We all want to be an illustration of Ana Jarén
Perhaps they sound familiar to you from having seen them on bus shelters in Madrid, in fashion store windows, in markets or even in your favorite magazines. What is clear is that, with total security, they did not go unnoticed.
Bursting with color, women, plants, coffee, books, and cakes—many, many cakes!—the universe that Ana Jaren creates in her head takes shape in illustrations in which she x-rays and reinvents the most absolute daily life. Always full of details that give her a very particular touch, of course: that's why everyone who sees one of her drawings knows that it bears her signature. That is the grace of the matter.
Our kingdom for a day (or a lifetime) like this
In that and also in the ability it has to capture in detail the simplest aspects of everyday life to give them the importance they deserve. Because his works are illustrations of which we feel protagonists even without pretending to be. In which we all see ourselves reflected unconsciously.
And the thing is, who hasn't spent an afternoon chatting with friends in the living room, between books, coffee and croissants —and whoever says croissants means donuts or pancakes—? Or who hasn't lazed around with her partner in bed without wanting to look at the clock on any given Sunday?
“We are in a dynamic where we constantly want things, we put happiness in what has to come”, comment Ana . “And if we stop to think a little, there are things we already have that most likely make us happy. And sometimes they are as simple as enjoying a cup of tea." How right, Ana; how right
But if, in addition, those scenes that fill our lives with good memories are beautifully illustrated, then all the better. Because Ana's work is beautiful, based on a very personal precious style. A kind of baroque customs, as she describes herself, that she fills in her stroke drawings every inch to provide more warmth. More information. To water stories, everyone's stories.
Recalling her adventures in the world of art means traveling back in time to the time of the Ana Jarén child, when she debated between Barbies and colored pencils in her room in her native Seville. There also began painting classes and flirting with the different techniques: what if charcoal, what if oil, watercolor or pastel.
But it was not until 2010, when she had already graduated in Advertising and PR and had just joined the fashion communication sector in Madrid, when something changed. She then immersed herself in a world that she was passionate about, in which she dealt hand in hand with stylists and designers who once again awakened her most creative instinct: art came to life again before her eyes. What if she went back to drawing? And she launched.
At first the challenge was combine illustration with work, But fate soon put him to the test: her partner got a job in Antwerp and together they went to live abroad. That experience gave her the opportunity to try her luck: she would try to make illustration her profession.
From the beginning she set out to capture on paper those scenes that would eventually become her hallmark. without being aware, women became her muses: she painted them in all kinds of situations and settings. “It started out unintentional, but I felt very comfortable drawing them,” she tells us. “The woman's body is precious, I love telling stories through them. In fact, if you go to a museum, most of the protagonists are women”.
Who has not spent an afternoon chatting with friends in the living room, between books, coffee and croissants?
Reading a book, lying on the sofa at home, with a coffee in their hands or eating -cakes, of course-. Accompanied by a lazy cat that romps in some corner, disconnecting in front of the window, enjoying a bath or in that intimate routine of applying cream before going to sleep. In Jarén, the deliciousness of what is nearby sees the light. The beauty of life without artifice. Oh, but how could we not all—all of us—want to become one of her illustrations?
And if not, ask Eva Chen, Instagram Fashion Director, social network that Ana has always seen as the best showcase. “I really liked her and I made an illustration for her in which she appeared with her children in a supermarket. She was so surprised that she shared it. Thanks to that she met me Tallulah, the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, who commissioned another of hers for her mother. The day I saw Demi Moore in a magazine wearing a T-shirt with my illustration on it, I couldn't believe it."
The point is that the thing did not stop there: some time later he made another personalized drawing for Laura Brown, the director of InStyle USA, which caused her to start following him on networks no less than Reese witherspoon.
Although women are the protagonists of her illustrations, men begin to make room little by little in Ana Jarén's art
“That same night I made another of hers for her and she shared it on Instagram. Two days later the husband was contacting me to order me a job: he wanted to give his wife an illustration for Valentine's Day. That is to say: I understand that in this family's house there is a drawing of mine hanging somewhere”, jokes Jarén between laughs.
And yes, in that North American salon an Ana Jarén probably shines, but of course it is not the only place. Between personal commissions, exhibitions, media publications and projects for companies, The point is that since Ana returned from those years in Belgium, her phone has not stopped ringing.
One of her last work adventures? The bet of the Madrid hotel industry only a few months ago for promote the famous Paquito, who came to life thanks, among other things, to her drawings, exhibited in Madrid markets and even on buses.
Magazines, publishers and brands have noticed her. Until Springfield, she showed off not only her illustrations in her shop windows, but also Jarén herself, who put her image for the brand. "I've even been a model!" laughs Ana. “I consider myself a very shy person and thanks to the work they did, I felt very good. We went to Iceland to do the photo shoot and it was a very special experience.”
Capture in detail the simplest aspects of everyday life to give them the importance they deserve
Among the works that moved him the most is the one that came to him in 2017 from the Cartuja de Sevilla, company with a history and tradition deeply rooted in the Andalusian capital. They had decided to turn her image around by launching a much more modern line. The first artist to participate in his new proposal New Talents was, of course, Jarén. "Now every day I drink tea in a cup with my illustrations", she says. "I explained to my grandmother what she was doing, but this was the first thing she saw and she understood: it was something real."
as real as the book she published in early 2020, a few weeks before her confinement, another thorn that she had stuck and that she was finally able to cross off her wishlist: “It was the first time that I faced a book that was completely my own. It was months of hard work, but I really enjoyed the process”. A book in which —surprise!— women are the protagonists: in Friends, Lady celebrating Ladies , from the Lunwerg publishing house, a girl moves to a new city and distances herself from her closest friends, seeing the need to find new ties and proving that Confident female figures are absolutely necessary in every woman's life.
Fill the drawings of her strokes in every centimeter to provide more warmth
About the present, she said: Jarén does not stop. she walks completely immersed in a project with a British publisher of coloring books that she, she predicts, will be wonderful. She is also preparing a guide with the Tintablanca publishing house, Ruta del Quixote, in which her illustrations will accompany the texts by Antonio Lucas. A beautiful work that will see the light at the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, Ana continues drawing in the studio in her living room, where she continues to test and shape new universes. She says that she is investigating something more in capturing emotions through her drawings, where there is more and more space for men as well.
There, between phone calls, canvases and markers, she continues praising everyday life. Putting before us scenes that we insist on ignoring. Reminding us that life is to feel it every day.
Cover of the book 'Friends. Ladies celebrating ladies'