An Anglo-Spanish Transplant
Maureen Lucía Booth, originally from Manchester, U.K., has lived more than half her life in Granada. Over the years she has identified so much with Granada and the Iberian light and lifestyle that she took Spanish nationality. "When they ask me if I'm English or Spanish I always say both," says Maureen, "though the truth is I identify more with the Spanish..."

Although she began painting in England, it was in Granada where she was formed as an artist, and where she widened her scope of activities to include etching, silk screen, lino cuts and sculpture. In 1980 she was selected to work in the Etching Workshop of the Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta in Granada, an experience which turned out to be fundamental in her later development.

Discovering Printmaking in Granada
"I started out painting in oils and watercolors," says Maureen, "and I might never have done anything else had it not been for my experience in the Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Not only did I learn etching, but it opened my eyes to all the artistic activity going on around me. Those years in that wonderful workshop, intensely dedicated to etching and surrounded by other working artists, represent the most intensive growth period in my artistic life, and for that I am eternally grateful both to Pepe Lomas, the maestro of virtually all the Granada etchers of the past two decades, and to Miguel Rodríguez-Acosta, who made it all possible."

Over the years Maureen has edited portfolios of work both in etching and silkscreen. Her most recent production is "Mis dulces miércoles," ("My Sweet Wednesdays") a portfolio of eight etchings based on eight classic desserts with accompanying receipes. The portfolio was edited, and the text written by Mararo Moreno, with the proceeds going to the Spanish Cancer Fund. Maureen is currently finishing up a portfolio called "Entre Dos" of ten prints illustrating ten poems by contemporary Spanish poets.

An Internationalist and Art Activist
Over her 30-year career Maureen has exhibited all over the world and participated in innumerable art fairs and workshops, one of the most interesting of these being last summer's "Symposium" sponsored by the Association of Austrian Artists at their Koschuta mountain refuge on the border of Austria and Slovenia. Her favorite fair is Estampa, Madrid's annual printmaking fair where she was one of the founding exhibitors in 1993.

In the mid-1980's Maureen founded and ran the pilot project for a program of infantile art workshops in the province of Granada, which went on to create more than 30 workshops in villages around the province. She has has also been a key figure in the creation and running of WorldPrintmakers.com, this printmaking specialty site. Today she continues to work in her studio located in a village at the foot of Granada's Sierra Nevada.

www.maureenbooth.com
maureen@maureenbooth.com