A Last Look at Barcelona...

Stretching it out a bit, I suppose, so that the feeling of being there lasts a very long time!  What a truly amazing and beautiful city--I dreamed of visiting Barcelona for many years to see Antoni Gaudi's work, but discovered so much more.  And of course, so much more to return to see!

The most well-known of Gaudi's buildings is La Sagrada Familia, the great cathedral that has been a work in progress for 131 years, being entirely built from donations...
I was so fortunate to get a free ticket to the Sunday afternoon International Mass from my hotel--I came in expecting to sit in the back to sketch, but was instead kindly ushered up to the front!  This is an indescribably moving place--a church of nature unlike anything else...

Gaudi's Park Guell is an enchanted world...a place where I could spend many days.  Musicians are playing all over the park, which adds to its magic.  I sat for a long in the shade of the rocky colonnade listening to the hypnotic sound of a "hang", which looks and sounds a bit like a Caribbean steel drum...

Gaudi lived in the house at right from 1906 to 1926, on the left is one of the delightful "gingerbread" houses at the entrance to Park Guell, sketched from the outdoor cafe...

Gaudi's Casa Batllo, sketched as day turned into night, so its iridescent beauty became even more shadowy and mysterious...































                                           



The day after the Symposium, some of my fellow sketchers and I set off at a more relaxed pace to the Parc del Laberint d'Horta--the Labyrinth Park, a historical garden with a maze, palace and pavilions--lovely!  (Made me think a bit of a more exotic Huntington Gardens...)






















And a couple of quick evening sketches...a view at dusk from Montjuic of the city below and La Sagrada Familia, and the Moorish fortress on Montjuic lit up at night...

Sketching in Barcelona

I was so happy to take part in the most recent Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona as a workshop instructor.  I can hardly describe how wonderful it was to meet so many of my fellow sketchers whose work I've followed for years, with a feeling of familiarity--and even better to finally meet face to face, however briefly!  Besides teaching 3 sessions of my workshop "Panorama in Light and Shade", I had the great opportunity to take workshops from 2 artists I admire very much, Melanie Reim of New York and Luis Ruiz of Malaga, Spain.  So great to see how other artists work and try new ways of seeing...the spirit of experimentation was everywhere!

From Melanie's workshop, "Channeling Picasso"...quick sketching what appeared about to be a police action on busy Las Ramblas with brush and ink...














Some sketches from Luis Ruiz's workshop "Actors and Stage", in a slightly quieter part of the city, lovely Pla dels Angels...

As afternoon turned into evening after my workshop, I took some time to work a bit more on a demo sketch I'd started, and mostly just soak up the fact that I was there in this lovely place, at the harbor of Barcelona.  My workshop focused on creating patterns of light and dark values across the page--starting with a monochrome palette, and then making the transition to color by observing warm and cool colors--and the effects of atmosphere in the landscape.  Here I'm working with a split complementary palette--blues and warm earth colors...

There were nightly sessions of "drink and draw"...with company in which it was polite to stop talking and just sketch!

...experimenting with some of the 
great "giveaways", like brush pens...



...even drawing my food, something I don't usually have the patience to do, but couldn't resist the array of fresh grilled vegetables!  This was at a tapas bar in the wonderful marketplace La Boqueria...

...and another sketch at La Boqueria...

...waiting in line at the Picasso Museum, in a narrow street in Barri Gotic, the ancient city center, and sketching fellow sketchers at our "base camp", the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona...
More of Barcelona later on...