My husband just received a job offer in Madrid and we are just getting started with the exciting and overwhelming preparations to move in May/June. I am not planning on working while we are in Madrid for about a year and a half or so. I am an oil painter and am hoping to get some information about the art scene in Spain, especially as to how it compares to the art scene in the States. I have more detailed questions but right now I'd like to leave it open-ended and see what I can learn.
Lynn

Lynnseedoil, welcome to our little message board!

You're in a bit of luck because one of our message board members (not active of late) named Martín de Madrid is a working artist in Madrid. While I don't recall exactly, I believe he's from California. I imagine you can contact him through his website - http://www.1stclasspinups.com . You may get some other insight through his previous postings if you do a SEARCH of the entire message board.

Anyone else have other suggesions?

Good luck! Saludos, MadridMan

Hi Lynnseedoil, I am an artist too. You will find that Madrid is the town to be in for galleries, although even in Valencia I have been surprised at how active galleries can be.

UPDATE:
Martin and I have begun communication via e-mail. He gave me permission to post his answers to some of my questions on this bb and I thought the information was fantastic! I hope others will benefit as well:
(p.s. sorry about the lack of accent on your name, Martin, my computer is stubborn and won't let me use the alt key)

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1 Are there any artist organizations in Madrid similar to those in the states? Can you recommend any?
The artist organizations here are different from the states. In Madrid there is a marvelous organization called "El Circulo de Bellas Artes," located on Gran Via, and is very famous. It costs about 50 euros per year (I think) and gives you access to life studios, etching facilities, and discounts on great programs of music, dance, theater, movies, etc. I highly recommend it.
There are some artist organizations in various cities, for example in the city of El Escorial, but they tend to be for local (Spanish citizens) artists. You can always ask about joining, the people are inevitably friendly, and are almost always a pleasure to talk with, and they will usually direct you to other resources. Remember YOU are the "exotic" here, with the sexy forgien accent!
There are many painting competitions, often with substantial cash prizes, open to everyone, especially in the summer months. The judging is often biased, but the competition is great fun, and you get to meet many other artists, and also get some good information. In August, a friend and I usually compete at El Escorial in an open air fast painting competition. The Prado museum also sponsors an open air fast painting competition about the same time. There are many more in different parts of Spain, and some artists make a living doing the competition circuit.

2.How do people react to artists setting up to paint in parks/on sidewalks?
This is one of the great joys of painting en plein air in Spain.
Unlike many places in the states, people are very respectful of painters, quietly observing them, not disturbing their concentration, and maybe giving a quiet comment of appreciation. I have had National Police cruise by my spot in the Parque Retiro in Madrid and tell me how much they liked my work! Even when painting on busy sidewalks, as I often do in Segovia (a paradise for painters), people are not upset with the small bottleneck caused. Of course I paint by the extreme side of the road and am very careful.
I even developed a following of artists and interested citizens when I spent several months painting the cathedral on a busy steet.
I had many offers to purchase the painting, but beware! the Spanish will only purchase at bargain basment prices. It is very hard to sell work here. The people who make a living at it usually are in a tourist spot (like the Plaza Mayor in Madrid), are very competitive, and are either very good pastel portrait painters, usually oriental, r horrible hang-it-over-the-sofa-because-the-colors-match style painters, usually Spanish.
Some spots need special permission to paint, such as Plaza Major, or some of the national historical monmunents which charge admission, but others, like the wonderful gardens at the Granja in San Ideofonso outside of Segovia, will let you paint for free. Just go to the information office or ticket seller or bookstore and ask if you can paint, and if there is a charge.

3. Are there any publications or websites that you recommend, not only for artists but also for Americans moving to Spain and getting set up there?
YES! I am going to put up a section on my website, http://www.1stclasspinups.com for just this purpose! Outside of this, I do not know of any other sites which have information, this is one reason I am interested in doing it.

4.I’m spending most of my worrying over the visa papers etc etc.!!!
Since you want to be a professional artist here, you should know that getting residency and work visas is almost impossible, and usually takes several (like three or more) years of interminable delays, waiting for 18 hours (or days and nights) outside police stations and offical offices only to be told to go somewhere else and have the same thing happen there. I am not exaggerating. The bureauracy is huge, incompetent, uninformed and very, very slow.
Finding a suitable studio space is impossible. There are at least 80-200 applicants for each apartment space in Madrid, and every possible space which can be reclaimed for apartments is. This is how I lost my wonderful lucky studio of 2.5 years in Barrio Lavapies. It was taken over by a grade school for expansion of classrooms. I now work in my living room, and am investigating renting a "nave" or commercial industrial space.
However, you can sell your work on the sidewalk. You run a very small chance of being busted by the police, but usually artists are left alone. Some sites are more problematic than others. For example you will probably be hasseled in the pedestrian walkway running north from Puerto del Sol, or Plaza Mayor. The usual place to sell is in front of the monument to Alfonso XIII in the Parque Retiro. Generally you watch other artists selling things similiar to yours, and if they hurriedly hide their work, you need to also! In the Retiro, you won't have any problems. People selling jewelry will be busted, as are the oriental massage people. It just depends on what businesses are feeling threatened by your presence, I think. I put a sign on my easel offering my work, and have a wire around it to hang the paintings.
BEWARE of theives, and watch your work and materials like a hawk. Especially in the Metro (subway), when you are loaded down with paintings, easel, etc. you are an easy target for pickpockets. Get a wheeled carryall, or a luggage cart and secure your portable easel and supplies to it SECURELY (I use a modified golf bag transporter and bungee cords). Make it as easy as you can for yourself. Besides you do not need to arrive tired at you painting location, let alone return home even more exhausted, and, possibly, ripped off.

Once I get my ADSL internet connection at home back up, I will set up information on the website about painting in Spain. Look for it in about another month. Until then, feel free to ask me any question you want. Just beware answers may be a bit irregular, since I have to go to an internet cafe to do my mail. I look forward to your questions because they give me a good start on the Painting in Spain part of the website, so fire away.

Hope this helps. Do not despair, it is always a daunting thing to go to another country and set up shop, but with time, patience, improving language skills, perseverance and imagination it can be done. Spain is a wonderful place to paint, it is easy to find models if you are a figure painter, easy to get things for still life work, and the landscape is fantastic! There is such a wonderful, long tradition of great painting here, and the museums are first class, no matter what kind of art you practice. You will absolutely love it. I am working on getting into some New York City galleries in order to get around the selling problem, and have other ways of selling my work, so even the problems with selling here can be worked around.

Painting supplies here are, in general, of much lower quality and availability than in the states. The things Spain excells in are: 1) beautiful hand-crafted papers; 2) the BEST printing supplies and tools; 3)wonderful linen, if you know where to purchase it; 3) Escoda brushes, some of the best I have ever used; 4) wonderful custom stretcher bars. Unfortunately, that is about it. The paint "choices" generally are limited to Talens and Titian, the easels are poor, and you cannot purchase Julian portable easels here, so I strongly suggest you get a genuine Julian easel in the states and bring it over. The Spanish easels are junk, and importation taxes on supplies purchased in the states and mailed (if it is more than a small box) is about 50%!!! Bring it with you. If you want to mail your paintings back to the states, you have to register them at the Circulo de Bellas Artes, and, although I am not sure, there is probably a fee, and maybe a tax, certainly a hassel. I return with a couple of tubes of paintings when I go back to the states and avoid the hassels. (Tubes can be had for free when the fabric stores throw out the heavy cardboard tubes -- look for them in the trash in the area near the firestation below Plaza Mayor.)