Hello there! here I will share an interview that I conducted on my father…hope you enjoy!

How did the Canary Islands influence you as an artist?

I suppose that the fact that in the Canaries there was not much information about art history, nothing predicted I would one day be a painter, that opportunity came out of the blue, literally…

Only recently, when I finally realized that painting is practically extinct as an art form and I still believe in it.

My favorite is always the one I’m working on, but I have a special liking for my first works when I had not yet much technical experience.

At least five hundred oil paintings and some three thousand drawings.

I’ve traveled since I was a kid, first with my parents and then by myself when I turned 16 and went to N.Y. One of my favorite places is Marrakesh, where I met my wife Willy. Also I like Oregon, where we live now.

I’m working on something I started a few months ago and will take few more to finish, it is a picture in oil on hard board of a monk in deep contemplation, I think I will call it “The abyss of doubt”, no doubt God is the source.

That is top secret.

I write about very serious and important subjects like life and death, religion and God, but in my own humorous style. Also about personal trips and experiences, right now I have 13 books available published in Lulu.

Time. A masterpiece is a work of art recognized by a great majority and kept in a museum, before that it is only speculation.

Whatever I or anybody thinks, only time can tell who is who.

We live in Oregon on a farm, a beautiful place.

Each place has something but you cannot have everything, I loved Holland because they have the best art supplies in the world, but Oregon has all the beauty of nature and peace to work. My dream is to have enough money to go anywhere I want, but as good as a place can get nothing can compare to the place you are born, in my case is the Canary Islands.

I would like to make an exhibition in N.Y. fifty years after my first one there, but that is for the moment only a dream.

I don’t have any gallery representing me as of now. My website is soon to come and is under construction, but you can go directly to me “salvadormaron@yahoo.com” and my prices are still pretty affordable. Still to sell a painting is quite a miracle, a real test to your vocation, I could write a book about that, so stay posted.

If I had the knowledge I have now I would have become a monk, but I thank God to give me the chance to paint.

I’m not very optimistic but if instead of politics and military, artists could run the world; there would be a greater chance of a better future.

Ok my loved ones…until next time!

Here is Maron with Marie Helene Guy-de-Rotschild both in person and immortalized on canvas. He was introduced to her by a lady friend Florence Shoeler that he met during his last winter stay in Canary Islands, Florence and Marie Helene were very close.

Above you see the drawing of the patio.

This article came out in the “Pueblo Newspaper”…

Below an article in HOLA! (HELLO!) magazine

Here is the English translation

The barons de Rothschild have also chosen the Costa del Sol for summer.
Several months ago their arrival had been announced, some details are missing in the chalet they acquired during the winter and it has been prince of Hohenlohe, pioneer of the Coast and main tourist attraction, that took care himself to find the  appropriate villa and is handling the necessary arrangements. Prince Max, Alfonso’s father, was Hohenlohe agent who arranged the buying of the property. One of the improvements made in the building figures a splendid swimming pool with a natural waterfall, whose works are yet to be finalized.

The Baroness de Rothschild has quickly made friends among the vacationers settled in Marbella; and not only among aristocrats and millionaires. Her best friends are writers, singers, characters somewhat bohemian whose life has attracted her from the beginning.

Among her friends of everyday day figures a young painter, Salvador Maron, from Canary Islands, who since some months has established his headquarters in Marbella. With only eighteen years, he has achieved to be placed in a leading position among the Spanish portrait painters.
  When Salvador Maron met the Baroness de Rothschild he strongly urged her to make a portrait. And he has. Every afternoon, promptly,the baroness moves to the home the young painter shares with a remarkable writer Juan de Prat-Gay, who was director of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, and consecrates a few hours of her time to pose for the artist.

In the painting, on a pastel blue background, there is the figure of the Baroness de Rothchild wearing a striped mini skirt dress. The painting comes out of nowhere and ends with the blonde hair of the illustrious lady surrounded by the bluish background.
After several poses, the painting has been completed. The baroness approached the house of the painter to judge the work. She was accompanied by the Baron de Redé, owner of Hotel Saint Louis, one of the most famous Renaissance palaces of Paris, and the writer Prat Gay. For a long time they discussed the likeness of the portrait with its owner. Finally the opinion of the artist prevailed. And the portrait stays just as it can be seen in the picture.

