Delhy Tejero

Toro, 1904 – Madrid, 1968

Painter Delhy Tejero wrote a beautiful series of diary notebooks, published as Los cuadernines. She got into the habit of writing while in Morocco, when the Spanish Civil War broke out. She continued writing her cuadernines until the end of her life. Already in the 1930s, she was a modern woman with her own income. She had completed her artistic education, had also worked as an illustrator and had built a solid reputation as a painter. Her art would evolve towards purity. Geometry, colour, female images and popular types and landscapes along with the theme of authorship feature prominently in her wonderful work.

Hello...

Now that I have learned to be free, I can be anywhere.

Delhy Tejero always started her cuadernines with the same ritual: sha named each one of them, kissed the first page with her lips painted in red and spilt a few drops of coffee. The she would let her thought flow freely in the page. She wrote about how to achieve freedom and how to achieve synthesis when writing and when painting. She felt that in life, as in art, it is necessary to leave what is not essential behind so that the spirit, alone and poor but free, could find its voice in the page and in the painting.

And yet painting, beautiful painting, is impossible to seize.

From the perspective of someone who cherishes art as a life path, Delhy declares her immense love to painting and she also insists on the respect she feels towards art. Painting is larger than the individual. That greatness implies the grateful acceptance of the space of creativity and expression painting has granted her. Without painting, her life experience and her communication with others would not be a path worth walking. Thanks to painting, she walks through life with her heart in her sleeve.

I always paint with joy, and I think that approaches, concepts, don't burn out, they don't have a goal. You can go back to previous times because that is the freedom of the artist…

Delhy Tejero affirms she feels curiosity towards death. It is a part of the walk of life. Understanding and not fearing what is unavoidable makes the artist go further in her understanding of freedom and art. She feels certain that there is nothing new under the sun. That will make her paint with joy but sometimes also with sadness. She will feel sad, towards the end, not to be able to hold the pencil. In her cuadernines, she left faeries, tiny companions in that path walked through artistic expression.

ACTRESS: Sofía Monreal | SOURCE: Los cuadernines (Diarios 1936-1968). Edición de Mª Dolores Vila Tejero y Tomás Sánchez Santiago WRITTEN&DIRECTED BY: Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles | PRODUCTION: Isabel Santafé | CASTING: Cervantes Theatre | ARTISTIC DESIGN: Lucy Richards | COSTUME: O.La.La Vintage Wardrobe | HAIR & MAKE-UP: Charo Hairdressing | POSTPRODUCTION: Luke Hagan, Jonas Hawkins | SOUND: Luke Robinson | SET MANAGER: Chloe Jarrett-Bell | CAMERAS: Luke Hagan, Samuel Walker | EDITING: Ashley Thorpe | STILL PHOTOGRAPHY: Vanessa Miles | TRANSLATION: Natasha Cocksedge y Milena Acraman | VOICE ARROZ CON LECHE: Lisa Campos Sánchez.