Peruvian artist / illustrator Alex Castañeda recently displayed a batch of oil painted skateboards at his first exhibition. Alex tells us all about the project and his work...

How would you describe your approach to painting / illustrating?
I like to think of myself as an old timer. I get most of my inspiration from the old masters, not just painters but illustrators as well, and try to take what I most cherish from them and incorporate it into my own style.

Tell us more about your series of oil painted skateboards... what did you have in mind when you made them?
It all started when I was at a local art museum and saw some old paintings by Carlos Baca-Flor. Some of them had a really narrow and vertical format and made me think that if that was a skateboard it would be totally crazy. I mean... imagine a skater boy carrying a deck with a twentieth century painting on the back. That idea totally blew my mind.

Why did you choose paint female nudes?
I did the first batch of decks when I was still at art-school and I convinced my teachers to do nude studies on the skateboards. I always had in mind the nudes from Velazquez and other painters when I did them and so I wanted to stick with that line. It was quite fun to play with the composition in such format.

There's an interesting contrast between your art and the images / designs you usually see on skateboards...
Exactly! That was what fueled my main engine. One often sees graffiti art or pop art in general on skateboards but when was the last time you saw an actual nude painting on a skateboard? To my surprise this contrast brought a lot of attention from both skaters and art collectors around the world.

Are they on display anywhere at the moment?
The expo is now over but some are for sale on my website.

What's the art scene like in Peru at the moment?
As a business the art scene is quite slow, but it is quite refreshing to see that a lot of young talented artists are expanding beyond the national borders.

What else have you been working on recently?
Right now I'm mainly working as a freelance illustrator and trying to build a video-game studio with a couple of friends. Like most traditional-painters / digital-illustrators I sometimes feel divided between the two worlds.

Anything else you want to tell us about?
Well, there's nothing like listening to drum & bass while you paint!

 

 

Related Links:

• Origin by Stuart Whitton
• Alex Young A.K.A Exhibition
• Addict / Milo Manara Skateboards
• Volcom Feature Artist Jimbo Phillips
• DJ Rashad - Shoot Me: Video

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