By Alec Forssmann - Journalist

Photo by Sheyla Butsems

AT DALI’S PLACE WE WERE ALWAYS HAVING A PARTY

Made-up eyes, pendants and dressed all white, including brimmed hat. This is the way the artist Pep Puigmarti moves around Sitges, who, at his 76, and away from the bohemian practices, keeps intact his tireless creativity.

"Portrait of Linda Evans" by Puigmarti

Ensaimada (Mallorcan pastry) empty boxes, teletubbies, magazine clippings, match boxes, bottles of water or bread crumbs are part of the universe of this particular self-taught painter. “And let the brush dance” gestures Josep Puigmarti (Monistrol de Calders, 1932) sitting comfortably in the Art Hotel, in Sitges, a company and a village where he feels in his element.

Speaking to this magazine, Pep Puigmarti makes statements like: "In life you have to clean things that don't have interest", "I'm not interested in money at all... The more things, more problems. I've been a lifetime trying to avoid responsibility" "If people were like me, the world would end" "We complicate our Life, ourselves. Everything is a load, and what I want is to feel unloaded”

The painter admits that when he was a kid he was not a good student, he was interested only in drawing and geography. At the age of 11 he held his first exhibition. Observer and amorous, young Josep went to the cinema ... and often fell in love with the protagonist. There was no doubt about his dream: to see and to know. Eternal wanderer (lived in Paris, Cadaques, Los Angeles, Sweden, Denmark, England, Germany, France, traveled to China and Japan), he has dropped anchor in Sitges. "I have no more desire to spin" he says, sitting on the bed in his workshop, where he has worked and slept for five years. "I've always done my own thing, and sometimes, against myself" says Puigmartí while displaying his hundreds of illustrations captured in a sort of bookmarks. Aliens stored in a shoe box: "They are my bugs, and as I do not know what they are, I call them aliens" he smiles.

What big heads! He exclaims satisfied while watching his most fantasy-themed artworks, the Alien Fashion, referred to his link with the world of fashion.

All of these monsters will be exhibited at the future museum that Sitges will dedicate to Puigmarti’s figure. This is not the first fine arts centre dedicated to the painter, since he has one under his own name in the French town of Bourg-Madame.

In one of the halls at Hotel Estela Barcelona, surrounded by much of his work, Puigmartí affirms: "From all this, I will not take anything with me when I die". This statement sums up the philosophy of a simple man who takes his breakfast every day in that same hotel at 6.00 am. He has, previously, gone for a walk for a while. Then back to the studio and to paint a few hours. He takes lunch at 11:20 hours. He goes to visit his brother, who lives in an apartment owned by the painter. He watches documentaries on Discovery Channel while he draws some sketches.

At the age of 11 you held your first exhibition. How early!

With my father, who was a house painter, I worked in an exhibition with other artists. At that age I left school because it did not interest me: I just liked drawing and geography.

I was quite thick and always tried to copy. I couldn’t concentrate on the books.

How were the parties at Dali’s place?

They were very good. They were held at least once a week. Dancers and celebrated top models from that time came. They danced and drank in the garden. Dali’s manager was there, Captain Moore, with his ocelot. The champagne always flowed as a river, since it was given to Dali by a producer. There were well-known writers and artists. Those were wild parties, but perhaps more than people imagined that they were in reality. They were parties with a spirit of freedom. It was so long ago, that now I ‘m not in a mood for more parties or to see people reminding me those times.

Is there something that inspires you to draw your characteristic "aliens"?

No, I do what comes. As it goes along. With a blank mind. When I was a kid I liked to draw with a pencil things that could be real: a house, a man ... I was classic. But that is tiring, since it's done in nature, and we have the possibility of creating imaginary things. These are things that, once made, already exist. The aliens are things that must come from outside: I think that in the cosmos we are not alone, at least there must be thousands of millions of people out there.

How is your relationship with fashion?

I became a model because at that time in Cadaqués, some friends told me that because of my look, it could work. I was introduced to the right people, and worked some years in Paris as a model for Europe's most famous agency. I earned more money rather than with painting. For me it was easy. I went every day to the horse races with beautiful girls. But, anyway, I was a painter. +

The artist posing for this magazine in his studio in Sitges