Roberto Zamora Oils, Drawings

Roberto Zamora drew and painted from the age of 6. He grew up and traveled with his family in Europe, being exposed to great art and architecture, until, at the age of 16, his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 1971 he received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree, with a minor in painting, from the University of California, Berkeley. At that time, he also became passionately involved in Spanish Gypsy Flamenco song and dance, and, for the last 35 years he has been a professional Flamenco dancer and singer. He concurrently developed a career as a designer of kitchens, bathrooms, fountains and patios.

His Flamenco career took him on extended visits to Spain, during which he attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Seville for 2 years, and studied majolica tile painting at the Academia Triana in Seville. Since 1991, Roberto has placed major emphasis on drawing and painting, furthering his studies at Laney and Merritt Colleges, with six semesters of figure drawing with Helmut Schmidt, and painting for four years under the tutelage of renowned painter David Hardy.

His artistic influences include Michelangelo, Rubens, Velasquez, Murillo, El Greco, Sorolla, Homer, Maynard Dixon, and Georgia O'Keefe. Roberto's medium is oil paint on canvas, linen or gesso panels. He uses a combination of glazing and thicker applications of paint. In his figure painting, he attempts to bring the ideals of the great ages of painting into a contemporary context. In 1997, he became a finalist in the American Artists' Annual Portraiture Competition for his self-portrait "Flamenco Me." In 1999 Roberto placed 3rd in the Portraiture Competition for his painting "Avery in Pink." In 2000, he placed as a finalist in the National Park Academy of the Arts Competition for his landscape painting "Slumbering Cauldron."