Efren Gonzalez

Efren Gonzalez born in Ajijic, in Jalisco, Mexico. A prodigious painter in all media, particularly in oil, watercolor, pastel and acrylic. Efren participated in the famous Neill James art program in Ajijic. Studied with Antonio Cardenas, international painter B.R. Kline, watercolorist Luis Eduardo Gonzalez, sculptor Kent Clark and etchist Juan Navarro.

“Art started with a pencil,” Efren says, “almost as soon as I could hold it,” and despite a few short detours, the journey to becoming a “working” artist began early, Efren grew up winning local and regional drawing competitions as early as primary school. 

After high school, Efren started out studying Architecture and then Plastic Arts, but shortly found that he hadn’t the patience for either. He was offered a grant to study art at a small college in Maryland, and made the most of the opportunity. More than anything he learned there, he was enriched by seeing in person, great works he had only admired in books. One year later, he returned to Ajijic and took up his brush.

Efren’s paintings depict the things he sees in everyday life – the colorful people and landscape of his beloved Mexico. He is equally well known as a muralist having completed his first intricate mural in the90’s and since then many more in his beloved Ajijic.