"Repose" 20" x 30" Charcoal on Paper HOLD Sergio Sanchez is a talented young California artist who is known for his atmospheric, moody works depicting the human figure. Sanchez was born in Mexico City in 1976 and his parents brought him to the United States when they emigrated in 1979. Growing up on the scenic Palos Verdes Peninsula, south of Los Angeles, Sanchez was always interested in art, and drew incessantly. Though the young artist availed himself of the art classes that were available at Palos Verdes High School, he was frustrated by the lack of real instruction. After graduating he worked on his own, eventually discovering the private school Associates in Art, where he studied with Mark Westermoe. Westermoe had a strong background in the techniques of the historic illustrators, which he passed on to Sanchez. With a structured approach and live models to work from, Sanchez progressed rapidly, and after a year and a half of studies began teaching at the school, then at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, where he is an instructor today. Sanchez has been particularly influenced by the American illustrator Dean Cornwell (1892 - 1960), the British painter Frank Brandwyn (1867 - 1943) and the little-known Mexican artist Saturnino Herran (1887 - 1918). Inspired by the latter's moody, tonalistic renderings of Mexican subjects, Sanchez, as his own career progresses, wants to portray the lives of the people of Mexico, capturing them accurately and with a simple dignity.