Biography
Pedro Fraile
Spanish painter born in Madrid
Pedro Fraile´s childhood took place in the 1960´s on a rural state called “Suertes Viejas” (Old Fortunes), located in the countryside about 40 kilometers from Madrid, Spain. His father was an employee on the estate. This country home belonged to the Valencian painter, Manuel Benedito Vives, who was both a pupil and the Executer of Estate of the impressionist painter, Joaquin Sorolla. Under these circumstances Pedro´s chidhood was very much influenced by the rural lifestyle during the 1960´s of Spain´s country folk and harvesters and with the constant contact with nature.
The process
At the age of five Pedro, on his own initiative, began to do drawings-something quite surprising, given that he didn´t have any former family members linked to the world of painting. His father, impressed and surprised by his son´s works, decided to move the family to Madrid when Pedro was only eight years od so that he could study to become a painter. In Madrid pedro combined his schooling with the study of drawing and painting. His first art teacher from the Escuela de Arte y Oficios in Madrid was the landscape painter from la Mancha, Antonio Lopez Torres, a great master painter of whom Pedro still has fond memories. Later Pedro went on to study in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.
Pedro married quite young and in order to support his family he became a professional painter and has ever since made his living exlusively from his paintings. He held his first individual exhibitions in Madrid and later in Barbizon (France) and Paris. In the 1990´s he began to exhibit his paintings in art galleries in the USA.
The success and preference for Pedro's paintings led him in 2005 to move to Portland, Oregon in the USA, where he painted exclusively for clients, galleries and private collections that allowed him exhibit his work throughout the country and the world.
Currently established and recognized, Pedro works in the privacy of his studio in his native Madrid. Where surrounded by experience, colors and brushes, every day he paints his oils with the same conviction of that young man who one day determined to be a professional painter: transform the sensitivity of those who are lucky enough to meet face to face with the soul of his paintings.
Influences
Fraile is a profound admirer of Spanish painters: Velazquez, for his perfection and subtlety; Goya for his modernity and passionate talent. He also admires the painters of the 19th century such as Mariano Fortuny for his precious brushstrokes as well as the Spanish impressionists Joaquin Sorolla, Joaquin Mir, Eliseo Meifren, Segundo Matilla, Ignacio Pinazo and Cecilio Pla. At an international level Pedro admires the boldness and unsettling and tortuous searching of Vincent Van Gogh, to whom many of Fraile´s fans relate him because of his thematic link to the lifestyle of rural folk and harvesters.
His works have been part of the galleries
ART IMPRESSIONIST – COLUMBUS – OHIO
TOUCHSTONE FINEART – NEW ORLEANS – LUISIANA
ATLANTA WORLD TRADE CENTER – DALLAS – TEXAS
HAMPTON GALLERY – JACKSONVILLE – FLORIDA
CARLANG GALLERY – PALMSPRING – CALIFORNIA
CHETWYND STAPYLTON GALLERY – PORTLAND – OREGON
COGSWELL GALLERY – VAIL – COLORADO
KAMP GALLERY – CHICAGO – ILLINOIS
REFLECTION GALLERY – SANTA FE – NEW MEXICO
COSMOPOLITAN GALLERY – LA JOLLA – SAN DIEGO – CALIFORNIA