Getting ready for Peru

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The thing with the trips is not, I think, to load oneself down with obligation.  To say, for instance, I am in Paris, I must paint the Eiffel Tower..., regardless of whether or not one finds the tower an interesting subject. Such obligations have the counterproductive effect of denying any spontaneity to one`s artistic responses (though one might argue that spontaneity can only exist in the context of of obligations and that my position is paradoxical). Suffice to say, the main thing is to feel relaxed and talk about how one feels in the place, not about how one feels one ought to talk about the place...

I see this trip partly as an answer to Bolivia, which wasn`t as successful as I`d hoped, I`m not sure why but the pictures from Bolivia just don`t quite feel right. Maybe it`s because I always felt like an intruder there,  Anyway, I have very few expectations about Peru- in fact I know very little about it, and I suppose that is a good thing.

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Bolivian charm sweets - Pachymama sugar tiles

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The inverted perspective here is quite magnificent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bolivian sweets, bought in a Juju shop in Potosi, where they sold all manner of bizarre items, including dried lama calves. These are made of sugar and are about 2.5 cm across.

I don`t know how they are used, and I called them Charm Sweets for want of a better description. Please let me know if you do. And also what the last tile represents?

 My Bolivian friend, Solidad Villalta, says:

 Bolivia is a country of many traditions, and the figures that you show me are very used by the persons who believe in the "pachamama" that she is the mother land, and the persons offer as offering these figures accompanied of incense on the pachamama, every figure has a meaning and they symbolize love, money, business, prosperity, health, it depends on what the person wants.

The persons buy the figuras accompanied of incense and put on fire. The persons drink alcohol and do as a small celebration for the pachamama. Much depends the occasion, and the dates.

 

 

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A Journey to Bolivia: part 4: La Paz; general impressions; self-criticism

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My first impressions of la Paz were one of squalor and brokenness: good painting territory, therefore, especially given its hilliness.

 I wouldn`t recommend visiting it for any other reason, however: the churches are not as interesting as in Sucre or Potosi, the museums seem reluctant to open, the city is dirty and almost all the buildings in the centre need restoration, or at least significant maintenance work.

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I am happy with this picture (below), in which i have (unconsciously) reproduced the elevated perspectives of Hiroshige. It`s fairly unusual for me to work by first delineating the pictorial components, then filling them in, a technique I usually find restrictive as it forces one to work in a series of irreversible stages.

La Paz, street with newspaper kiosk and card, oil on card, 13.5 x 16 cm unavailable

Roads, oil on card, 14 x 16 cm  unavailable

Again (above), there are definite Germanic tendencies, not least in the Gothicising flattened spacial description.

I am very happy with this picture (below). I like the extremely bright colours that Latin Americans use on their very square shop fronts, as if bright colours offer clarity amid the general mayhem.

Shops, oil on card, 13.5 x 12.5 cm   SOLD

Street stall, oil on card, 13.5 x 16 cm - unavailable

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Bolivia: general impressions

The trip was mostly exhausting. I thought it might be when I looked at my itinerary before leaving and I was right. The problem with getting to Bolivia from this part of Brazil is that flights from Brazil (even from Campo Grande to Santa Cruz) are extremely expensive. So, to save money, I flew to Campo Grande, then got a bus to the border city of Corumba then a taxi to the crossing, then past Passport control over to Quijarro then another taxi to the bus station then a bus to Santa Cruz.   So there were logistical factors that lent themselves to my tiredness.

 There was also the fact that most of the places where I stayed were high up in the Andes, and the air is very thin. I think this depleted my energies a bit. I never suffered altitude sickness like some I met, but I got a slight buzzing headache at times.

The third factor, is psychological. Bolivia is not a difficult place like Egypt, where you are mercilessly pestered by salespeople, and I never felt fear of crime as I do in Brazil at times. But it isn`t as friendly as all that. I am not saying that I didn`t meet pleasant people, but in general I had the feeling that Bolivians were circumspect, wanting to maintain a distance from foreigners. I speculate that this is related to centuries of foreign oppression, and that this oppression was especially felt by indigenous populations, and consequently that Bolivians suspicious of whites. My observations were confirmed by several other travelers.

 I also observed that in terms of other social niceties they are not especially charming and dealings with Bolivians were slow and rarely fun, with few of the courtesies, and the sense of delight in interaction, that is commonplace in Brazil, for instance. The Bolivians rarely seemed to take pleasure in serving in restaurants, where they were gloomy faced and inefficient. They did not ask where one came from or much enjoy making small talk. Taxi drivers were brusque and seemed reluctant to state their prices (though, to be fair, taxi drivers are a dependably deplorable example of human behaviour almost everywhere). In bus stations they stand in public areas, often with their children  blocking ready access to shops or corridors. Salespeople from the bus companies stand and shout out their destinations in the public areas of the bus stations making a horrible racket, and obstructing everyone else.

