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Olga Sinclair is one of the most recognized artists in Panama and the world. His career has received awards on several continents. Thanks to her vocation and passion in her works, she has conquered the art world and takes a legendary place, like his father, the famous teacher Alfredo Sinclair. We invite you to watch this conversation from Madrid, in which Olga Sinclair shares her stories, the future of her foundation, and the joy of painting.
Sinclair, Panamanian art legends
I believe this is the result of making things with passion. If you work fervidly, the results will exceed your expectations. That’s because quality and effort come with merits and rewards. And I believe that this generates this capacity for the public to look up to you, applaud you or turn you into a legend, as you are calling me now. But, one can only see that as the result of a well-accomplished effort, and I think that is very nice.
Art Calling
I think that process comes from family heritage, astoundingly managed by two admirable parents. My father, Alfredo Sinclair. The phenomenal talent of the maestro that presented modernity to Panama. and my mother, a wise woman that knew how to guide her kids, and gave them the best advice, so that none of them would buy into the idea of being Daddy’s little kids that inherited his talent or this or that. No, You did inherit talent, but the rest of the effort and your way has to be self-created. So, that beautiful set of parents is what I would like to see again. Visionary parents, guiding their kids without imposing what kind of profession they will choose. We have to acknowledge that today there is a great diversity of jobs that didn’t exist back in my day. But, blessedly, I have been painting for more than 45 years, I made a living from my art, and I have presented it in more than 50 countries all over the world.
2021 for Olga Sinclair
The day after tomorrow is the opening of my exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Antonio Perez de Cuenca. Because I am currently sick from COVID, they agreed to hold the inauguration event in a couple of weeks – but since July 22nd, people can go and enjoy the 36 pieces on display. We have some enormous 9ft height paintings, 9ft wide these are last year’s results. I painted all that last year, during COVID’s confinement, cloistered in my art studio in Madrid. On the days we were allowed out, I would walk with my bag for the groceries, and then I would go to my studio to work maybe 4, 5, or 8 hours a day to get the exhibition ready.
What inspired you to create during lockdowns?
The solitude shared with my husband from being home alone. Not able to go out. Confinement.
I think they have been – in a way -, the wisest thing that has occurred to us in decades. We humans used to be in such a rush, we never stopped to analyze the quality of our results. Of our work and efforts. We just assumed that everything was ok, and we just carried on. But, taking time and stopping made me study my work and look at it from a new perspective, see where I want to take her, and know how much my work can give back to me more serenely and wisely. And I accomplished that because, that many hours, just sitting in my studio, with such cold, and Madrid’s streets emptied. Because no one would go out. We were on lockdown. And stare and analyze my oeuvre while sipping coffee. Stare at it and enter that world. I believe that is a blessing and that we should confine ourselves more often to grow as human beings.
The future for Olga Sinclair Foundation
Sadly in Panama, because of rains, that is mighty in my homeland. In Panama, it is like a hurricane, like the end of the world. Because of filtrations, the building flooded, and after ten months in a lockdown, they suffered the aggravation of weather and humidity. We are a very humid country. So, the building is locked. Completely locked and under restoration, and I believe we are going to sell it. We are going to sell it to the same American donor who provided it. A great patroness and friend of ours. Because we realize that virtual is the way the world works now. And during confinements, what we have accomplished is that hundreds of kids are three days a week for an hour or an hour and a half. Moms and parents thank the foundation and me because thanks to that time, they can work from the home, cook, and clean up as kids were on their corners happily painting with auntie Olguita Sinclair.
It has been lovely, so we are going to keep it going. We are still giving lessons through Instagram on @fosinclair, which is our foundation. Hundreds of kids are still communicating and connecting three times a week for art lessons in landscapes, human figures, faces, lights, and shades, working with color, pencil, and others. We have hundreds of themes to share with the kids.
Guinness Record and a family hommage
Well, it was in honor of my father and grandfather. My grandfather went to the construction of the Panama canal. The Scottish grandfather. He married a Panamanian woman who was a Spanish teacher in the city of Colon, and they had four children. Out of the four, my dad was the youngest, and he was born in 1914. Three months after the Panama canal opened its gates for the whole world. So, back in 2014, my dad was about to turn 100 years, and he died 15 days after I received the Guinness Record. On February 10th, which was my mother’s birthday. And he died ten months after his 100th birthday. So, in honor of my grandfather and my father, I wanted to accomplish this Guinness Record.
Now that I think about it, I was once reading a newspaper in Panama that a Chinese woman won a Guinness Record for having 4,000 kids playing violin at the same time. And I thought, hey, that is so pretty, but not so impressive. Panama has a population of 3 million, and China has a billion. I am already painting with 3,500 kids. It means that if I force myself a little bit, I can win this. And I did.
The future for Olga Sinclair
To my surprise on my studio in Madrid. One day while I was painting the works for this collection in my Madrid studio, the curators of the Museum of Valencia – during last years’ opening for the exhibition- decided to name it Olga Sinclair La Alegría de Pintar, the joy of painting. Because they said, and every curator and critic in the art world agreed, that my work has a lot of color and strength and has a composition full of force but at the same time a certain elegance for the disposition of the different elements that place everything in an overwhelming yet subtle way.
During the pandemic, I was in my studio, then for some miraculous reason unknown to me, I was about to start this abstract painting, and I don’t know what came over me, but I started to draw a female side face. It was as if I wanted to go back to something already forgotten. I thought I don’t know how to draw anymore, but it seems that you never forget the things you have learned in life. People who know how to swim never forget how to do it. Just like skate or bike riders.
When I grabbed the charcoal and drew a perfect side face, I was surprised. After many years without a draw, I still domain the human figure. And the face anatomy with its lights and contours. And that gave me such joy it even made me laugh. I was crackling in surprise, thinking that I am yet discovering myself. And that made the Valencia curators consider that for me, that is the joy of painting. I felt back in my college girl days. And most preciously, is that I have kept in touch with my classmates for over 45 years now. They came to the studio with their wives, and we had some wine. We are all getting old and rejoice knowing that life goes on, but the feelings, the heart, and the solidarity remain. We surprised ourselves seeing how through the years, we have this capacity for reinvention. I believe that is a blessing we artists have. That we know how to reinvent ourselves with the times; It is why every day, I should feel grateful to God and life for giving me this much.
What inspires Olga Sinclair
We are very attentive. Artists are very observant; nothing passes by us. If we are at a party or a dinner with friends, we are watching the gestures, how they move their hands, how a person smiles, how they move to create a sort of perspective of their face. So, everything at times is a reason for inspiration.
What we do, or at least what I do, is because I am no longer in my juvenile years, that remain dormant around me, but some begin to get weary; what I do is take a ton of notes, I write things. Suddenly, I can be walking and notice something beautiful. Awes me, so I will make a note or a picture of something as simple as my sandal, or whatever, to take a starting point for new outcomes; because I usually work in series. Not only one piece, but a series of 20 or 30 pictures, and then it changes towards a new series. That’s why inspiration keeps luring us.
What comes next for Olga Sinclair?
I will like to explore in a new way. Maybe not like what is happening now, but in a new way to translate my work into virtual reality. I could fill a museum with eighty, sixty, ninety works of mine, and the last hall of the collection in the museum is the virtual exhibition of Olga Sinclair.
That thought is now in my head, and I cannot take it out.
Thanks for everything.
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