Visit to L'Escala in Spain - L'Escala - Monday November 8th

We popped into the shops first thing in the morning. I bought a new suitcase. This is the second time I have replaced my suitcase whilst on holiday in recent years. The first time was on my trip to South Africa when the zip broke on the case I had taken there. This time, my case was in perfect working order. It was a medium sized one but there was only one handle on the short edge. I am a bit short myself, and it used to scrape on the ground when I carried it by this handle. So, I replaced it with one of a similar size with a handle on a short edge and another handle on the long edge - bliss! Once we had finished our shopping, we had a drink in a local bar on the sea front, hot chocolate for me and Coffee for Mandi.

Mandi and Dave have a post office box, they find this more practical than having mail delivered to the house. My friend in South Africa also has one. They are available in the U.K. but it is unusual for people to have them.



Mandi and Dave belong to the Costa Brava U3A (University of the Third Age). Mandi belongs to the art group. The members take it in turn to present the lessons. Mandi was due to present the following day. We had previously decided to do something based on Betty Edward's book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I cannot recommend the book highly enough.

We thought that we should spend a bit of time preparing for the lesson the following day. We decided to spend a bit of time discussing some of the theory and to do a couple of exercises drawing upside down. The images below are my practice pieces. We needed to have a view as to how much time each exercise would take. The class was only one and a half hours long.

The first pair of drawings are copies of Picasso's drawing of Stavinsky. The first one was drawn the right way up and is much closer to the original than one I would have drawn a few years ago. I am able to make a more accurate representation now because I understand that one should look at the shape and angle of the lines rather than the objects such as "glasses" and "eyes", The second drawing was drawn with the picture upside down.  The head on the first drawing is much closer to the original than the head on the second, perhaps I don't need to draw upside down any more.




The second exercise, which was again drawn upside down, has shading as well. Unfortunately I ran out of paper, a common experience for me, but I was very pleased with the result. I found it easier to do than the line drawing which was a surprise.