Belén Lucas

Recognised illustrator and winner of several prizes and contests, the Biscayan Belén Lucas has a broad experience in graphic arts.

Her work is part of significant publishing productions and her signature is regularly found in exhibitions.

“Illustration brings me back to my childhood and encourages me to grow with every project”, explains Belén Lucas. “Suddenly, the illustration comes to life all by itself, as if it didn’t need me”.

Finalist of the Euskadi Illustration Award, Belén won the Basque Government’s Isaac López Mendizabal prize to the Best Textbook and also to the Best Reading Book, among many other awards, as well as being selected for the international exhibition of Spanish illustrator “A todo color” (“In full colour”) promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

She has developed a distinctive personal style. “It is the result of a long career, starting with my training in Fine Arts, engraving and painting. It is the result of years of working and experimenting with different techniques such as ink, wax, watercolour, monotype, etc. Now I feel an immense freedom in being able to bring together everything that I’ve been interested in since I started out and simultaneously use it to create an image”, she explains.

“Another defining feature of my work is the presence of nature, and the fact that I work with a slightly magical and dreamlike vision of the characters and they settings; I usually tell my students that art comes from the heart and they have to let their feelings flow, they have to search, observe, compare and take advantage of this new information era to find support and to learn”, she points out.

The artist is not concerned about the possible impact of Artificial Intelligence on illustration. The feeling that passes through a heart and a hand until it reaches an illustration, whether in an analogue or digital format, will never be overshadowed by Artificial Intelligence. And if it does, it will be time to retrace our steps and make pictures on the walls of caves”, she says, noting that art has always been able to successfully adapt to the various technological developments.

Belén Lucas is optimistic about the current state of illustration. “I perceive a lot of interest in illustration, it is increasingly appreciated and it is very present. I can tell by the sales of editions of illustrations, through my website and specialised bookshops in Bilbao, such as La Ilusa, Magnolia Books or Espacio Aerre”.

The Cliffs, The Old Quarter and San Miguel de Ereñozar

Belén Lucas likes to walk along the cliffs near Bilbao “from Azkorri to Plentzia, it is such a delight to enjoy the sea and the beaches”. Her favourite place in the city is “the Casco Viejo (the Old Wharter), getting lost in its streets, and then walking along the estuary all the way to Doña Casilda Park and sitting among the trees”.
According to the illustrator, it is essential for anyone visiting the region to “hike up to San Miguel de Ereñozar, a natural vantage point from where you can see the estuary from Gernika to its mouth in the Urdaibai reserve”.

Belén Lucas recommends “a txakoli at aperitif time in El Globo, in Diputación Street”. In the evening, she prefers “a good beer and a gilda in Fangaloka, looking at the sea, on Aizkorri Beach”. For an informal lunch, Kantine, “because they offer vegan dishes and a good atmosphere; if it’s a big occasion, then Nerua”.
She often visits the exhibitions at Sala Rekalde and “Guggenheim, I always find it a fresh and very stimulating experience”.