Excursions and Painting in Spain

Excursions and Painting in Spain

by Friend Jackie Halliday

We are  enjoying being in one place and being part of the village. Although there is a rooster who leads the chorus at 3am, that we would like to have for dinner! We know which are the favoured restaurants/bars - some for coffee and some for proper meals or tapas. It's ony a 5 minute walk down to the main plaza, Plaza del Playa. Although it takes ages to get to the studio by car as they have a one way system around the mountain and we have to drive a tortuous route to get here. Only takes 5 mins to get out though.  It's very windy today -  the washing nearly blew off the roof clothes line!!
We all look like ducklings following Andy as we head out to do our morning sketch. Yesterday we went to draw the waste land on the edge of the village. It was OK except a horse kept getting in our way!  While the surrounding countryside is very brown at present, in spring, following rain all winter, it is covered in wildflowers.

Because the winters are cold, wet and humid the houses have to be painted every year or two, inside and out.
A weekly  excursion is included in the course and you're supposed to do a 15 min sketch while you're away! I think it's so Andy and Helen can have a day to themselves. Pete, the local expat taxi driver takes us and picks us up at the end of the day. Last week we went to Cadiz, pronounced Caydith, like Edith. Surrounded by water on 3 sides, it is quite small to walk around. Dating from the 11th century BC it lays claim to being the oldest city in Europe still occupied. It is from here that Christopher Columbus set sail in 1493 on his second voyage of discovery.

Our trip to Gilbraltar was well worth it. The rock is HUGE! 412 metres high rising straight out of the sea. We caught the cable car to the top - very expensive but with spectacular views! and made the mistake of walking down. It was very steep, long, hot, not well signposted and an extra 10 British pounds to view the other sites, such as the WWII tunnels. We ended up walking down a very rocky path as we were in danger, not only from falling rocks, but also of missing our ride home!

There are lots of Barbary Apes, they look like little monkeys, living on the rock. They just roam freely amongst the tourists but you are not allowed to feed them and apparently they bite!  The entry to Gilbraltar is most unusual. After passport control you drive across the airport runway! There are traffic lights controlling cars and people. Because it is not Spanish territory and they are still a bit miffed that the British won't hand it back, aircraft are not allowed to fly in Spanish airspace so have to do a tricky approach over the sea. You Tube shows what it looks like.

Another trip we managed to do was to catch the train to Ronda -  a village high in the mountains on the way to Granada. Ronda is the home of modern bullfighting where they first fought bulls on foot as opposed to fighting them from horseback. The bullring is very picturesque as  far as bullrings go and if you ignore the reality of what happens in bullrings. The guide book said that 24,000 bulls are killed each year. Ugh!!! Most impressive however, was the collection of matador costumes. Michael Jackson had nothing on these. Apparently the metal embroidery and braiding was designed to withstand a bull's horn. The hats were really cute. Unfortunately photographs were not allowed. The other reason for visiting Ronda was to see the spectacular ravine, crossed by an old arched bridge, that connects the old town and the new. The train trip was enjoyable too, wending its way through a variety of landscapes from mountainous valleys to high fertile plateaus.

We were going to have a swim in the Atlantic on the coast at Tarifa but the wind was too strong, so much so that you almost got sand blasted when you ventured out of the shelter of the town. So I have to be content with the paddle I had at Los Palmar last week on the way to Cadiz. Tarifa is the Southern most tip of Europe (not counting the island of Crete) and is where the huge catamaran ferries leave for Tangier in Morocco. Instead of swimming we ventured up the coast to Bolonia where there are the remains of an old Roman city, Baelo Claudia. This was a centre for catching and salting tuna. The large stone salting pits still there.

We came back via the scenic route rather than the motorway and could not believe the number of windmills. Pete, our driver, had warned us earlier and we had seen fields of 30-40, but we didn't believe him really. Wind power is fine if you have a few farms dotted here and there but imagine the whole of the Hauraki plains and every ridge in the Waitakeres covered in windmills!! As Ian said, they become the landscape. Agriculture still carries on below them. Paul, who was here last week, is an energy cost analyst and said that windpower is 4 times more expensive than nuclear power even taking into account the disposal costs (we don't want that either so it is a real dilemma). The converters in the windmills have to be replaced every 10 years adding to the cost. They all have strobe lights so you can imagine what the night view of the countryside is like.

The actual drawing and painting is going well. Andy is teaching us to look in terms of basic shapes and tones of light and dark. It's probably what they teach year 10s! If it is too hot or windy to go out we draw or paint a still life in the studio. I even did a portrait, albeit copied from a photograph - differentiating the light and dark planes on his face and hair. It actually worked. The colour one wasn't quite as good though. More practice needed! Andy's favourite saying is 'yes, I think you've got it - it's not a million miles away'. Very encouraging.

Tonight, our last night, we are going to the neighbouring Pueblo Blanco, Medina Sedonia for dinner and a look around. It is just Andy and Helen and us, Nandy and Annette from Rome, who have been with us this week, having left this morning. This is another reason that we enjoy doing painting holidays, we meet interesting people from all over the world. Matt, who was here last week is Irish and has such a dry sense of humour that he had us in stitches. The irreverent conversation that week was about the taboo  topics of religion and politics. Nandy and Annette both work for the European Space Agency which has projects monitoring environmental issues such as sea temperatures, weather patterns etc. We have really enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere here.The food has been absolutely delicious. We have probably eaten far too much! and are now starting to think about moving on the Cordoba.

We leave here for Cordoba on Saturday and then keep moving until we leave on the 14th.