Lucia Benavides

Lucia Benavides grew up under her grandmother’s table at Market Square in San Antonio, where every Saturday the paper flowers sold overhead and the world below was all shoes, shadows, and color. That view from the ground still shapes how she sees. Before painting full time, Lucia earned a BA in Art Education from Texas State University and taught art to elementary school kids. Those years taught her that a picture should be bold enough to read from across the room and joyful enough to make someone stop and point. She still lives and paints in San Antonio.

Working in oil with a wide, trowel-shaped palette knife, Lucia lays down thick, confident strokes that blend folk art’s flat, cheerful patterns with the energy of expressionism. Her favorite subject is still the market: church facades, strings of papel picado, and fruit stands piled high, all painted brighter than life. Her grandmother would have called them too bright, and Lucia happily disagrees. These canvases bring warmth to kitchens, dining rooms, and breakfast nooks, and they add a lively spark to entryways, family rooms, and kids’ spaces. Below are Benavides’s canvases in our shop, ready to hang.