We visited the village where our nephew Travis worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a fabulous visit despite the primitive conditions- the people were just so loving and friendly. These are the only ones I still have and I am offering them for the next week at special prices. See blog on Zambia for further accounts of this special journey.
Women, with Towel shows another in the mirror. A third appears in outline, derived from the Portrait of a Young Woman, recently attributed to Leonardo. Her outline is done with a water color pencil, otherwise the work is acrylics. The background is applied with a knife. Original and prints.
I did these small paintings at Aranjuez, Spain. The Summer Palace of Spain is located there. I wrote a bit about Aranjuez at https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/aranjuez-the-summer-palace-of-the-spanish-royalty/
A fall scene at Aranjuez:
At Aranjuez is the same scene as Carmen at Aranjuez. But there is no railing separating her from the harsh reality below –it’s nearly winter, the icy gray of the cold Rio Tajo running on the backside of the Palacio. Nonetheless there is beauty of sky and the shimmering reflections to enchant, but, yet, stay back. It reminds of those mythologies we invent to account for both the cruelty and charm of existence; no wonder our deities are so self-contradicting.
I was thinking of how I would miss my new friends, the warmth of her standing there contrasting with the coldness of the water, the building, affection as a guard against life’s sometimes harsh realities.
This building sits just across from the Palace. It was built in the mid 1800’s and completely renovated.
Aranjuez is just south of Madrid and home to the summer palace. It was built in the second half of the 16th century under Phillip II. The town was originally inhabited only by the court but now is a small but vibrant town dominated by the tourists who visit the palace.
The main entrance is through a gate that leads onto a large courtyard.
Visitors would have entered through the doors to be confronted with a magnificent marble staircase and a ceiling high above. Nowadays visitors enter through a much smaller entrance in the Renaissance style wing. This style features a rather flat presentation, with pediments of various sorts adoring the windows. Here you can also see the Romanesque arches, rounded versus the sharper edges of the Gothic style.
The interior visitors access is limited to two floors. Once you climb the main staircase there perhaps a dozen rooms. Some are more what you might expect in terms of high and painted ceilings, luxurious furnishings, and rich colors. Others are intensely decorated with ceramics:
The palace sits on the conjunction of two rivers, the Tagus and Jarama. The rivers feed numerous fountains and maintain the extensive gardens.
Nearby is the Palcio de Sivela, built in 1860 and completely restored in 1988. Here is my impression of it
December 6, 2016
We set off on our journey from Valencia to Aranjuez at 7am on Sunday. The train route takes you west through massive fields of grapes dotted by the occasional and equally massive wine storage units jutting some 25 meters toward the clouds, stopping in a seemingly endless number of small towns along the way. Progress is slow and the it gets much slower as then we enter the National Park known as Torcas de Palancares, leaving the farms behind.
The ravines (barrancos) along the train route from Valencia to Aranjuez dig deeply into the rocky orange soil. Because it has been raining, itself a bit of a refreshing oddity, rivulets flow beneath the train as it slows to 20 kph as we inched across trestles, looking straight over the side at the rocky bottom far below. You don’t feel confident out there in the middle. They are going that slowly for good reason.
There are more people on the train – so vacant we practically got on a first name basis with the conductor- than live in the protected zone portion of the journey, judging by the total lack of dwellings and just the occasional dirt road. A large bird, a hawk or perhaps even an owl, swoops across the tracks, looking for an unwary rabbit. The boars are too big to lift so they are safe from his talons.
I did these pen and ink drawings in the audience at Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain. The originals are done on very small paper in pen and ink. I use both hands, one for the ink pen and the other a brush with a water reservoir. I call it automatic drawing since I can not see what I am doing, between looking at the subject and the darkness of the hall. I can not work from photographs as photos are not permitted. Pricing information at the bottom.
Comments from my Facebook timeline:
“Bold”
“Powerful”
“Stunning”
“Beautiful”
Contact me with the name of drawing using email info@garyjkirkpatrick.com, by phone (US) +1 570 832 4480 or Spain +34 658 744 302. $35/35 Euros for 8.5″ x 11″ (approx) / 21 x 30 cm $25 for 11.5″ x 17″ (approx) / 30 x 42 cm. Giclee prints ($60/60 euros for 12″ x 16″ / 30 x 40cm).
Some of my favorite pen and ink drawings now available as prints.
We rented a car Alcoi is a small town in the hills to the south of Valencia, Spain. It is best know for the rock paintings in La Sarga, just 10 kilometers away, that date to 10-6000 BCE. The Museo Archeologico there is small but very well done, especially the slide show from which these photos come. The slides show the paintings as you would see them if you walked in to the sites and then enhance them, which is what I show here, having taken these of the slide show. There is a paltry lack of these on the internet, so I am glad I took these:
Another in the series of the “Pareja Enamorado con Amor/Couple in Love with Love” series explores the world of same sex love and romance.
Love takes many forms. We should not oppress it but encourage its flowering and deepen the bonds that hold us together.
Sitting in Plaza Santa Catarina (study for the watercolor). This was the first time I joined a group of local water color artists who meet on Wednesdays. Valencia has several watercolor groups who do urban or rural landscapes.
