...more Toledo

Taking advantage of a few days off work, as we´re right in the middle of Holy Week here in Spain, I drove down to Toledo again today with my son. He´s a first year Architecture student and likes sketching on site as well, so he goes off to do his drawings while I do my stuff.
I wanted to start the final painting on site--get all the elements placed properly, deal with the proportions and lay down some basic color. The scene is quite daunting, what with all the little structures crammed together in a city that definitely had no planning whatsoever, so I wanted to place a few of the major elements which will serve as a reference point for the smaller ones.

It was a beautiful day, cool when I started and verging on hot by the time I packed up. My chosen spot also happens to be the spot of an endless stream of tourist buses unloading eager tourists as they mill about taking snapshots of the city and countless selfies. Makes it a bit hard to tune out and focus on the task at hand but, hey, I don´t own the spot....

My set up and the initial charcoal outline painted over in a thinned-out neutral color. That stain in the middle of the canvas is the result of having had to rub out globs of paint that had ended up on the canvas after it had fallen with a gust of wind. Slight mishaps are bound to happen. No harm done.

And this is how the initial block-in looked like by the time I decided to call it a day...more to come...

But, I also took advantage of where I was to shift my attention to a smaller detail of the whole view and painted this sketch in about 2 hours. Oil on canvas on panel, about 15 x 23 cm. 

Am not really sure what that structure is that sits atop the hill, nor the name of the fortress on the left middle ground. I just liked the way the light played on these elements as well as on the rocks on the side of the hill. It was good exercise...

Toledo

...look who´s back....!
I really wish I could update this blog more often, it is  kind of neglected...so, here we go...

I´ve been asked to paint a view of the city of Toledo, adopted city of Domenicos Theotokopolus, "El Greco" for those who know him by that name, "Dom" for those of us who knew him. This was an unexpected commission and a more than welcome one, I mean, what painter worth his lead white wouldn´t jump at the opportunity to paint a view of this historical city where the 3 main Faiths of the world have lived harmoniously together for centuries?
So, off I went and got cracking, albeit intermittently due to other obligations, and did some prelim sketches of the place. The gentleman who has commissioned the painting had a specific view in mind: looking towards the city from the other side of the river Tajo along a highway leading to the Ermita de la Virgen del Valle (for those of you reading that know the area), which is  an elevated vantage point that allows for a fantastic view of the whole town.

I had never been on that spot on that highway and it is truly  a magnificent spot to park your vehicle and just behold the whole city in front of you with the Tajo winding around it like a belt of some sort, fastening it jealously to the flat, Castilian landscape which surrounds it.

...so I did some initial thumbnails, here are a couple...

...then, I proceeded to do a quick watercolour in situ, just to get a feel of the whole thing, something like rehearsing some lines before an interview....

It was great being able to do that on site after such a long period of deprivation. Apparently. the area where I was is a usual spot for tourist buses to stop and let their fare out to stretch their legs and take pictures of the city. Can´t blame them, actually...

This last watercolour proved too panoramic and horizontal for my client who wanted a bit more verticality to the format and more sky, so I made another sketch and came up with this...

...which he liked and was happy with, but which I think needs further adjustments in the final painting. In this watercolour, the horizon is smack dab in the middle of the painting, something which   has always bothered me since it divides the whole thing into two equal parts instead of the one part playing harmoniously with the other part. So, I´ll most likely adjust that. I am hoping to start the painting soon, on site, at least to get the initial stages going and later continuing from the studio from reference photos. 

...More to come, I hope...

...As a post script...

All fired up by this new project, I made this watercolor of another small little town in the northern Castilian area this time. A little village called Ayllón, in the province of Segovia., where some dear friends live. This little street corner endeared itself to me...

Summer notes

The summer has afforded me the time to (FINALLY!!!) do more exercises in watercolor, long neglected in my case, and I have been fortunate to have been able to venture outdoors to execute some of these notes. Here are some products of this summer´s studies, some done plein air, others in the studio.

The monument to Velazquez presiding the Prado´s main facade.

In front of the Casón del Buen Retiro.

…and, the main pond in the Retiro park.

Riaza, in Segovia.

Spent some time up north with my family, in the Cantabria and Asturias areas, and these are some notes from our stay.

A street in Ribadesella, Asturias.

The same Asturian town, on market day.

The bridge in San Vicente de la Barquera, Cantabria

…and then there were the smaller, quicker sketches, each done in an hour or so….

A corner of the main square in Santillana del Mar.

Cantabrian landscape around the Mazcuerras area.

…the hills around the El Soplao caves, with the fog rolling in…

…from a bluff in the Playa del Toró, Llanes, Asturias...

…and, a little boat anchored in  San Vicente de la Barquera.

More sacred spaces, New York City

Had the opportunity to visit New York City recently, and was there for a week. While there, I visited the site of another recent altarpiece of mine, I had been asked to execute some minor modifications on the paintings. It´s a private chapel right smack in midtown Manhattan and the space is quite an oasis of calm and tranquility in the midst of the legendary hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.

Here is a shot of the interior of the chapel:

…and a close-up shot of the central piece:

Finally, a trip wouldn't be complete without the random, personal notes in the sketchbook:

Some new watercolor notes

Try as I may, I still find it so hard to update this blog in a manner that is more frequent…

Here are a few studies done lately, here and there, taking up watercolor again -- as I tend to do every now and then -- my favorite medium for what I call  "nervous relaxation".

This first one is a one and a half-hour (maybe two) sketch of the statue of Goya that presides the north facing entrance to the Prado Museum here in Madrid. I remember doing this same statue a few years ago, from another angle. I enjoyed painting it then as I did now. It lends itself well to be painted...

This one is a view of the beach at Sesimbra in Portugal...

…and a side street in Toledo city...

…and finally, a couple of strollers at that beach in Sesimbra again...

Hopefully, I will be able to do more this summer, who knows…

BUT, if you want to feast your eyes on REALLY good watercolor stuff, check out this link (click here) to my Pinterest page. All of the pieces featured here are truly exquisite and clicking on them will lead you to other exquisite examples. You know how it works...

Painting with another purpose

Despite the "lean years" being still very much a thing of reality, especially in the Art world, I still do manage to obtain the occasional commission for sacred, devotional paintings. The Church, as it is known, has always been historically one of the main patrons for artists and, thankfully for those of us who still insist on choosing this way of earning a living, it still continues to be. A symbiotic relationship, I think it is: the artist serves the need that the Church has to evangelize by converting the mystical and spiritual into something tangible and graphic for the faithful, and, in this way, the hunger that the artist has to create and be poetic in his creation is also fed. His main aim from the client´s point of view is to invite meditation and to offer the faithful something "real" so as to make the sublime more accessible and something to be reached.
 One of my more recent ones were these three pieces I was asked to execute for a chapel in Rome, no less…quite flattering for any painter, I think.

And this is how the pieces looked in the workshop before shipping. The client wanted a background that was quite undefined and just  a juxtaposition of quadrilateral shapes with gold-ochre tones to sort of  imply light and lend an ethereal character to the figures.

Quiet presence

Another new piece I´ve managed to work on in spurts and have finally finished. Sort of like a "spin-off" from my last one, like those characters in sit-coms that go off and start a series of their own. I used one of the carnations from my last piece. I only hope that, unlike the TV spin-offs that usually bomb out, this one actually succeeds…. I like it, at least.

"Even in the quietest moments,

I wish I knew what I had to do…"

--Supertramp

"Even in the Quietest Moments"

"Quiet presence"

Oil on panel, 33 x 24 cms

 …and a bit of sourdough from last week.