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JOSÉ LUIS CHECA
He was born in 1950 in Cabañal (Valencia) but his destiny did not seem to point to the fine arts. His was a poor family, so he had to start working at a very young age. Following the family tradition he was employed at the local cigarette factory; he also worked as a kitchen assistant. But he admired the impressionist masters and was also thrilled with the post-impressionism. The painting bug bit him when he turned 25. By then he started painting on the docks of the Port of Valencia. And there came the small miracle that would lead him to the splendid career that now unfolds for him: He was 'adopted' by the famous art group 'Pont de Fusta'.
This popular group, which acquired this name because most of its members met around the old wooden bridge over the Turia, close to the Serranos towers, consisted, among others, of Jorge Guillemot, Máñez, Estellés, Moya, López, Tébar, Arnedo, Castells Vázquez ... Checa recognizes that they took pity on him; but not because they saw any potential in him, but because he was eager.
Checa is an artist with a high visual sensitivity, always moved by the beautiful and changing chromatic skin of nature; He is in love with the fleeting and transitory environment: Light, sky, clouds, water .... Therefore Checa is also, and always will be a landscape artist, a theme which is the essence of the most pure and old Impressionist painters.
He looks a little like Sorolla, and he unconsciously cultivates this similarity, with modesty. He has a thick beard and wears a straw hat when he paints his canvases with brush-strokes that convey accurate impressions of shapes and colors, that he captures through his half- closed eyes. For José Luis Checa is an impressionist painter like Sorolla, (differences aside), and often paints under the bright light of the beaches of Malvarrosa and Cabañal. He is truly a Sorolla look-alike, with his beard and the straw hat he dons when he paints his impressionistic brushstrokes, capturing all the light and color of the beaches of Malvarrosa and Cabañal.
From there he began a long journey of self-learning, but with the commendable technical support of Guillemot, who first showed him the techniques and the basics. He never went to a regular art school, but came to a tacit agreement with Guillemot: 'I drove him in my car and he taught me'. This way he became an impressionist artist, follower of a classical lineage of Spanish painters who worked in Rome, as Sorolla, or Martin-Rico, and acquiring the influence of Venetian themes, which now he captures with great rigour in his canvases. He paints from nature, and reinterprets what he sees, but without fear, although he later does some final retouching at the studio; but without getting lost in too many changes on first impressions; because he knows he would end up spoiling the painting.
Checa notes that sometimes he paints what he likes, and some others he must create commissioned pieces to make his living, as his clients prefer some themes over others, so he must deliver to them. And he admits that, as a professional artist, his deals with Galería de Arte Subastas Valencia were the ones which gave him the ultimate opportunity and support to launch himself.