Elías Garralda

ELÍAS GARRALDA ALZUGARAY (Lesaka, Navarre, 1926–2012).
“Pla de la Molina.”
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed and dated on the back.
Measurements: 97 x 130 cm.

A landscape painter, Elías Garralda began his training at the School of Arts and Crafts in Pamplona and also studied under the painter Jesús Basiano. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he settled in France between 1937 and 1939, specifically in Bayonne, where he took classes from the painter René Barnalin. Upon his return to Spain, Elías Garralda settled in Olot, completing his training at the town’s art school, then directed by Martí Casadevall. He exhibited for the first time in 1947 at the Sala Armengol, and since then has maintained an intense artistic career that has led him to exhibit his work on more than one hundred occasions in Barcelona, Girona, Bilbao, Valencia, Vigo, Madrid, Castellón, and elsewhere. He shuns participation in art contests and competitions, but has been awarded the Silver Medal from the Olot School of Fine Arts. Among his most recent exhibitions, the one held at the Arizkunenea Cultural Center in Elizondo (Navarra) in 2009 stands out.