CANDIDE (French magazine)

English translation

The last portrait of Baroness Guy de Rothschild will be signed by a young painter still unknown in France, but soon will be talked about. Salvador Maron, a native of the Canary Islands rarely wears a shirt and never  shoes, paints when he wants and not for everyone, gets paid very expensive or not at all depending on his mood. His extravagance does not stop at being regarded by art critics as one of Madrid’s strongest hopes for the new figurative painting in Spain. The portraitist of the Baroness de Rothschild was discovered by the former director of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, Juan de Prat-Gay. He is 18.

That August Pepe Moreno offered an exhibition to Maron in Marbella where this portrait was featured. Pepe Moreno (the club) was also an important landmark for socialites, many kings, princess, designers and everyone who was anyone would make a point to go to this venue to unwind and party. I found a little excerpt on Google that describes a bit of this club…

“By the latter half of the 1960s, Marbella was a fully accredited pit stop on the international circuit, which chimed perfectly with the hedonism of the swinging decade. Jean-Pierre Martel, now Marbella’s leading interior designer, first visited the resort as a child in the 1950s, when there had been nothing between Marbella and the next town of San Pedro but olive groves and the Marbella Club. He returned in 1967 and remembers an enclave of sybaritic chic. “I stayed at La Fonda – it was the place to be at the time,” remembers Martel. “There was Pepe Moreno, a nightclub that was very much like the chill-out lounge-style discothèques of today, but with a library, fireplace and an olive tree in the middle of the dance floor.”

This was the invitation to such exhibition…

Here I show you #26 Bianca Hernandez

Here is #33, the interior. This is the interior of the apartment he rented which belonged to Jimmy Caffrey, a renowned interior decorator.

Finally I will self indulge here and show you a self portrait he did which is endearing to me because it resembles my son, who’s  middle name is Salvador

Can you see it?? of course you can!

this is a portrait of my son that Maron did.

I leave you with this for now and until next time…

In Maron’s words; after the glitz and glamor of New York and the travels to Madrid & Canary Islands, all the fun and relaxation comes to this point where he now returns to confront the seriousness of art face to face. Now we find him in Madrid and we are able to see his venturing into color and oil painting, canvas, brushes, the whole bit!…the beginning of the legendary painter as a professional career is unfolding. Here is a view of Madrid from his window.

Here is a beautiful interior still life…

This drawing above is of a young man who during this time was an assistant to Juan de Prat-Gay.

Below is a drawing of a very known park in Madrid called The Retiro. This park I would frequent during my adolescence, it was very nice and peaceful, huge park full of trees and paths you can take. It also had a big lake where you could rent a little paddle boat and hang there for the day…I remember many trips to the park while sipping on a Spanish Horchata (sooo good! different from Mexican Horchata, slightly but noticeable) and having fun with my best friend…lots of stories but we will save them for another time . Well when I look at this drawing I see the park, it takes me there…These are the 4 statues, 4 kings called “Los Reyes Godos”

I am going to include 2 pictures of the actual statues in this park and some History about them…

Many years ago school education was based on rote learning. The students had to learn things by heart: grammar rules, mathematical rules, etc. In Spain, one of the classical things that schoolchildren had to learn by heart was the list of the Gothic Kings (la lista de los Reyes Godos), that is the list of Spanish kings since the end of the roman Empire until the arrival of the Moors. The list includes some extremely odd names: Sigerico, Teudiselo, Wamba, Chindasvinto.

Now we move on to this beauty, the son of a friend called Agustin Hernandez, a known Spanish painter. It is called “boy in red”. One of his first large oil pieces.

This is “Paquita”

Finally I share with you the “Estanque del Retiro” beautiful place and painting, this is actually a large painting, it is 2 meters wide.

For now I will leave you with this…stay tuned until next time!

Hey my loves! here we continue with Maron’s travels…he now returns to The Canary Islands and already the buzz was getting around. I am going to share his first self portrait, he made it around this time.

This next interview was done by the most important Newspaper of all Canary’s. His grandfather who is my Great Grandfather bought that very paper everyday. Here I will show you the article!

This is very hard to see so I am including a transcription in its original Spanish and also an English translation below it…enjoy!

Cuando Salvador Maron se marcho de Las Palmas llevando sus dibujos bajo el brazo, quizá nadie, ni siquiera el, he imaginado el triunfo que le aguardaba en Nueva York. Ahora, Maron ha vuelto ya famoso. Un debut muy afortunado en el lugar donde otros terminan ha realizado el ¨milagro¨ porque Maron llegado de la mano de Juan Prat Gay ha comenzado su carrera artística exponiendo en la cuidad donde otros ponen como meta a su deambular artístico.

