On the Camino

On the Camino - We are finally finished with the rent-car and now we travel solely by bus or on foot. The scenery of northern Spain, especially in the state of Asturias is so beautiful. Several times each day I am sure that JRR Tolkien must surely walked here and got all his ideas for scenes in the Lord of tha Rings from here. The path ways, the ancient buildings, the forests and fields, lovely small villages, streams, and mountains are just incredibly beautiful. Spain is proving to be the most beautiful place I have ever been privileged to experience. I will be painting from my photos for years to come. I include some sketches and a couple of paintings of the last couple of days for your perusal.

Lots of paintings

heading toward the plaza

old gateway

ancient garden gate

sitting in the plaza major

cathedral cupula

to light the way

statue in Madrid

park statue

Unamuno

faces

stork's nest

Love the storks and their huge nests, but locals worry about the enormous weight on their wonderful old building.  Old here goes back beyond our definitions of old.  The new cathedral was finished in the 13th century and repairs on the baroque facade include stone carvings of an astronaut on a moon walk and a griffon eating a triple-scoop ice cream.   Let future archeologists beware!!

People below our window are gathering around side-walk tables this afternoon (8:00 is still afternoon) waiting for the soccer game between Spain and Portugal, I think.  We'll wear our red and yellow shirts, need to head out in just a few minutes.  Not something we can miss and still be good Salamantinos.

Painting & studying Spanish

Every morning I head off to my Spanish classes in the Mester building just a couple of blocks away. It is stimulating and a lot of fun to be involved with so many bright, fresh young people from so many countries across the globe.  The era of the ugly American is past. Now we are among the most accepted and admired of the global travelers. Our students are more serious, and well behaved, and inquisitive about history, social habits, and political view-points.

Americans are very supportive and open minded about the very important subject of SPORTS!, primarily 'futbol' (soccer).  We love to cheer for the host country's team, consequently they love us.


I am finding time to paint every day now and really enjoying it. Here are some new ones. The weekend field trips are to such beautiful and picturesque locations. Of course, I have to paint these in my apartment as it is impossible to do more than take lots of photos and endeavor to see as much as is humanly possible.

This is the life!

The weather is about as good as I could wish for, but the scenery is just staggeringly beautiful. The whole city of Salamanca is built of golden sandstone and is wonderfully clean and friendly. So much history took place here. Christopher  Columbus bargained with Queen Isabella to finance his voyage and exploration of the new world from right here in these cathedrals and public buildings. He was also educated here at the university.

From the ancient roman bridge to the modern and commodious parks and plazas. It is so inspiring to walk these streets and byways. This place is such an inspiration to artists and writers and great thinkers, not just now, but down thru the ages. Life here is not hectic, rarely even hurried. People respond to each other, converse with each other, and celebrate with each other. the sound of children's voices permeate the evening air, running, playing among the throngs. There are street musicians, and sculptures, and statues almost around every corner.  Libraries, museums, art exhibitions, concerts in the plazas, side-walk cafes, even middle-of-the-street restaurants. People gather to nibble, imbibe, and casually consume every kind of food and drink, in public, with everybody.  How can one not love this?  As much as I love my country,  we simply have nothing like this to compare to. I imagine in the old neighborhoods of New York, people lounge out of their balconies over the the street and and alleys in a Norman Rockwell vision of togetherness with their neighbors, but I think they must have invented it here. I suspect that is at the heart of why we Americans are so drawn to re-experience the 'old country', our European roots. I find myself feeling I have returned to my 'true' home.  My experience on this planet would have been so much less rich, even incomplete, without this.  Certainly, not just Salamanca, but the entire gamut of these delightful historic, origin-of-civilization places and countries of Europe.

           

Trip to Spain - 2012

We (Karen and I) are sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Salamanca, Spain. A light rain squall just passed over so we are delaying our walk down to the Plaza Major for a half hour or so. We broke open a bottle of the hotel house wine and after a day and a night of travel, arrival and customs, collecting all of our students, and unpacking all our stuff, the wine is going down very smooth. All is beautiful and delightful here in Salamanca.

 I attended my first Spanish class this morning, and taught my first drawing & painting class in the afternoon. Went on our first 'tapas' and pub crawl last nite. They put on a splendid welcoming feast for us on Sunday evening (about 3 hours and six courses) and every taste sensation was better than the previous. If they keep this up, it is going to be difficult to even consider coming home at all!  I have gathered a lot of photos, several sketches, and a painting or two, so it is time for me to get off my duff and make something happen.

A day in Salamanca starts at about 6am, awakened by bleary but noisy partyers laughing and shouting to each other as they cross the plaza below our window. A warm shower in a modern bathroom eases my transition back into conciousness. There is time for a nice hot cup of coffee on the balcony before a quick breakfast, then a brisk walk to the school, named Mester, where I take Spanish classes along with other university immersion students from a dozen different countries untill 1 oclock every day in sync with the typical Spanish schedule. By 1:30 everyone heads for home for a heavy lunch and a rest or nap til 5pm when the whole town re-awakens and roars along at full-tilt until 9 oclock in the 'afternoon'. They take their siesta very seriously here, every thing shuts down tight, from banks, restaurants, farmacies, shoe stores, and museums, to supermarkets.

