ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES - FRANCISCO SILLUE

A painter with a restless spirit, Francisco Sillué was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1936. He was deeply influenced by his childhood in Barcelona—the open-air markets, antique stands, flocks of pigeons on the cobbles, and doll shop windows. He later applied these apparently disparate scenes to the canvas with his uniquely natural touch, savouring with his palette and paintbrush each and every detail within the barrage of aromas, shapes and colors of the Barcelona street experience.

Sillué worked his way through several industrial engraving workshops, while in his spare time studying Fine Art at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona. Here he gained considerable experience as an artisan, skills that would be very useful to him in his artistic life.

In 1959, Sillué set out for Paris to join a group of artists, sketching and painting in the Place Tertre, visiting museums and developing bonds with the creative world of Paris. Between 1965 and 1969 Sillué lived in Norway and Sweden, where his work was warmly received. In 1969 he moved to London, a final decision as far as his artistic life was concerned—he discovered the street markets. He alternated his exhibitions between London, Norway and Catalonia, and eventually took up residence in Sitges, a coastal town near Barcelona. It was a return to his Catalonian beginnings, but in a cosmopolitan environment open to tourists and to the ever-beckoning sea.

From 1961 to the present, Sillué has participated in many distinguished solo and group exhibitions in Spain, France, England, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.