Eugenio de Arriba

de Arriba was born in 1934 in Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain. In his childhood, he started painting with multicoloured chalks on the pavements of his little village. He was already a great observer and his sketching was outstanding for his age. He was very determined of his purpose already as a young child. Once he was asked: "What will you be doing later on?" and Eugenio's answer was: "I want to paint but with a fine pencil"- an artist in the making.

Eugenio's early life was, however, not always easy. His father died when Eugenio was 8 years old, and he had to live with his mother and family in Ponferrada, the biggest town nearby. Through his teenage years his passion for art grew and at the age of fifteen he entered San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid. Among his school mates were Lucio Munoz, Antonio Lopez, Pousa and Nicolas Solana.^[1]

Eugenio graduated in 1955 and that same year he went to Paris where he met Chloe and married her in 1958. A year after their son was born. Eugenio's first exhibition in Paris was in the Ror Wolmar Gallery, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1959. As he always combined his love for painting with music, he performed with Paco Ibáriez in the "Homage to Picasso" in Vallauris (French Riviera). After a few years in the south France, he came back to his native Villafranca, where he portrays the villagers and paints many pastel landscapes.

From 1973 to 1976, he went on exhibiting in La Coruña, Lugo, Santiago de Compostela, Pontecedra and Orense. Then in Paris "Au Salon D’automne" in Nice in "Gallery Anne de Francony" and in Montecarlo in "The Michelange Gallery". The last exhibitions were made in Villafranca, Ponferrada, Burgos, Vitoria, Santader, Palencia, Venecia and Cagnes s’mer. His works, mainly pastels, were sold all over Europe and South America from 1955 to 1976.

There are three important years in the last part of Eugenio's life:

1966 After a serve illness of their son Diego. The young couple spent a few months in the mountains if Galicia, in a Celtic village (O cebreiro), where Eugenio found great inspiration painting the peasants, their customs and landscapes.

1967 Life in Madrid where both he and Chloe run an art shop and small gallery. In that meantime, he participated in several collective exhibitions.

1971 Chloe and Eugenio separated and alike the "eternal roamer", he went back France and eventually met Eliane Gullaume also a painter with whom he was to share his life until the end.

Eugenio died at the age of 43 on March 16, 1977.^[2]