Rowley Gallery Blog
Next day, our last day in Barcelona, just as we were leaving, we visited the Museu Picasso, but it was a Monday and we should’ve known better. There was another B for Barcelona by the door but it was closed, all day. This had been our first stop three years ago on our previous visit to Barcelona, and was most memorable for Picasso’s variations on a theme by Velázquez, called Las Meninas. Continue reading “Las Meninas”
This large letter B is on a rooftop in the Born district of Barcelona. Is it B for Barcelona or is it perhaps B for Born in Barcelona (that old Springsteen classic)? Or maybe it doesn’t stand for either, especially since it’s lying on its back. Maybe it’s B for Brossa, the Catalan poet, playwright and artist Joan Brossa. He liked to play around with letters and it seems to be on the roof of his theatre. We found it when we came looking for Lottie who lives nearby. We met her under the B for Beer. Continue reading “B For Barcelona”
Flamenco dancing was charged with sexual passion and melancholy, with the ‘duende’ of the south – “Nothing could be more antithetical to the Catalan character, or be more damaging to the severity and restraint of our race” (Josep Torras i Bages). Catalans should stick to their traditional ‘sardana’, a dance that expressed the social cooperation of the group, the village – Robert Hughes.
El Botero is in Toledo, at the northern end of Calle de San Marcos. Marcos I am reliably informed means frames, so an auspicious location. Maybe St Mark is the patron saint of picture framers? It seems unlikely. But El Botero is certainly a fortunate spot. Continue reading “Feliz Año Nuevo”
Lottie said, ‘I don’t know why you’re wasting your time photographing autumn leaves, the story of Toledo is in its walls’. So, never one to ignore an idea for a blog post, and because there are few trees in Toledo, I began collecting images of the casco murallas. Continue reading “The Walls Of Toledo”
Annabel Keatley is exhibiting her paintings, alongside work by Emma Plunkett, Lesley O’Brien and Silvina Daniela Rodriguez, at Biblioteca Municipal Salobreña from December 3rd. More details here.
Autumn leaves in the Jardin de Principe in Aranjuez, Spain. We were driving from Madrid to Toledo and stopped here for lunch and a walk in the park. This garden and the adjacent Jardin de la Isla were laid out around the royal palace of Philip II in the 16th century, 200 years before the present town was built. They became the inspiration in 1939 for the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo. Continue reading “Hojas De Otoño”
These are the first etchings I have done since printmaking at Edinburgh College of Art in 1984-88 where I did a lot of mixed media using silkscreen printing with etching. They are solar plate intaglio and relief etchings. It’s a technique which allows you to transfer a black ink drawing made on acetate onto a plate, using the sun to etch the plate, by exposing it to the sun for as little as 3-4 minutes, rather than using toxic chemicals. These are my first attempts. Continue reading “Printmaking In Granada”
John Hubbard is currently exhibiting a selection of paintings inspired by the gardens of the Alhambra and other Spanish gardens at The Art Room in Topsham, Devon until August 12th.
Whilst I was writing my last post, Waiting For Inspiration, I started to realise how much I was longing to paint again, after a long eight month break. So as soon as it was finished I went to the local market and ordered some beeswax. I started painting in my studio again. I began without any images in my head, I just knew that I wanted lots of texture, hot colours and a feeling of spontaneity and freshness in the finished work. I used the landscape all around me to express this, but it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t my starting point. Continue reading “The Light Of The South”