of other artists because I have the habit of working in different situations, attending art classes, premieres and exhibitions. That is why we are exchanging ideas and experiences. It's like being a member of a large community, but not being associated. Since I was in Florence and Madrid I have known many realistic painters. Many of them are in Britain or the United States. But I think, at the end of the day, the important thing is to stand alongside the other actors in society, without falling into the conventional world of art. Without that, we're in our disappointed world, that is, we're just talking to ourselves, and that for me, is the opposite of being an artist. As a painter, I don't care about fashion, what sells, what attracts attention, what doesn't... I follow what attracts me: the direct relationship with people and with nature. I'm often told that painting is from the past, that it's traditional, that it doesn't make sense in today's hyper-technological world. But why is it that the work of teachers of the past still attracts us so much? Painting is a direct relationship with the subject, so it is always present today. Realistic painting will also be topical, provided that the people here and now show the current reality.

You live regularly in England, in the Basque Country, in Italy, in the United States… You paint here and there. In other words, can you say that you have a “travelling study”?

During this last dozen years I lived in Florence, where I studied and worked in two art schools and at university. After completing university research, I wanted to follow the painting. Since then, I have been organizing to come to Euskal Herria for at least four months a year and achieve that goal. I paint mostly at people's homes. For several years I have had a workshop in Florence and San Sebastian. This summer I was in Berlin and there I had a workshop for two months. I would very much like to have my own house and my “residence”. So far it has not been possible, on the one hand, for lack of resources; on the other hand, because I wanted to work in different places with people. I really like to improvise, like painting at people's homes, in the environment that corresponds to it. If you only work in the workshop you risk falling into excess comfort and routine, in repetition. I want life to paint, and for that you have to get dirty.

What does this reflective nomadism bring to your art?

I think the experience of my life in different places has taught me to adapt more easily to different situations. I therefore relativise things more easily and more easily measure their complexity, as well as their different points of view. There are ups and downs, loneliness, fear and many doubts. But after all, it is enriching. All of this makes me want to translate into the paintings the diversity of the living people. And it encourages me to look for the origin of humanity through the portrait.