[1] His time as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Puebla coincided with the presence of the professors Lorenzo Zendejas, Salvador del Huerto, López Guerrero, and the brothers Caro and José Manzo.

Although he was a member of the Academy, he decided to establish his own workshop, where he began to paint genre scenes and other subjects incomprehensible to the elitist clientele of the city of Puebla, from whom he received only modest sums for his works.

What distinguishes Arrieta’s work is its depiction of everyday life and customs in nineteenth-century Puebla: clothing, gastronomy, and small trades, as well as human virtues and defects, are the elements that are highlighted and repeated.

The most attractive features of his still lifes are the realism of the textures, the brilliant colors of the fruit, and the realistic rendering of glass, although his critics have objected to the lack of any logic between certain opposing elements, such as his representation of a hieratic cat next to a chicken.

Arrieta also painted portraits of several important figures in the society of Puebla, but his critics, including the historian Guillermo Prieto, have pointed out deficiencies in his handling of anatomy, as for example his rendering of hands, as well as the poor quality of his drapery.