Spend a Summer’s Afternoon with Painter Raquel Alvarez Sardina

Summer is a significant influence in your work, through your rich depictions of seasonal fruit and floral blooms in vibrant light. What do you enjoy most about painting during this season?

Summer is such a generous season. Everything seems to burst into life at once – fruit, flowers, colour, light – and I love being surrounded by that sense of abundance. A lot of what I paint actually comes from my own little garden, which has slowly turned into a kind of mini orchard. I grow quinces, apricots, apples, plums, cherries… and then all the berries – redcurrants, raspberries, blackcurrants.. And of course the flowers: roses, irises, peonies, hollyhocks. It’s a whole world of shapes and colours right outside my door.

What I enjoy most about painting in the summer is the immediacy of it. I can pick something and paint it straight away while still warm from the sun.

Summer light has its own magic. It wraps around things, soft but vibrant and it brings out colours that I only see this time of the year. For me, summer isn’t just a season – it’s a whole
palette, a whole mood, a whole way of paying attention.

You often work outside the garden. How does the changing light throughout the day affect your compositions? Does your process differ working in the studio versus outside?

When I work in the garden, I’m always aware that the light is constantly shifting. The sun moves, the shadows stretch or disappear and the whole mood of the scene can change in minutes. That’s where my landscape experience really helps. I usually start by drawing, getting the proportions right and establishing the main shadows straight away, because I know they won’t stay the same for long.

The process itself isn’t that different from working in the studio, but outdoors you have to be quicker and more responsive. In the studio the light is steady, the shadows barely move, and you can take your time. Outside everything is alive and changing, so you learn to catch the moment before it slips away.

Both ways of working have their charm – one is calm and controlled and lets me slow down and sink into the details, the other is full of movement and keeps me alert.

What do the ideas of ‘community’ ‘ companionship’ and ‘togetherness’ and ‘shared moments’ mean in relation to this collection. How do hope people feel when they spend time with your work?

In this collection, I have come to see the fruit almost as small gatherings of people. Each one has it’s own personality – It’s own shape, it’s own weight – and when I place them together they start to behave a bit like people. They lean towards each other, create space and share it. They each play a different role in the composition, and that relationship is what brings the painting to life.

There is something beautiful about watching these simple objects form a kind of quiet companionship. The fruit sit together, holding a moment, sharing the same light. I think that sense of togetherness is what I am really painting.

When people spend time with my work, I hope they feel a bit of that warmth – a sense of being welcomed into a small, intimate circle. I hope the paintings offers something soft, calm, inviting, human. A reminder that even the simplest thing can have presence, offer a pause, and provide a moment to reflect.

Your carefully rendered compositions show an extraordinary skill for close observation. What has still life painting taught you about the art of slowing down and paying attention?


When I finished my Fine Art degree and finally stood on my own as a painter I quickly realised that what I had learned wasn’t enough – I needed to push my skills much further. Painting every day became my way of doing that, and still life was the perfect place to dig into the basics: drawing, tone, colour, composition. That’s where I learned to slow down and really look.

There is something almost meditative about observing a simple object until it reveals it’s subtleties: the way light softens an edge, how a shadow falls across the surface, how every object has a distinctive shape. Still life taught me to pay attention in a deeper, more patient way.

I have carried that practice into landscapes and figure work too. Each subject adds something different to my understanding. Switching between them keeps me on my toes, you’re always dealing with new colours, new forms, new challenges. It stops you getting too comfortable.

Painting is my passion and I love the feeling of taking on something new. Whether it is a figure, a landscape, or a fruit, every fresh composition feels like another chance to express myself honestly and to grow a little more as an artist.

What sounds, scents, or colours immediately make you think of summer? 


Yellow is the colour that instantly brings summer to mind for me. Those long stretches of dry grass glowing in the evening light – they hold the scent of the season in a way that nothing else does. There’s this warm, dusty sweetness in the air that feels like pure summer.

And there’s the sea. I love the smell of it, that mix of salt and sun, and the sound of waves rolling in. It’s one of those things that settles you without even trying to.

So for me, summer is a blend of colour, scent, and sound: golden fields, warm breezes, and the steady rhythm of the season. It’s simple, but stays with you.

Do you have a favourite summer memory that stays with you? 


One of my favourite summer memories goes back to childhood, when I used to spend the holidays at my grandparents’ home in Galicia, on the Atlantic coast of Spain. The sea there has strong tides, just like in England. I spent long days playing on the beach with my brother and sister, letting the hours stretch out the way they only do when you’re a child. And then, in the late evening, we will watch the sunset, the whole sky turning gold and rose. That light, that smell of salt, that feeling of the day softening…it’s stayed with me.

It’s one of those memories that still colours how I think about summer – warm, endless and full of magic.

If you could spend a perfect summer day anywhere, where it would be?

My perfect summer day would be at Mewslade Beach in the Gower. We usually head there in the morning when the tide is high, and then just let the whole day drift by. We watch the tide slowly drop, go for a swim and we will paint when the tide reveals a new landscape.

There’s not rush, just the sea, the cliffs and the day unfolding around us. It’s simple and completely perfect.

View Raquel Alvarez Sardina’s collection in gallery and online now