“El Manto”

51″x38″

“De Toda y La Nada”

27″x22″

“El Rastro de Luz”

51″x38″

“Abrazos”

24″x20″

Josep was born in Barcelona in 1952. He was remarkably talented in drawing as a child. His grandfather and father were carpenters and furniture craftsmen. As a result Josep grew up surrounded by the tools and discipline of these fine and expert artisans. Handsaws, chisels, files, planks, nails and hammers, and different types of glues were the materials he has as his childhood experience.

It was expected that he would enter the family business. He learned about work, and observed their strict attention to detail, as well as honesty, neatness and a desire to do things well. These behaviors would guide him throughout his life, and influence his development as an artist.

As Domenech’s flair for drawing grew, his great ambition was to become a professional artist. He began taking private lessons in drawing, and attended art classes, while continuing to help out at his father’s Master workshop. He became enamored of Impressionism during his studies and joined fellow students to the open countryside to pain the plein aire method.

He has a belief that no artist is self-made, but must learn from others. This conviction made him an insatiable and diligent student and an insightful observer of the world around him. In his studies he worked in all media, developing his own artistic “voice” and “vocabulary, incorporating his genetic interest and knowledge of materials as an artisan and love of textures.

Domenech does not work with traditional painting tools. He does not employ brushes. He “paints” using pieces of cotton fabric and using his fingers. He removes instead of adding, he aims for synthesis. At one time, as a student, he had to economize on materials and would work with old rags that had been uses to polish furniture in the carpentry workshop, to apply paint to canvas. He still likes to work with rags, but only of the highest quality.

The surface of a Domenech painting looks like wood because of the way he treats his material. He uses a limited palette range of ochre and black. White comes from the background, from the paste he uses for preparation of the canvas, and it turns into dazzling light after dilution. The only brush in his studio is one hanging from the ceiling as a talisman. He uses a form of impasto, building up layer after layer of paint on his canvas.

Domenech has won innumerable awards for painting in his career. He has been honored, as well, with many museum exhibitions, academic acclaim, and museum acquisitions.