Trained as a chemist, Silvia has been painting silk for around 25 years. What started as a hobby is now her full-time job and she sells her hand-painted silk fans and scarves in her shop-cum-workshop in central Seville, close to the Setas (Metropol Parasol). The Cadiz native’s stunning designs, in bright colours and bold shapes, are inspired by nature, although she also does paintings and even makes fans for members of Semana Santa brotherhoods – both women and men

Known as “the alchemist of leather”, José Luis Bazán Fernández is a third-generation master craftsman. With a life dedicated to working with leather, this renowned artisan was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artesanía (National Craftsmanship Prize) in 2021, as well as Andalusian Certified Master Craftsman.

In 1961 French artist, writer and film-maker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) stayed in Marbella for four months, just two years before he died. A permanent exhibition in Marbella commemorates the Andalucian sojourn of this highly influential creative powerhouse, inaugurated to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

We spoke with Francisco Alarcón, a multidisciplinary artist from Estepona, who works in painting, sculpture, and mural art. Deeply inspired by the Mediterranean light and landscape of his Costa del Sol hometown, Francisco explores themes of memory, nature, and human connection. His vibrant, large-scale murals inject colour and identity into urban spaces, whilst his posters showcase Andalusian traditions. Whether working on a public wall or canvas, his art reflects a deep-rooted dialogue with place, tradition, and transformation.

Ara spoke to us at the inauguration of La Almazara Museum, and her enormous mural on the ceiling of the museum and restaurant. 

Sian Faber is an artist based in the white village of Gaucin, a pueblo blanco (white village) whose inspiring beauty has attracted many artists from far afield over the years. In the 2024 edition of the Art Gaucin art exhibition, her current collaborative collection of work, Drawn to Flamenco, stood out with its bold colours, unique materials and its captivating subject, the flamenco dancer, Eliza Gonzalez.

Qualified as a structural engineer, Diego learned how to make flamenco guitars together with his father Luis at their workshop in Seville. The two artisans, also supported by Diego’s mother, handcraft these instruments using Spanish wood, and taking around a month for each beautifully made guitar.

For Malaga-born flamenco dancer-turned-designer José Galvañ, who  has been creating flamenco designs since 2013, this situation presented a challenge. He continues to dance, with performances in Seville as well as tours in China (in normal times).

Arguably one of the most famous, and influential, Spanish painters – alongside Goya, Dali and Picasso – Velazquez is best known for his unconventional royal portrait Las Meninas. Velazquez painted during the Siglo de Oro (Golden Century), the 17th century, when Spain was riding high on a wave of artistic creativity and religious verve, funded by massive wealth from trade with the new colonies in South America.

During the early 1980s, well-known American sculptor, Bayard Osborne, famed for his Bronze Nudes statues, lived briefly at the Villa La Loma, in Calle Ramos Puente in Torremolinos. Born in Manhattan in 1922, Osborne exhibited his work all over the world, and he could count King Juan Carlos I of Spain among his admirers.

One of the most notorious artists to reside in Torremolinos was Elmyr de Hory, a Hungarian-born painter and art forger that lived in the town during the late 1960s. Elmyr de Hory is said to have sold over one thousand forgeries to reputable art galleries all over the world: in 1946, he sold a pen and ink drawing to a British woman who mistook it for an original work by Picasso.

Surrealist genius Salvador Dali and his eternal muse, Gala, were among other notable guests to stay at Carlota Alessandri's hotel El Parador de Montemarhotel. Dali stayed for several weeks during the early 1930s while working on his El Hombre Invisible.

John Spencer-Churchill, Nephew of Sir Winston Churchill was an English painter who once lived in the Molino de Rosario, situated next to the church in Plaza San Miguel. Born in London in 1909, the budding artiste headed to Spain during his early adulthood, where, in 1934, he married a Spanish artist called Angela Culme Seymour.

Horacio Lengo Martinez, an eccentric and rather unstable painter who eventually committed suicide, was born in the Plaza de San Miguel in Torremolinos in 1838. He was the father of Clara Lengo - an artist who gained considerably fame in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - and uncle of famed cartoonists, Tomás and Francisco Sancha Lengo.

Murillo is one of Spain's greatest painters.He was born in Seville, and lived in the city for most of his life. He belonged to the same 17th-century Baroque school as Velazquez and Zurbaran, and formed part of the Golden Age in Seville.This prosperous period was thanks to the wealth which poured into the city from new South American colonies; the arts flourished in Seville.

George Apperley was born to an aristocratic Welsh military family on the Isle of Wight, UK; his father died when he was six. Although he trained at Sandhurst,George showed a preference for art, much to the disapproval of family.

The artist has a roundabout (Glorieta Jorge Campbell) named after him in Malaga, on AvenidaCerrado Calderon, at the junction with Calle Flamenco and CalleAndaluz. Campbell was born in Arklow, County Wicklow in 1917. He went to school in Dublin, and then moved to Belfast, where met his wife Margaret, known as Madge.

Immortalised in street names from Almería to Vélez-Málaga and throughout the Spanish Kingdom , Francisco de Goya is cemented in the lineage of world art icons.

Many people believe that the character of your native land of Andalucía – Córdoba in the case of Víctor, and Sevilla for José Luis – is always reflected in your work. Do you believe this to be so, that these roots are always present in each and every one of your creations?

Prior to his being known for his writing, he was a highly competent painter. In 1925, however, Alberti received the necessary motivation to concentrate on his writing when he gained the National Literature Prize in Spain for his acclaimed work, "Marinero en Tierro".