Oaia Peruarena Tellechea

Basque Abstract Painter and Contemporary Artist

Irun, Gipuzkoa 1972

Oaia Peruarena Tellechea, born in Irun, Gipuzkoa in 1972, has been passionate about painting since childhood. Early on, she was influenced by landscape painting, studying under Ignacio Larramendi and developing a deep appreciation for the works of the great Impressionists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh and Monet.

She drops out of school at the age of 17 and attends Polychrome furniture painting classes. She also learns to restore furniture self-taught, dedicating herself to it for about 5 years, but never stops painting.

During this time she attends painting classes with the help of different artists: Iñaki Álvarez (San Sebastian), Maite Unzurrunzaga (Zarauz), Tomas Sobrino (Elizondo) and José Mari Apezetxea (Errazu). For 6 years he attends the outdoor painting summer courses taught by Jose Mari Apezetxea and Tomas Sobrino in Baztan. 

However, feeling constrained by traditional techniques and searching for deeper self-expression, she turned towards abstraction. Influenced by the works of Esteban Vicente, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Zao Wou-Ki, and Joan Mitchell, Oaia began to explore more freely, allowing her paintings to become a channel for personal expression.

Through abstraction, she seeks to express herself freely, turning painting into a powerful channel for self-expression. In a world constrained by forms and judgments, her art provides her with a space where she can simply "BE", unbound by labels of gender, age, or size.

"In a world subject to forms and judgments, painting offers me a space where I can let myself BE, where it doesn't matter if I'm a woman or a man, big or small, young or old, a place where the limits only depend on me, from as far as I'm willing to let myself go.”