Blocking public space is commonplace and Bolivians do something that I haven`t seen anywhere else: they will walk down a narrow pavement, sometimes in a rank of three people and not step aside or allow the person coming in the opposite direction space to pass, so that the on-comer has to step onto the road, or squeeze against a wall. My Japanese friend confirmed this observation and said that he had discussed it with a Bolivian friend, who had responded that this occurred because Bolivians were selfish. Certainly, they do not seem to have an reluctance to arrive at the cinema a good twenty minutes after the programme has begun.

Bolivians rarely speak English, even in hostels, museums hotels and obvious touristic points. At many museums you will be compelled to suffer a guide who will frogmarch you through the galleries and force you to endure their tedious spiel, robotically delivered in battered English.

Kitsch power ballads are popular, as is Andean pipe music. These are played as often as possible, and at great volume on buses, in restaurants, cafes and bars: unfortunately. Brass bands, performing oomph-ah music, and accompanied by cheerleaders or dancers in lampshade dresses roam the streets looking for victims: this is more fun.

I suspect violence is common in Bolivian society. I watched an excellent film called, Voices of El Alto http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3425182/. A tent had been set up in the Andean town and Bolivians of various ages, though most often adolescents, came to describe life experiences. I do not know to what extent the producer edited or encouraged the participants to speak particularly of such miseries, but the proportion who spoke about domestic violence, family exclusion, rape, poverty and misery, was very striking. There are large murals on some walls painted to campaign against domestic violence.

There are also murals featuring Evo Morales, and his magnificent achievements, and I got the feeling that Bolivians are rather patriotic. I wish they had better dental care.

Food is mediocre, featuring as many different carbohydrates as possible on the same plate: potato chips, spaghetti, rice, why not throw them all together! Coffee is sometimes very good, certainly compared to Brazil (though that is truly setting the bar low, for sure). But sometimes you receive Nescafe, often sweetened, or some imitation instead of real coffee.

Other travelers offer little respite. Nerdism has triumphed.  WIFI has effectively killed normal social interaction in a many places, so that in hotel receptions, cafes or bars, foreigners now, now spend their time huddled over their little screens exchanging inanities with distant  "friends" instead of engaging with those around them.

I emphasize that these observations are general, and that I experienced exceptions. It is necessarily a mistake to come to sure generalizations following just a month in a country.

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Paintings from Bolivia: reflections, self criticism

I am a little dubious about some of the pictures I painted on this trip. But I am uncertain whether this is because of the pictures themselves, or rather simply how I feel about them. I suppose there are good, and bad as on any trip and the worst are probably not as bad as I imagine and the best not so superior. It takes time to gain the distance necessary to judge ones own work. It`s better to put them aside and see  in a month how I feel.

I attempted through the month to work more freely, to allow drawing errors, should the correction of those errors mar the freshness of brush-marks. I attempted to work as responsively as I could, without starting with too much of a clear final idea: sketching.

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A Journey to Bolivia: part 3: Sucre

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Sucre, the capital, is a restored city of green squares and fine, white, often Beaux-Arts styled buildings.

 I found it difficult to work in the centre of town, however, where everything is a little too "finished" to suit my interests, and took to the outskirts.

 A boy in a street, oil on card, 12.5 x 14.5 cm unavailable

 These, above and below, are rather Japanese influenced.

The city cemetery is very good: well kept and planted and most serene.

 A garden in a cemetery, oil on card, 16 x 15.5 cm - available

It was the Bolivian National day, or perhaps rather week, given the extent of celebrations, with flags hanging all over and no end of brass bands parading the streets. As in other Bolivian cities, there are sellers everywhere. But I felt the general economic level to be generally higher than elsewhere. 

I went above the city and worked there:

 Garages, oil on card, 12.5 x 17 cm - unavailable

This, above, is the sort of collection of broken down buildings and Tom Waits-ian junk that I like, set in a dramatic and unfriendly landscape. Prettier places don`t work so well for me. I think its like seeing the inside of a mechanical clock: so much more interesting, and so much more revealing of the clock`s functioning than the bland finished exterior.

Trees on a mountainside, oil on card, 10.5 x 14.5 cm unavailable

 Farms and smallholdings, the Andes, oil on card, 12.5 x 15.5 cm  unavailable

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A Journey to Bolivia: part 2: Potosi

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These are from Potosi, the extraordinary city high up in the Andes, famous for silver mining, and dominated by a strikingly triangular mountain. The air is thin and the light is sharp and the colours are bright: excellent for painting.

 It`s freezing at night. My Japanese friend became very ill after the twelve hour night bus journey here from Cochabamba, because there was no heating on the bus.