Atraído por esos mil encantos que solo advertimos en Canarias cuando nos encontramos lejos de ellas y en busca de su luminosidad y su Paisaje, Salvador Maron ha vuelta a su Patria chica aun con el rumor en sus oídos del aplauso de la critica Neoyorkina y con un álbum que recoge gráficamente sus pasos en Nueva York, gigantesco escenario del triunfo con que inicia su carrera.

Su exposición ha resultado un éxito en cuanto a venta y asistencia de público se refiere. Personalidades americanas de la vida política, artística y social, y extranjeros que en aquellos días paseaban su fama a la sombra de las enormes moles de cemento neoyorquinas, han visitado la muestra de Maron.
Salvador, come hemos dicho, esta ahora en Las Palmas. Comparte un original apartamento con otras artistas, en las cercanías de Las Canteras, y durante el día se evade del ruido de la cuidad para dibujar en el campo y recoger en sus bocetos nuestro paisaje y tras darle su peculiar estilo pasear nuestros encantos por los Galerías de Arte europeos.
Salvador, ¿porque no te presentaste en Las Palmas, tu tierra, sino en Nueva York?
.- Para contestarte tengo que explicarte antes porque me decidí a exponer. Dibujaba desde era pequeño, pero la idea de exponer la reservaba para mas adelante. Un día conocí a Juan Prat Gay con motivo de un viaje que hizo a Las Palmas, le comuniqué mis inquietudes artísticas y el me ayudó y me lanzó, pues conforme a lo acordado le fui mandando dibujos que hacia y de pronto la Galería Foussats de Nueva York tenia interés por exponer mis dibujos, era un magnifica ocasión que no desaproveché.
Así, a los diecisiete años, Salvador Maron debutó en Nueva York. El éxito de su muestra ya lo hemos indicado.
Ahora, ¿cuales son tus proyectos inmediatos?
.- El más próximo exponer en Madrid y ahora aprovechando que estoy en Las Palmas y aquí no se me conoce como pintor, presentarme en mi tierra. Pero sobre eso no te doy seguridad.
Según Maron, ¿cuál es el estilo pictórico de Maron?
.- No poseo un estilo determinado. Aun me hallo en periodo de transformación. Quizá dentro de diez años puede concretarte algo más, pero creo que el pintor que pretende ingresar en una escuela determinada pone obstáculos a sus posibilidades, hace algo así como negarse a su mismo, porque el Arte brota espontáneo y no se le puede encerrar en unas normes preconcebidas, si no dejarle libre…
Maron, conforme a sus diecisiete años, es un disconforme, su misma apariencia lo demuestra….
“Aun no me he encontrado a mi mismo”, me dice.
A pesar de su afortunado debut, del éxito de la crítica, Maron no cree que ha escalado el último peldaño y ve aun por delante un amplio camino que recorrer. Su disconformidad consigo mismo es un acicate para su superación que busca por todos los medios.
En NY te has puesto en contacto con los pintores Americanos ¿que opinas de la pintura Americana?
.- America es una Nación joven, llena de ideas nuevas. Pero es también un país que flota o gira alrededor del dólar, y como sucede también con el Arte, le priva de mayores perspectivas. Particularmente creo que en los EE. UU hay ahora pocos artistas que miren el Arte como un problema actual.
Entonces ¿Atribuyes al Arte una misión social?
Indudablemente. El pintor debe reflejar en su obra su visión particular sobre los problemas sociales del momento. Debe tratar de utilizar el Arte no sólo para el deleite, sino para la enseñanza.
Maron, hablaste antes de la visión materialista de algunos pintores Americanos. ¿Tu piensas vivir del Arte?
.-Si no es ofendele, SI.

under the picture it states:

Salvador Marón charlando con el Agregado Cultural de la Embajada Española en NY, en el acto de inauguración de su muestra a la que asistieron las personas más representativas de la intelectualidad neoyorquinas, de la política etc.

English:

Salvador Maron When he left Las Palmas taking his drawings under his arm, perhaps no one, not even he imagined the success that awaited him in New York. Now, Maron has returned famous. A very successful debut at the place where others end made the “miracle”, because Maron from the hand of Juan Prat Gay began his career exhibiting in the city where others place their wandering artistic goal.

