Create endless rows of trees where you can get lost. Combine overlapping colors, discovering new shades. Work from the subconscious, journey through emotions. These are her intentions: to share her vision of the inner world.
Marta Vila Delgado frequently works with watercolor pencils on canvas, a technique that allows her to merge the precision of drawing with the fluidity of painting. Unlike traditional watercolor on paper, this method requires a deliberate control of water and pigment, as the canvas surface absorbs color differently, creating unique textures and layering effects.
Using watercolor pencils, Marta can draw with immediacy, outlining the forms of trees with defined lines before activating them with water to achieve delicate washes and gradients. This dual approach — drawing and painting simultaneously — mirrors her artistic process: structured yet intuitive, methodical yet meditative.
In her series of tree landscapes, the horizontal rows of synthesized trees gain depth and rhythm through subtle tonal variations. Each stroke becomes an extension of her inner movement, translating memory, emotion, and subconscious reflection onto the canvas. The technique allows for both precision and spontaneity, capturing fleeting moments and turning them into a contemplative visual experience.
FRIARS PATH (2021)
One significant work, Friars Path (2021), created with watercolor pencil and crayon on canvas (130 × 195 × 3 cm), was selected for the XVIII Premi Miquel Viladrich. In this piece, the horizontal procession of trees evokes both stillness and movement, guiding the viewer through a contemplative terrain where memory and place converge.
Friars path Watercolor pencil/crayon on canvas
130 x 195 x 3cm 2021
OTHER WORLDS (2022-2023)
Hypnotic rows of synthetic trees of overlapping colors with a certain organic order seem to display a new visual code.
The repetition of the tree figure through parallel and horizontal rows fills the canvas with shades, thus creating a pattern that reveals a remarkable optical effect.
For Marta Vila, each tree is a door to a memory, an experience, a moment in her life. These patterns, drawn with watercolor pencils and subsequent brushstrokes of water, which dissolve the pigment on the canvas itself, lead her to discover her own memory.
The execution of each stroke is an internal movement, a journey into the subconscious, where emotions are analyzed to be closer to understanding the why of everything.
Each canvas therefore becomes a manifestation of the mental plane: a ‘mind map’ that makes her see more clearly the path she is taking.
Other Worlds #1045 Detail Watercolor pencil on canvas 80 x 180 x 3cm
2021
Select work XIX Premi Miquel Viladrich 2023 winner popular vote
Other worlds I Watercolor pencil/crayon on canvas 1
34x 190 x 3 cm 2022
Other worlds II
Watercolor pencil/crayon on canvas
130 x 97 x 3 cm
2022
Other worlds #640
Watercolor pencil on canvas
100 X 100 X 3 cm
2023
Other worlds #798
Watercolor pencil on canvas 100 X 100 X 3 cm
2023
Other worlds #741
Watercolor pencil on canvas
100 X 100 X 3 cm
2023
Other worlds #702
Watercolor pencil on canvas 100 X 100 X 3 cm
2023
Other worlds #20,#3,#9,#7,#17,#4,#19,#8 Watercolor on canvas 16 x 16 x 3 cm 2022
Other worlds #968 Watercolor pencil on canvas
80 x 160 cm
2023
Anxious trees series Details pattern drawing studies Markers and pencil on paper 2023
ANXIOUS TREES (2021-2023)
In this series, Marta Vila Delgado attempts to capture the essence of anxiety. The fast and repetitive movement of the pencil on the paper reveals an automatic writing style based on the ever-present figure of the tree in her work.
Randomly chosen colors drawing layers of overlapping trees evoke an optical effect causing a certain confusion and dizziness in the eye.
Drawing rows of trees seems to relieve the symptoms of anxiety suffered in the very recent past, a necessary therapy at such a vital moment as motherhood.
He uses both small and large formats, also working on murals, to be able to execute a wider body movement and thus draw trees of larger dimensions.
Colored pencils, crayons and makers are the materials chosen to create this series.
Anxious trees mural #1 and #2 Detail Crayons on paper 210 X 153 cm
2025
CHAINS (2025)
While crocheting the series Chains, I began making drawings alongside the textile pieces. As my hands repeated the rhythm of each stitch, my thoughts translated into lines on paper.
These drawings are not sketches of the works, but reflections on the same idea. They explore connection, tension, and repetition in a freer, more instinctive way. On paper, the chains can stretch, overlap, or break ,expressing the emotional dimension behind the physical forms.
Together, weaving and drawing create a dialogue: one built through structure and material, the other through gesture and line.
Chains series Drawing on paper with maker 21 x 29,7 cm 2025
