People of San Miguel: Alexander Talbot-Rice and the Art of Finding Home

There are places that are beautiful, and then there are places that somehow make you want to create.

For British portrait artist Alexander Talbot-Rice, San Miguel de Allende is the latter.

He describes it with an idea taught to him years ago by his masters at St. Petersburg’s legendary Repin Academy: the tuning fork.

Strike a tuning fork and it resonates. Certain people, places and moments can do the same. For Alexander, San Miguel de Allende is one of them.

This is like a tuning fork to me. It’s inspiring me to be the best I am at the most important moment in my career.

It’s a striking statement from an artist whose career has taken him from Florence to St. Petersburg, Afghanistan and Buckingham Palace. But to understand why San Miguel matters to him now, you first have to understand why he became an artist at all.

“It’s in my nature to paint”

Alexander’s path was hardly the obvious one.

I wasn’t supposed to be an artist. My family were quite disappointed when I told them, after I graduated from university, that I was going to pursue a career in fine art.

He went anyway.

With university debts and very little money, he travelled to Florence to study classical painting. His first accommodation was unconventional, to say the least: a church.

From a church floor to Palazzo Corsini

Rather than simply accepting his circumstances, Alexander approached the priest with an idea. He would design a monument to the soldiers who died liberating Florence in the Second World War.

He then contacted the Welsh Guards, Scots Guards and Coldstream Guards.

I said, “Look, I’m willing to do it for nothing, but would you mind paying for the marble?”

They agreed. Alexander travelled to Pietrasanta, carved the monument and was soon introduced to some of Florence’s most influential families, among them Prince and Princess Corsini. They invited him to become an artist in residence at Palazzo Corsini.

So I went from sleeping in a church to being an artist in residence at Palazzo Corsini within a matter of months.

It would not be the last dramatic change of scenery in his life.

In search of the masters

Alexander’s pursuit of traditional painting eventually led him to St. Petersburg and the Repin Academy. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the institution had an almost mythical reputation among Western artists.

I remember entering this huge building on the banks of the river, which is like a cathedral to art.

He wanted to study in the studio associated with Ilya Repin himself. There was only one slight problem: he hadn’t actually arranged an appointment.

He simply arrived and told the rector’s secretary that he had flown from England to see him. When finally asked which master he wanted to study under, Alexander asked to see their work first.

I didn’t even realise how arrogant this was.

It apparently worked. He stayed for three years, and there he absorbed an idea that still shapes the way he paints today.

Paint from the inside out

For Alexander, portraiture isn’t really about reproducing a face. It’s about finding the person behind it.

The Russians would say you shouldn’t paint from the outside in. You paint from the inside out.

We asked whether he ever meets someone and simply feels compelled to paint them.

“Oh God, yes.”

He talks about expressive eyes, timelessness and the almost instinctive reaction an artist can have to another person.

If you see somebody that has soul, you want to try to convey how that makes you feel.

For him, the process is emotional as much as technical. And the success of a portrait isn’t simply whether it resembles its subject. It’s whether somebody else looking at it feels something too.

I hope they will also be touched. And that is the whole point.

From Buckingham Palace to Afghanistan

After returning to England, another seemingly chance encounter changed the course of Alexander’s career.

He painted Richard Chartres, then Bishop of London. What Alexander did not know was that the Bishop had connections to Windsor Castle. The portrait was noticed, and then came a phone call.

We saw the painting that you did of Bishop Richard. We’d like you to paint His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

The young artist who had once slept in a church in Florence was suddenly painting royalty.

But Alexander’s career has never been confined to palaces and formal portraits.

At a difficult moment in his personal life, shortly after a divorce, another unexpected opportunity arose. The then Prince of Wales encouraged him to travel to Afghanistan, where a project led by Rory Stewart was working to restore Kabul’s historic Old City and revive its artistic and cultural heritage.

That first journey grew into a much deeper connection with the country:

• He travelled some 500 miles across Afghanistan on horseback, from Bamyan to Mazar-i-Sharif.
• He founded the Afghan Rugby Federation.
• He later returned to Helmand Province, embedded with the Welsh Guards as a war artist, drawing and painting tribal elders during the conflict.

One encounter in particular stayed with him. Alexander asked the Governor of Helmand what the region most needed for its reconstruction, expecting an answer such as roads, hospitals or clean water.

Instead, the elder told him that those things might help people survive, but art gives people a reason to.

For an artist so focused on finding the person behind the face, the experience seems especially significant. From royalty at Buckingham Palace to tribal elders in Afghanistan, the setting changes completely, but the challenge remains the same: to look beyond the surface and find something human.

And perhaps that is why San Miguel resonates with him so deeply now.

Why San Miguel de Allende?

Ask Alexander what he likes about San Miguel and he mentions many of the things that draw people here:

• The light
• The warmth of the local community
• The friendliness

But then he says something much more interesting.

It’s real.

For an artist whose life has moved between palaces, art academies, war zones and studios, authenticity matters.

People come here because it represents something.

And then he returns to the tuning fork.

For more than 25 years, Alexander has been refining his craft, pursuing the elusive idea of becoming the best painter he can be. San Miguel, at this particular moment, seems to be giving him the space and inspiration to bring all of those years together.

I’ve spent the last 25 years trying to be the best that I can be at what I’m doing. And now I can come here and actually paint with integrity and love.

Perhaps that is one of the things San Miguel does particularly well. People arrive for the architecture, the climate or the beauty. But quite often, the reason they stay is harder to explain.

Something resonates.

And every now and again, you meet someone who manages to put it into words.

If Alexander’s story has you curious about the creative side of San Miguel, start at Fábrica La Aurora, the former textile factory turned art hub, or the Instituto Allende, the city’s creative heart. And to meet the people who came before him, read how Hollywood stars like José Mojica first discovered San Miguel.

To see more of his portraits, drawings and commissions, visit Alexander’s website: alextalbotrice.com.

Thinking of making San Miguel home yourself? Browse homes for sale in San Miguel de Allende, explore our full property catalog, or read our neighborhood guide to find the area that fits how you want to live.

People of San Miguel is a new series from Live In San Miguel, introducing some of the artists, makers, entrepreneurs, characters and fascinating people who call San Miguel de Allende home, even if only for a little while.