Mercedes Carbonell was born in Cádiz, Spain, with the Atlantic visible from one terrace of her childhood home and the Bay of Cádiz from another. “It felt as if I was living on an island,” she recalls. The wind was also a constant presence in her early life, strong enough to change the landscape from one day to the next. Perhaps it is not surprising that a certain sense of place, colour and drama has always found its way into her work.

Portraiture sits at the heart of her practice, but Mercedes has never been interested in being confined by tradition. Alongside oil paintings, she has created digital drawings, embroidery, typewriter works and striking drawings made with 24-karat gold. There is a wonderful balance between the discipline of traditional portraiture and the spontaneity of her more experimental work.

The human figure is a recurring subject, often expressed through loose lines, gestures and blocks of colour. Her portraits aren’t simply about capturing what someone looks like; there is a sense of personality and presence in them, an attempt to capture something of the person behind the face.

This is particularly evident in her portraits of children. Mercedes painted her first children’s portrait almost by chance, when she painted her eight-year-old son, Pablo. What began as a single portrait became one of the most important threads of her practice. As art critic and Academician Pepe Yñiguez wrote in 2006, there is a particular “magic” in these works: the clear gaze of a child, the first traces of an individual personality beginning to emerge, and that wonderful curiosity about a world still being discovered.

Wicklewood founder Caroline Downing commissioned Mercedes to paint portraits of her children. Frames are done by Harry Eagle. 

A couple playfully ‘feeding’ their children’s portraits. For Mercedes, paintings have a life of their own.

Perhaps part of the connection lies in Mercedes herself. There is something of a child in her own character: a sense of playfulness, curiosity and an appetite for discovering new things. She finds a particular kind of companionship in the children she paints, and each portrait becomes more than a likeness. It captures a moment in a life that is constantly changing.

When a painting leaves her studio and finds its way into a family’s home, Mercedes sometimes feels that a little piece of herself goes with it. It is a lovely thought, and one that says much about the personal nature of her work. These portraits are not simply commissions to be completed; they are encounters with people, and memories of a particular moment that will never quite come around again.

A portrait of my nephew, alongside a recent commission of a baby, showcasing Mercedes’s more minimalist approach to infant portraits, using simple lines and a single colour.

Her career has included exhibitions with some of Spain’s most respected galleries, representation by Juana de Aizpuru, the founder of ARCO, and the first grant awarded to a woman artist by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in 1997. Her work is also held in collections including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Today, Mercedes is based primarily in Cádiz, although London remains an important part of her working life. She returns to the city for portrait commissions and to continue painting, bringing together the two places that have shaped so much of her life and work.

Among her most recent projects are 40 paintings created for the Columbo Group, the people behind the iconic Jazz Café and The Blues Kitchen, as well as several other music venues. Her work can now be seen at Blues Kitchen Shoreditch, Camden and Manchester. There were no grand openings or celebrations to mark the occasion; Mercedes would much rather be in her studio, getting on with what she loves most.

Jimmy Hendrix by Mercedes, part of her commission for the Columbo Group

For me, this is also what makes Mercedes’s paintings so appealing within interiors. They have the confidence to hold their own in a room, whether surrounded by antiques and traditional furniture or placed against something much more contemporary. They don’t necessarily need to match their surroundings; they bring something of their own to them. And, much like Mercedes herself, they are difficult to ignore.

For those interested in commissioning a portrait, Mercedes works both in person and remotely via video call, allowing her to capture a subject even when they cannot be in the same place.

Bold, colourful and full of life, her work reflects the personality of the woman behind it. Mercedes is an extraordinary portrait painter, yet she seems happiest when she can simply get on with the painting itself, without too much fuss around it.

For more information, please visit mercedescarbonell.com.

Cover self-portrait ‘Artista ante la duda de salir de su retrato o no’ Mercedes Carbonell, 1993