I met Marta in Paris when I was eighteen… Paris was Paris, and I was a young woman just beginning to discover the world, wandering through the city’s legendary cafés, devouring existentialist books, drawing inspiration from the romanticism of its bridges,  losing myself in the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Yes indeed, Marta and I met during our own belle époque: a time that was opening up a new world, a new life for us. Everything lay ahead of us… discovering, learning, creating. A time when the future didn’t trouble us at all.

Not long ago, Marta told me her mother had passed away, and she showed me some photos from her belle époque. It was pure glamour! Beyond her incredible sense of style, you could recognise her sensitivity, and combined with the 1950s aesthetic, she looked like a true Hollywood star.

How strange it feels when we see our mothers once we’ve surpassed the age they were in those old photographs. The older we get, the more we become their contemporaries and we are better able to understand them beyond their role as mothers. 

And above all, oh what a void they leave when they’re gone… though somehow, a mother never truly leaves.

Marta was always a little introverted and a bit absent-minded. Today, she’s a renowned painter and an advanced student of classical guitar. She paints still lifes from life, recreating and expressing her world through lines and shapes.

She’s inspired by Mondrian, Frida Kahlo, and Matisse — and she adores La Cultivada EVOO, which has become part of her everyday life. That’s why she also portrays our little cans, giving them new life within the intimate universe of her atelier.

Marta’s work is so joyful, inviting us to contemplate the objects that surround us with fresh eyes. She currently collaborates with the Galería Herraiz in Madrid.

Have you seen her paintings? You really must — don’t miss them!

Elena Vecino (fundadora de La Cultivada). Read all my CULTIVATED STORIES.