Attracted by the thousand charms of the Canaries, only noticed when we are away from them, and looking for its luminosity and its landscape, Salvador Maron has returned home town still with the sound of the New Yorker critical acclaim in the ears and with a graphic album that collects his footsteps in New York, gigantic scenario of the huge win with which he started his career.

His presentation has been a success in terms of sales and public attendance is concerned. American personalities of political, artistic and social, and foreigners in those days walking their fame in the shadow of the huge masses of New York’s cement, have visited the exhibition of Maron.
Salvador, as I have said, is now in Las Palmas. Shares an original flat with other artists, on the outskirts of Las Canteras, and during the day escapes the noise of the city to draw on the field and picked up our landscape in sketches and after giving his trademark style, walking our charms by European Art Galleries.

Salvador, why no-show in Las Palmas, your land, but in New York?
. – To answer you first I have to explain why I decided to expose. I was drawing since I was little, but the idea of exposing I reserved for later. One day I met Juan Prat Gay on the occasion of a trip he did to Las Palmas, I told him of my artistic interests and he helped and launched me, as agreed I was sending him drawings and suddenly gallery Foussats in New York was interested in exposing my work, was a wonderful opportunity not to waste.
So, at seventeen, Salvador Maron debuted in New York. The success of his shows we have indicated.

Now, what are your immediate plans?
. – Next exhibits in Madrid, and since I’m in Las Palmas now, and here I am not known as a painter, introduce myself in my home town. But that I can not assure you.
According to Maron, what is the pictorial style of Maron?
. – I do not have a particular style. I am still in process of transformation. Maybe in ten years I can specify something else, but I think the painter who wants to go in a particular school will hamper his chances, something like denying yourself, because Art springs spontaneous and can not be locked into preconceived norms, but let it free.
Maron, in tune with his seventeen years, is a non-conformist, as his very appearance shows.

I have not found myself yet, he says.
Despite his successful debut, the critical acclaim, Maron doesn’t believe to have climbed the last step and still it’s a long way to go ahead. His disagreement with himself is an incentive for improvement that he seeks by all means.
In NY you have made contact with American painters what you think of American painting?
. – America it is a young nation, full of new ideas. But it is also a country that floats and rotates around the dollar, and as it is with art, deprived of a larger perspective. Particularly I think in the United States there are few artists who look at art as an ongoing problem.
So do you attribute to art a social mission?
. – Undoubtedly. The painter should reflect in his work his unique insights on current social problems. He should try to use art not only for enjoyment, but for teaching.
Maron spoke before the materialist view of some American painters. Do you think living from art?
If not offending it, yes.

under the picture it states

Salvador Maron chatting with the Cultural Attaché of the Spanish Embassy in NY, at the opening ceremony of his show attended by the most representative of the New York intellectuals, politics etc.

Ok here we go… I show you an article written by Royston Ellis of Maron at that time. This  man gave the idea to change The BEATELS from The BEETELS, he was their friend during their coming into the music scene…(that’s another story). My dad…it is very cute how rough he looks on this one, it feels very candid to me. You can see a small add under his picture that says “RICARDO” which is the address next to the house he was born in! funny.

this one needs no translation

I trully love this series of drawings Maron made in his journal during that time…let’s take a peek.

LOVE IT!

We meet again my friends! I will now take you through what came after New York at 17 for Maron, his next stop was Paris which to him looked like an old village after being in The Big Apple…enchanting, all the old buildings and the city itself; those real french baguettes! so good. Here are some amazing drawings Maron did of Juan in Paris…remember that he is a 17 year old young man which blows my mind but get a taste here…

He came to stay with Leonor Fini who was and still is a well known painter, a very good friend of Juan Prat. She painted  mostly women and loved cats as well so she also painted them and of course Maron would come to draw some more cats during his stay and started to use colors more seriously…(Later exhibited in Madrid at “La Galeria Juana Mordo” which was a esteemed art gallery and a place I hope to go to one day to see his work there immortalized).   Here is Leonor Fini with one of her cats.

While in Paris coincidentally Juan was offered to direct a play in Madrid called “The Cats” , Maron’s drawings were exhibited in the lobby of Teatro Marquina. For some time he would see the drawing of the cat all over Madrid, this poster was the same as the front page of the program used for the play which is below…I love the fact that he dedicated this to my grandparents on the exact date of my birth 13 years earlier!

After a short while another journey and adventure begins and this time the artist is going back to his roots…Canarias!

