About me

My real name is Begoña Landi Pienaar, but I use Begoña True as my artistic name.
I was born in South Africa in 1970, my mother is South African and my father is Spaniard.
When I was 9 years old we moved to Cadiz, Spain, and I grew up there.
At the age of 23 I moved to Madrid, where I have lived most of my artistic career. Thirteen years ago,
I moved to Faro, Portugal.

A quick explanation on how I work.

Some of my drawings I develop as I go, imagining and choosing things as I am drawing, but others are the result of things I see while looking at my surroundings, it can be an image that appears as I am looking at the leaves of a tree or the grass or the clouds or the shadow of a lamp or how the light and shade works on the faucet of my sink.
Another way of imagining for me is to just make doodles on paper and see what my imagination makes out of it. It ends up looking like lots of curved lines and sometimes there are so many that it looks like clouds or something similar. Hard to explain, sorry :-)

How I came to be an artist

I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember and I have always had an abundant imagination.
I used to spend hours in my own fantasy world. Naturally, my imaginary world came to life in my drawings. I just had to pick up a pencil to get my creativity to flow.
However, when I grew up and started to create art to sell, I did what most painters do: landscapes, portraits, animals, still lifes... and so I received many commissions, enough to make a living out of it.

Later, a friend asked me to do some illustrations for a children's book she wanted to write, although in the end she didn't write it. But I got so excited about the idea that I wrote a story and did the illustrations myself and I realised how much I liked it.
I liked it so much that I started asking on the Internet how to publish it, and my first client appeared.
Since then I have illustrated for several other authors. Not all of them got their books published
for different reasons, but I've enjoyed all of them. Every story had something I really liked.
Some were great stories, some were very funny, some I illustrated for their sweetness.
Illustrating for children's books brought back those beautiful drawings that reflected my dream world, and the love and tenderness they inspire in me.
And it also changed my paintings, because now when I can't stop painting that magical world, even if they have a more adult feel to them.
The second important thing that children's book illustration did was to bring back to me the pleasure of using pencils, in this case coloured pencils, and rekindled my passion for them. I love the texture of the pencil on paper, the smell of it, mixing colours with it, the strokes...

So now I do "magic realism" or "visionary art", and naïf style drawings as well as children's illustrations.
Some of the books I have illustrated

According to what my aunt says, by Yvonne Provost
The Monkey Who Vacuumed the Jungle, by Nina Spitzer, Isabella's Star Village by Karen Heins,
My Best Friend Lives Under My Bed, by Dennise Dion
My First Ten Steps by Ingrid Pagliarulo,
And my two books, What a Journey! From All That Was to All That Is, and Isabel and Her Magical World.

Some of the companies I have painted for

Cervezas La Cibeles, beer company,
Yanna Volfinzon, musician,
Coaching Vila Real, spiritual coach company,
Proficoncept, learning academy,
Hostel Madalena, hostel
Faromodular, frame and art shop
Porqnão, natural cosmetics company

Exhibitions

When I lived in Madrid most of my exhibitions were in libraries, cafés and restaurants in Madrid, since I usually as I usually sold from my studio. I also used to sell at fairs in Madrid.

Here in Faro I also have a studio from where I sell. I also sell at fairs, at Moldular gallery, Sardinha de Papel handcraft shop.

and of course I do illustrations for books, companies, CD covers,...

Why I love drawing and painting.
My favorite hobby has always been imagining things, seeing how from a blank page my imaginary world comes to life and playing with it. I think there is so much more than is visible to the eye, I also love colours, combining them, seeing how they blend and how paintings and drawings come to life.

I try to fill my works of art with love and tenderness and try to transmit joy and playfulness as well as imagination. It is something very special to me when I see people looking at my work and they start dreaming my dream, and telling me all the beautiful feelings my work has transmitted to them.
To me art is an amazing way to reconnect with our beautiful imagination, in that quite and joyful space where the heart exists, entering those magical dimensions where anything can be created.

Skills

Book illustrations, drawing, Illustration, Painting

Sector Experience

Fine Art, Painting & Sculpture, Publishing, Self publishing

Clients

Cervezas La Cibeles, Denise Dion, Ingrid Pagliarulo, Janet Heron, Jill Coleman, Karen Heins, Nina Spitzer, Sardinha de Papel, Vitor Ccarmo, Yvonne Provost