The intelligence of this system becomes evident when you realize that dinner is not even considered until between 8 and 10 pm and may drag on till midnight. Most people live in small apartments, so people "live" in the public places of their cities and towns, the parks and plazas and streets. They talk, discuss and joke around attractive and comfortable tables and benches, over coffee, tea, or a glsss of wine.  Next it is time to party in the numerous pubs, bars, and clubs till 2 or 3 am, after which they wander the cool, clean, well-lit streets till they find their way to bed for a couple more hours sleep, and then they it starts all over again.

 

Honanki and Palatki Ruins trails

These trails are not difficult in any way, in fact time spent actually hiking from the parking lot to the ruins is minimal. The real spirit of these trails is in the ancient ruins themselves. The sense of  historical 'presence' still emanates from the 'magic' and ancient wisdom that was practiced here for centuries by succeeding groups of native peoples while scrabbling out a living in this very unforgiving land, depending on their visions of gods and spirits for help and guidance. Up close to these rock cliffs, wind and water formed towers, caves, and box canyons, the lighting is strange and intense. Color is equally unique and unusual so I was moved to try some experimental attempts to describe the spiritual and historical emanations flowing from these ancient places. The 'rock art' I incorporated is very close to the real experience one feels while intruding on the mysteries of these special locations.

Courthouse Butte Loop Trail, (early AM)

Got out really early this morning to see one of the most picturesque trails I've walked yet. It was a good solid two hour walk but fairly easy walking, good trail conditions and not much upping and downing. Saw lots of cottontail bunny's and one, honest to gosh, black tipped long eared jack rabbit. The photography was magnificent as I hiked close up to some of the most dramatic red rock formations in the area. But the highlight for me was coming up over a small ridge in the trail and becoming aware of a sizable lump in the middle of the trail just ten or twelve feet in front of me. Then the lump moved, and growled! I yanked my glasses on and found myself staring at a beautiful young bobcat who was staring back at me. Fortunately, he was not crouching over a fresh kill or he might have taken more umbrige at my presence. Instead he grumbled his indignation at my interruption and stalked off into the grass clumps and turned to stare back at me to see if my intention was to molest him in any way. The furthest thing from my mind, let me tell you! I yanked my camera out and frantically tried to focus on him but couldn't find him in the viewfinder. Looking over the top of the camera, I realized he was on his way out of town fast, so I just swung the camera along the path he was heading and snapped, hoping for luck. This is the result.

My legs were tired by the time I returned all the way back to my car (I had tried a different pair of hiking boots), but I sat thinking what an amazing experience I just had, all because I really wanted to get out and hike in the early hours and light. The sky was fairly overcast and even a bit threatening. The light and colors were very cool and very soft. Not all jazzy or intense and contrasty. Mostly it was just very low contrast, the darks were not really even opaque black like you get on a sunny bright morning, and the light colors were very muted and soft. I realized to paint that, I would have to really plan out my complementary color combinations, and paint mostly with cool variations of hues. Very much the opposite of the way I usually try to express the red rock vistas in the majority of my pieces. Later in the day the exact same places would look entirely different, and require a complete change of colors.  I'll have to really think about and maybe study up on how to effectively paint that feeling of coolness and very early light. Steven Quiller is the artist I will study up some more on, as he teaches how to really get those lovely cool muted grays and and make them really work for you, and not get muddy or overworked.

Munds Wagon trail on Schnebly Hill

A bit of history; this morning's hike was up along a  familiar historic pathway carved up out of Sedona to the top of the Mogollon rim by a pioneer rancher named Jim Munds. I heard that settlers had to disassemble their wagons and haul them up to the top and then reassemble them before taking the two day long trip to Flagstaff to sell their produce. An onerous process, but still better and quicker than trying to scrabble a way up around and onto the sheer rim's cliffs.  more information

Art thoughts:   I keep thinking, gotta catch the rim light on these massive buttresses looming above us. It's 5:30 am and the sun is already starting to make its presence felt just over the top of the rim. It provides the contrast that helps light up the massive sandstone monuments wallowing in the early morning shade. The colors become spectacular. My wife Karen and I have become addicted to this cool, clean, fresh time of day that soon will be frying in near 100 degree heat. This morning on the hike up the trail we had our eyes always up on the slowly passing cliffs above us, but when we finally decided to turn around and head back down Karen got an idea for a neat children's book that had us both with our noses to the ground photographing minute details she can incorporate into her book idea. Good hiking shoes and an excellent digital camera are absolutely required equipment for all of the hikes around the Sedona area. So I photograph like a tourist on steroids because there is so much to see and the light moves so inexorably that it is intimidating to try to do much in the way of pleinaire sketching. 

This painting was done quite a while ago of the same area as the hike, and I kind of like it.

This is the soft effect of morning light that I am trying to learn to master. The muted soft grays and tones are acquired by mixing complementary colors (colors located directly across the color wheel with lots of water so the white of the paper functions to present luminous but subtle colors.