They called her “La Loca del Pueblo.” No one knew very well why he had chosen to remain in that forgotten corner, on the edge of the road. He wore with uneven clothes, always stained with paint, and spoke alone as he contemplated the abandoned building that had become a canvas. At first he traced colorless spots, simple abstract scribbles that the neighbors watched with disdain or mockery. What they did not guess was that this “crazy town” would soon become an artist, and that his works would even come to Paris.
Today he is 75 years old, he is Toledo and is called María Ángeles Fernándezalthough few know her by name. Most usually identify it by their nickname: The Pinturitas of Arguedas. Because? Well, although the nickname fits his profession, the truth is that they began calling it that way because of the extravagant makeup with which he used to cover his face. They say that he began to paint as a resistance or therapy, as who clings to an invisible thread to not fall completely, and that he learned in a self -taught way. Decades ago, he chose an abandoned restaurant to turn his inner world on his walls. Since then, his mural has expanded in a visual whirlwind.
From Arguedas to Paris
It was the French photographer Hervé Couton who was responsible for making the art of María Ángeles known. He passed through Arguedas “by chance” and immediately was captivated with the color burst that sprouted from those walls in ruins. Thus, year after year, Couton went to that exact point of the map to contemplate how the work evolved.
María Ángeles painted the facade of an abandoned restaurant in Arguedas for more than a decade.
During the pandemic, the artist had to get away from her wall. So he began painting at his own home, on small wooden or paper panels. His drawings reveal a chaotic and fascinating universe, full of hands, mouths, masks, animals, phrases and signs. The scene catches viewers from here and there in a strange spell.
His career as an artist jumped in 2022, when he inaugurated his pictorial work in the Galerie du Moineau Écoulette of Paris. The exhibition, to which he baptized as Delete everything with whitehe showed his last creations for more than two months, along with couton photographs that illustrated the creative process.
Art as therapy
Married and mother of three children, our artist has experienced certain episodes of “emotional agitation” throughout his life that has also somehow reflected in his creations. In fact, following these circumstances, his youngest child was put into custody of social services. Perhaps for reasons like this, María Ángeles has always found in the painting an intimate and powerful refuge, an escape and also personal reconstruction.
María Ángeles presented her work last 2022 at the Galerie Du Moineau Bike Paris.
What is clear is that, through art, he has managed to channel his deepest emotions, turning pain and uncertainty into shapes, colors and textures. His work, marked by an almost confessional narrative, reflects not only his personal experiences, but also a constant search for redemption and understanding. For her, painting is not just creating, it is to survive.
The last thing that is known about Arguedas Pinturitas is that it currently resides in Montaubanin an association founded in 2015 that bears his own name: Les Amis de la Pinturitas d’Arguedas (The friends of the Pinturitas de Arguedas). In addition to watching for preserving and disseminating its artistic legacy, the entity also It provides a space of belonging and recognition that for years was elusive. Although physically away from Arguedas, his creative spirit remains firmly rooted to the Navarrese people where he understood that true freedom is between brushes.
