Visit to L'Escala in Spain - Pals - Tuesday November 9th

Tuesday was the big day, Mandi and I were the tutors for the morning art class. We were picked up by a couple of Mandi's friends and they drove us to the Civic Centre in Pals.


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We were early so had time to visit the local market. I bought a couple of outfits for the new twins. I didn't manage to take photos myself and they are for 3 month old babies, so no photos yet from the parents. They were gorgeous outfits, bright red corduroy coats and dresses with a grey and red t-shirt to match.

The session went well, but if I were to do it again, I would do it in a different order. I spent a few minutes introducing some of the principles, and then we drew Stravinsky the right way up, then we did the same upside down and lastly we did the knight on the horse. (See the previous post). Because I talked about the theory first, the difference between the right way up and wrong way up drawings was not that great, but some members of the class did feel that the wrong way up drawings were a better match to the original. They found the same as I did, that the knight was a lot easier than expected. In order not to engage the left mode of the brain, no talking was allowed when we were doing our drawing, what power!

The room we were in had this fabulous wall hanging. I think it might be stump work technique. I'm not sure if it is of Pals, I presume it is.

The lobby of the Civic Centre had lots of photos of committee members past and present. It looked as if the community was very active.

After the lesson, we went to a local Cafe for coffee. It was nice to be able to chat to the students (all of whom were from the U.K.) and find out a bit about their lives in Spain. The art group does have some non-UK members but they were not there this time.

There was a shrine of the Madonna outside the Cafe.

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.