Felix Granda

Rev. Félix Granda y Álvarez Buylla (Mieres, 1868–1954) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and sacred artist who founded the liturgical art workshop Talleres de Arte and directed its activities until his death. The workshop is now known as Talleres de Arte Granda in Spanish-speaking countries and as Granda Liturgical Arts in English-speaking countries.

Felix Granda was born on 21 February 1868 in Mieres, in the Spanish principality of Asturias. He was the oldest of the six children of Wenceslao Granda, a physician, and his wife Elvira. He began studies for the priesthood at the minor seminary in Oviedo at the age of ten, and refined his skills in draftsmanship, painting, sculpture and metalwork by studying with artisans. He spent many summers in Muros de Nalon with a group of painters that included Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida and Cecilio Pla y Gallardo.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Madrid in 1891.

That same year, at the age of 23, Granda founded Talleres de Arte in Madrid. The Archbishop-Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, Jose Maria Cos y Macho, whom Granda had known when Cos was the rector of Oviedo Cathedral, approved the young priest's ministry, writing:

The works of art that leave your factories will open paths, as much in the republics of South America as in the European nations... by the profundity of the thought and the Christian spirit that animates them, by the newness and beauty of the drawing and the careful execution... Continue without hesitation, for the good of religion, the profession of the arts, joining perfectly your sacerdotal vocation with your artistic aptitude.

The original workshop was located on Calle Fernando el Santo in Madrid, but was soon relocated to the Hotel de las Rosas residence in the Altos del Hipodromo to accommodate the growing number of artisans. Granda described the location:

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