About The Artist

Miguel Angel Castrillo Fernandez is an artist based in Santa Pola , Spain. Under the artist nama of Sotoko , he produces oil paintings focusing on the nude human figure. Castrillo was born in San Sebastian , Spain and grew up in Andoain , a small village in the Spanish Basque area near France. At the young age of seven , he started drawing and developing his art skills academically. He officially started his art career in 1999 , while trying to find the right school of art and design for him in Spain and the United Kingdom . Once he did , Castrillo completed his studies at the Escola Massana in Barcelona. And , in 2003 , he graduated as the top technician of Plastic Arts and Design in Applied Mural Arts. Under the stage name of Sotoko , the human figure is the prominent focus and theme throughout Castrillo´s art practice. His compositions serve as visual narratives with the nude as the main character. For Castrillo , nude art provides him a venue to illustrate the most basic and primitive instincts of humans. Furthermore , his oil paintings capture primal characteristics that still accompany our society even as we evolve. Sotoko self-describes his work as controversial and dynamic. Everything influences Sotoko´s nude art. He takes the positive and negative events of his life as well as meetings with new people or those he has known for a long time and incorporates them in his practise. An experience or a fleeting thought can be the basis for his creativity. He lets these ideas for his creations flow easily from his imaginative mind to the canvas. More specifically , his practice finds inspiration from the Renaissance and the revival of Classical forms and styles. Furthermore , he embraces a naturalistic realism , yet , illusionist painting techniques used in Renaissance artworks. Additionally , he is fond of Italian painter Sandro Botticelli´s work and portrayal of the nude in works such as The birth of Venus. However , contemporary artists such as Scottish painter Peter Howson inform his practice as well. For his creative process ,Sotoko first visualizes the completed work before anything else. He then draws out the idea with pencils. Once the initial sketch is complete , he adds oil paints to create dimension and give life to his nude art. He sometimes works with reference photographs , but usually works from his memories as the mind is the main source for his creativity. Castrillo creates his nude paintings with canvases either propped up on an easel or the wall , depending on the canvas´ size. Working with music makes his process flow smoothly but does not mind working in silence sometimes. Aside from nude art , Castrillo also creates artworks in other genres. Some of his other art focus on religious imagery and photography. Additionally , he is proficient in other painting techniques such as mural frescoes , graffito , stucco , and stained glass. Furthermore , he is adept with acrylics , watercolors , pencil illustrations , and collages. He even enjoys immersing himself in creative writing endeavors. However , working with oil paints is the comfortable for him. Currently , Castrillo´s work displays permanently at the San Joaquín y Santa Ana Museum in Valladolid , Spain. He considers one of his biggest accomplishments as an artist to have exhibited next to three works by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes , the world-renowned Spanish painter and printmaker. Furthermore , his works have exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in London , portugal and Spain. Most notably , Sotoko showed twice in the Salón Erótico in Barcelona in the 2017 solo exhibition Eros y Nosotros and the 2019 solo exhition Eros Interrogado. As an artist , Castrillo´s professional goal is to continue creating various series of large erotic paintings , similar to what he has done before but keep incorporating new ideas. Furthermore , under the stage name of Sotoko , he strives to use art as a communication tool and a profitable way of living.