Tokoy Snippet by Maria Andrea Chapero in Valencia

My name is Maria Andrea. I'm drawn to the quiet beauty in everyday things — a weathered building, a patch of overgrown garden, an old object with a life you can only guess at. Nature, architecture, and the details of daily life are where I find most of my inspiration, especially when there's something vintage or worn about them. There's a whole story in things that have been around for a while. What I love most about creating is the full ride of it. There's a kind of peace when an idea first arrives, then somewhere in the middle it turns to chaos and mild regret — and somehow it always comes out the other side. That emotional roller coaster is part of why I do it. The moment an idea that only existed in your head becomes something real you can look at is still the thing that gets me every time. I work in oil paint and watercolor, specializing in landscapes, still life, and portraits. What I'm probably best at is capturing light — the bright, shining quality of a scene that makes you feel the warmth of it. I can translate an emotion into brushstrokes, take a reference and make it feel painterly rather than copied, and find something interesting in what most people would walk past. I love problem-solving and helping people see something they couldn't quite picture on their own.