My mother-in-law gave us these two paintings (below) that had belonged to her mother. The paintings were signed “Betanzos.” I did some research to find out about the artist.
Luis Betanzos (Herrara), 1907-1978, is a folk artist from Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. A folk artist is a self-taught artist without formal art training and Luis started painting when he was three years old. His father was a teacher and Luis became a grade school teacher. Children were a common subject of his paintings. He also taught classes about his painting techniques at the Academy of San Carlos.
He mostly did a type of painting called “gouache” (pronounced gwash). Gouache is defined by Google dictionary as “a method of painting using opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a gluelike substance.” If you have an interest in gouache painting compared to watercolor painting, here is a good YouTube video showing the difference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2CZNPZLRPg
One of Betanzos primary students, Alfredo Guati Rojo, became a famous Mexican painter who worked with watercolors. His paintings are in the National Museum of Watercolors in Mexico City.
Luis Betanzos’ grandson has a collection of many of his grandfather’s paintings which he displays in a house in Cuernavaca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDYH_zVtEw (This video is in Spanish)
Betanzos’ grandson has been collecting money through a foundation to build a small museum to house his grandfather’s art, and also to make a documentary and a book about his grandfather’s life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHK1_ZAJRiE (This video is in English)
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