Artistic Maturity (1983-1988)

She goes back to painting on canvas, and she will not abandon it until the end of the decade. Her fists works are linked with the formal softness of the colours used in watercolours, although now they move on to the dreamlike themes which are going to characterize the next stage.

She wins her first prize with “La llegada del día” [The arrival of the day]: the silver medal at the XV Certamen Nacional de Pintura de Luarca [15th National Painting Contest of Luarca].
With “Hechizo” [Spell], she wins the first prize at the 2nd Painting Contest of the “El Ratón” gallery (Madrid). And “Ana” is nominated in the VI Convocatoria de Artes Plásticas de Alicante [Visual Arts Meeting of Alicante].
During the first years after her return to work, her determination to send her works to all kinds of contests and competitions pays off, and her work starts to be known and valued in these contests at a national level. Her work is selected, over this entire period and the following decade, in Talavera de la Reina (1980, 1982 and 1983), Valdepeñas (1983, 1984 and 1985), Luarca (1981, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1987), Alcorcón (1983), Móstoles (1985), Sama de Langreo (1985, 1987, 2001 and 2003), Cuenca (1985), Cádiz (1986, 1995, 1997 and 1999), Alcobendas (1985 and 1987), Alicante (1984 and 1991), Albacete (2000), and at the Unicaja contests in Málaga and Seville (1997 and 2001).

This encourages her to devote herself to the artistic creation in a more professional way, after the logical hesitation, uncertainty and initial insecurity.

Actually, from that moment on, leaving her physical (and emotional) problems behind and thanks to her growing self-confidence, she begins one of her most prolific creative phases with a pictorial expressionism of acid colours as its hallmark. In two years, she produces almost sixty works.

She tries again with the printing techniques, after having attended a screen-printing course taught by Jesús Báñez in Betanzos that summer. However, she is unable to do a numbered series, only practice following the themes and style of the expressionist paintings of that period.

She was highly commended at the Certamen Nacional de Pintura de Luarca [National Painting Contest of Luarca]. And she was again in 1987. In Asturias, as in several other places, her work will always be highly appreciated, because a few years later she will find certain success at the Biennial Painting contests of Sama de Langreo (her work is exhibited in the 2001 and 2003 editions, certainly a very different work at that time).

Her heart begins to show signs of exhaustion, and the need for surgery is considered. She starts taking medication.

Her drawing teacher´s title validates her degree in Fine Arts.

In April, at the Gregorio Sánchez foundation (calle Jorge Juan), she holds the first solo exhibition of the expressionist phase of her pictorial stage. There, she shows nearly thirty oil paintings, which are an excellent and complete selection of the themes and language of this phase in her production. Unfortunately, as it happened many times, the exhibition is not reflected in any catalogue.

She also participates in two group exhibitions: “Mujeres en el Arte Español” [Women in Spanish Art] at the Alfama gallery and at the Centro Cultural Galileo [Galileo Cultural Centre], where she will return few years later with “Pentálogo”.

On June 21st, Pilar undergoes her first heart surgery, at the Clínica Ruber Internacional, during which one valve is replaced. As proof of her courage, she chooses an organic valve and not an artificial one. This will guarantee a better quality of life (she will not need to take medicines for some years), but will also result in a second surgery within approximately fifteen years. Although the recovery is surprisingly fast for a few months, Pilar has to stop working. A new hiatus in her career, and it is time to start again.