Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

What do you do if you’re the UK & Ireland’s number 1 contributor and the number 2 overall Global Answerer? Well, if Happy Murcia is anything to go by, you paint. With 137,047 answers and 638,212 points, it’s quite impressive that he has any time left in the day to devote to art. What’s next, Stephen K admitting he actually devotes most of his time to mountain climbing?

Joking aside, Happy Murcia is indeed an artist and ahead of his latest exhibition in Lincoln, we caught up with him on painting, art and his Answers addiction…

YAT:  Can you give some background on your painting, when you began and how it has developed? Are you a full time painter?

Happy Murcia:  I`ve always painted, my mother painted as did my grandmother and one of my uncles who exhibited many times in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition through the late 40s 50s and 60s. It was he who introduced me to oil paints and through constant encouragement from my parents I kept it up.

Although I never went to art college and never wanted to I found that I was freer to think and follow what I wanted to paint (I still have great doubts about the value of art colleges). My wife eventually got me to exhibit and take things a little more seriously though this didn`t happen until we moved to Spain`s Murcia region where I was exhibiting in local bars and cafes, whilst sitting on a wall along the sea front with my local watercolour scenes all laid out for passing tourists the owner of a gallery approached me and asked me to visit his gallery and chat about exhibiting.

A little while later I was taken on as Resident Artist along with (now late) Norman Omar Barnes (cryptographer at Bletchley park) I went on to sell my work into 12 countries doing mainly military art and Spanish scenes. My work was featured on Spanish TV and I had to run an art based competition on the radio (English speaking of course as my Spanish was never that good). Once I was sauntering past a bar when the chef came running out shouting at me. I ran thinking I had upset him or something and hid around the corner, well it wasn`t so bad: he was opening a bar of his own a little way along the front and wanted me to do a huge wall mural, as the bar was one he was taking over he said I could drink all I wanted as it was all paid for. You try painting wall murals 15 ft up a ladder with paint brush in one hand, beer glass in other and balancing the paint tray on the top rung…

Moving back to the UK in 2006 I started out all over again, getting to know the local art scene wasn`t easy, a new face is not always well received, it goes with the territory, but undeterred I carried on and now have my 3rd UK exhibition coming up in October 5th -17th at the Sam Scorer Gallery Lincoln (near the castle)  where I am also one of the management team, though this exhibition was first applied for back in early 2008 it has taken me this long to put together some 50+ paintings that I consider good enough. Much screaming, tantrums and masses of wasted paint have gone into it and I’m sure many other artist have gone through exactly the same process.

I paint full time other than Yahoo Answers and my gallery commitments and probably always will.

YAT: What inspires your paintings and what painters have inspired you?

HM: My inspiration comes from either my life and experiences in Spain or from my interest in the military, probably started from doing those Airfix kits when I was a kid, I`m not really inspired by other artists, I hardly ever visit galleries like the National Gallery and have never been to the Tate, I`m  just not that interested in what others are doing, I feel that if I start looking at what is in the market at the moment it will influence what I do and I want my work to come from my head and not others, I don`t want to adopt another’s style, just mine, I believe that too many up and coming artists are paying too much attention to techniques developed by others and not enough effort into producing something from scratch without influence, never a follower, just do your own thing. Many of my paintings require me to go into a self induced period of depression, it helps with the imagery and thought processes, self doubt and soul searching all help, without it you`re just painting pretty pictures.

This exhibition in October has many subjects under the 2 themes of Spain and Military art, from highly detailed battle scenes to a lot of anti war art, and from flamenco dancers to impressionist street scenes, there is a theme running through ,my brushwork, though I`m not a believer in themeing your work i.e. all of one subject and one style, I feel that is very one dimensional and totally inflexible, Picasso, Gaudy,  Da Vinci all tried their hand at just about everything and in time so shall I, though I`m not into building cathedrals in Barcelona, 95% of my work is in oils, a medium I have always loved.

YAT: What tips would you give to aspiring, up and coming painters?

HM: All I can really say is to try everything, never say no and always think of your art, not just once or twice a week but all the time, have it on your mind, think in pictures, the lighting, shade etc, approach galleries or even public libraries to get an exhibition, it`ll introduce yourself to the wider art community, you`ll get thousands of knock backs and quite a few nasty comments but ignore them, most will be jealous anyway, have faith in yourself and keep going, develop your ideas and think on a new level, not the conscious one we all live in but the inner deeper self, great images come from great ideas not great people. Unpainted pictures sit in purgatory, it`s up to the artist to release them.

YAT: What does it mean for you to be the Number 1 contributor to Answers UK? What is it you like so much about Answers and what is the secret of your success?

HM: Yahoo Answers is a great site where everyone can be a part of it all, giving advice and answers to a myriad of questions. I never started out here to do anything more than answer a few questions but soon found new on line friends from as far afield as the US and Australia, though I have been lucky enough to sell some work to at least 2 UK users, and make some great new friends, I hope some of my more sensible answers have assisted those who want it and to others backed up other responses, somehow this ended up with me being the UK`s No1 points leader, which I can only put down to answering too many questions. Why? Because this is a truly great site, entertaining, diverse and very very addictive, I believe it`s called Yahoodlers Syndrome.

• Happy Murcia’s exhibition runs from October 5th to 17th 2010 at the Sam Scorer Gallery, 5 Drury Lane, Lincoln (next to the castle in the Bailgate area of the city).
• Are you an Answers contributor with an interesting hobby, passion or skill? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at y_answrs_team_uk at yahoo.co.uk