Hello again my dear friends, I want to take you on a journey in the life of an artist, this is Maron, Salvador Maron my father. This is a very personal task for me for so many reasons which makes this that more special. The life that my parents have lived is to say the least magically incredible and I am truly looking forward to sharing it with you while learning new details unknown to myself even. So! Lets start at the beginning when he was 16… he is invited to New York by a known theater director, piano player and writer who saw “it” in Maron to have an exhibition. On the information card he writes:

“Salvador Maron, intuitive self taught, was born in Las Palmas (Canary Islands) on March the 5th, 1948.
His grandfather was a diver. His father is from Cadiz and his mother from Las Palmas.
Coming to New York for his exhibition, this is the first time he has left his island where he has done the drawings we present.”

Here he is fresh in the big apple! he is 16!

On this information card he goes on to explain his coming to meet Maron while in the Canary Islands…

“Last August, 1964, after directing The Magic Flute for the First Opera Festival in Madrid, I took a rest. I went to Canary Islands. One morning by chance, I met Salvador Maron on the beach. A few days after he told me he told me he wanted to be a painter, some day. He was only 16. I asked him if he had drawn some things before. He said he didn’t like to do it as an entertainment. I decided to help him, sensing something very honest about him” This is very true about him to this day, very humble and honest! let’s continue…
“We went to a stationary store where we would only find a few pencils, some ink and some paper. I gave everything to him.
Imagine my surprise when he did his first drawing and others that I found simply marvelous. I took charge of him and asked him to work everyday. I left Las Palmas, and although my theatrical work forced me to travel over Europe, we kept in touch. Several times in Paris or Madrid, I would find a bunch of his drawings for me at the hotel.
Less than a year has gone by, and now, on my arrival to New York, I had the opportunity to show his work to people who deserved my utmost respect in the world of arts. They’ve been as impressed as I was the first time I saw them and it’s thanks to their enthusiasm and help that we can show this exhibition, here in New York for the first time.
So, we only wish you now: Buena suerte, Salvador.

Juan de Prat-Gay”

Here is the card…

Here is the other side of the card and a drawing of Juan Prat by Maron…

Here is a publication of the exhibition on the Herald Tribune…

at that time when he was in NY. he made a portrait of Donyale Luna, who became a famous model and actress (worked with Fellini) my mother mentioned she worked with her as well once for French Vogue with Helmut Newton and was totally intimidated by her overwhelming presence because she was “wow!”, incredible but died very young.

Here is a picture of her…

The other is Naty Abascal, famous Spanish model in NY at that time and is even now always in the HOLA magazine.

Beautiful…

Ok back to the exhibition! So here he is having an interesting conversation and let me remind you that he was so young! he actually turned 17 while in New York for the exhibition so he was 17 here…is that a champagne glass in his hand?? haha

“Triptic” a beautiful piece that he sold before the exhibition which paid for his plane ticket! The Museum Of Modern Art acquired 2 other pieces (MOMA)

And finally I show you the drawing of the cat… this cat belonged to Romulo Aguirre who was the owner of the “Club No#1″, which was the biggest club in New York at that time, everybody who was anybody would go party there…the frame he bought from an old Chinese shop who’s owner told Maron that he would become hypnotized by the cat. There is a story behind a cat series that he did later but you must stay tuned until next time…

My dear friends today I bring you some visual treats… here are a few pieces by Maron. First we will start off with an interior painting of the studio in Paris in ’75, I remember this place though it is faint by now, I was very young…from birth to about 3?…beautiful place! Beautifully painted…

you can see on the walls more paintings by Maron…some of Willy, the “knots” series which were and still are some of my very favorites in that style.

Next is another interior of a friend of the family, Marilyn…lovely woman. Notice the 2 pieces by Maron on her wall?

This next one is gorgeous! it was done while they were living in Las Islas Canarias (Canary Islands) and you can see a picture of my mother when she was 20 I believe…there are so many enchanting details in this painting, for instance you can see Maron when he was maybe 4 or 5 in the water in Canarias…you can see behind the snifter glass, do you? Also you can see Willy inside of the postcard that was published for her shoe company in the 80’s and you can see her very well actually peeking through the curtains :)these are family treasures…really love this one.

This one is the last one for today…”El Guardian” and it was done while in Amsterdam a few years ago. Gorgeous when you see it live…the details, it reminds me of the feeling the Knots series gave. NICE!

There is going to be an amazing journey coming, I will take you through their history and share the journey with you, it will be so much fun! Thank you for spending this time with me, and until next time!