Medium of Choice: Oil
"I have been looking for my go-to brushes for years and I can finally tell this quest is fulfilled. All Trekell brushes have an amazing quality but the long flats are my favourite. They're so easy to keep them sharp for a long time since the paint won’t reach the end that much and it’s so easy to clean them. Plus Trekell brush soap and restorer are really great. Spectrum brushes are my first love but I also enjoy working with Legion and Opal brushes.
I also need to mention the Trekell X Gamblin varnish brush. I can’t think of a better tool to do the job. It was a pain to clean and keep the varnish materials alive, but now I can’t go back.
Summarising, what I personally need in a brush is the ability to keep them sharp for long. And with these materials that’s possible and painting is much more joyful. I proudly recommend these to my community knowing that these will also make their lives easier."
Alai Ganuza was born in Bilbao in 1993. In Basque, Alai means happy, which according to many is reflected in her paintings and herself.
Even though art was always a passion, the fear of not being able to make a living from that made her study science in high school and uni, but due to life circumstances she had to step back and start over. That’s when she decided to embrace art again and entered the University of Basque Country to make the Fine Arts degree.
In 2020, not being satisfied with her current work, she started a journey to explore and practise by painting every day and sharing it on social media as a way to commit with it (later the quarantine made this a bit easier). She was already selling some paintings in local stores, but social media made a huge impact and helped her reach a lot of new collectors around the globe. And not only interested in her art, she also found a large audience interested in the journey and her painting techniques.
She started to teach on instagram and progressively adapted the content to the demand and the available platforms until she created her own courses in Domestika, Live Workshops and painting retreats.
Alai uses all kind of mediums and subjects, but her favourite technique is oil painting. With visible brushstrokes and vibrant colors, she enhances the mundane scenes and objects into bright and colorful still life paintings.
Alai’s art career just started but she manages to combine the goal of painting and make a living from that passion while she teaches and makes the community grow around it.
Artist Links: Instagram Website YouTube Facebook X Reddit TikTok
Alai's Picks:
Trekell Spectrum Brushes
Trekell Opal Brushes
Trekell x Gamblin Varnish Brush
Gamblin Oil Paint