View, oil on card, 13 x 12.5 cm - available

Arch, oil on card, 14.5 x 19 cm   SOLD

As always, it`s enjoyable to wander out to the edges to cities. The centre has been elegantly restored and is given over mainly to tourism and services. The fringes are developing, fairly rapidly, with dense housing, some of it rather basic.

Periphery, oil on card, 10.5 x 15.5 cm

 The Andes seen through a street, oil on card, 15.5 x 18 cm - unavailable

These last two are from the centre, the first very much like Utrillo, I think:

 A street, oil on card, 15.5 x 17.5 cm  - available

 A view showing the barracks, oil on card, 17 x 16.5 cm    SOLD

This last is among the best of the trip.

I`m often seeking a balance between spontaneity of paint application and exactitude, and not always finding it. Sometimes the pictures become overworked, at other times they appear unfinished, or incomplete. I think here I achieve this balance.

These subjective critical qualities are very difficult to put into words. There`s very much a you know you`ve got it right when you feel it`s right aspect to them.

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A Journey to Bolivia: part 1: Santa Cruz and Cochabamba

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I have just returned from a painting trip to Bolivia, a fairly exhausting experience, which took me from Campo Grande in Brazil, across the border at Coumba, then by bus to Santa Cruz and then to Cochabamba, then to Potosi, Sucre and La Paz

Campo Grande is one of the most tedious cities I have ever been too, being more or less flat, extremely spread out, with a highly unimaginative grid plan  and, like a US city, utterly devoted to car users. I did not see a single building of architectural note. 

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is  better, though it has equally few natural features of interest. It does have, however (as does everywhere I went in Bolivia) innumerable people selling things n the street: food, tissues, drinks, magazines, whatever.  They sometimes have little trolleys, though often they simply squat on the street with their wares laid out in front. Quite how they manage to make enough to survive is beyond me.

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 Santa Cruz, street sellers, oil on card, 12 x 15 cm - available

There is also some distinctive old Spanish architecture, notably one or two storey buildings with eaves that extend onto the street, supported by columns, creating arcades. These provide protection from the elements, and have a certain grace. These buildings have courtyards, some of which, such as the excellent Hostal Colonial, have little gardens.

 Cochabamba, an entry point into the Andes from the East of the country is considerably more fun, with a vast, unruly, street market, a handsome central square and fine Baroque churches.

These next was painted from the Colina San Sebastian, looking towards the Bus Terminal:

A view of Cochabamba, oil on card, 16 x 17.5 cm    SOLD

Entrance to a street, Cochabamba, oil on card, 16.5 x 17 cm  unavailable

Houses, Cochabamba, oil on card, 13 x 16 cm- unavailable

 A mountain, on which stands a concrete Jesus, overlooks the city:

 Cochabamba, hillside 3, oil on card, 15 x 13.5 cm  - available

Cochabamba, hillside 2, 17.5 x 17 cm - unavailable

Here is a section of the elegant square, looking North:

Central Square, Cochabamba, oil on card, 15 x 17.5 cm  available

This has some small spots

And finally, a tree, painted near Cochabamba`s rather dismal little river:

Tree, Cochabamba, oil on card, 14 x 15.5 cm

Tree, Cochabamba, oil on card, 14 x 15.5 cm - unavailable

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Thanks to Cristina, Brazillian Medical student for help crossing the border.

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Bolivia

Bolivia, from Dorling Kindersley`s Atlas

The itinerary for my Bolivian expedition is as follows: fly to Campo Grande in Mato Grosso, Brazil, then bus to Corumba. Then  train to Santa Cruz. Then bus to Sucre, Potosi and La Paz, in which three cities I will spend the majority of my time. I return from La Paz taking the bus and stopping at Cochabamba, and on to Santa Cruz. I take the train from Santa Cruz to Corumba, before getting the bus over to Campo Grande.

This is far more places than, ideally, I would wish to stop at, but given the size of Bolivia and the slowness of buses, I think it is better to break up my journeys. It is unfortunate that the more interesting parts of Bolivia are the furthest away.

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I am overjoyed to be moving again. The last months here have bored me stiff. This is a tedious little city- or rather, collection of suburbs- whose inhabitants seem to believe that going to shopping malls is the most diverting activity imaginable.

It has been rained considerably too, making me housebound, and I am not really constructed for domesticity. I wish I had planned the year better to avoid the World Cup, and the heat of January too.  Next year I will travel through January and February.

Bolivia

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BOLIVIA

Bolivia: the following seems likely: get from the Brazillian border city of Puerto Suarez to Santa Cruz by train, subsequently bus to La Paz, then further buses to Potosi and Sucre.

It strikes me that the parts of Bolivia that will be most interesting will be in the south west, because the Amazonian part will, most likely, be quite similar to Brazil. In any case, one cannot go everywhere.  I am dreading these long bus journeys.

Santo Antônio de Lisboa, April, 2014; Bolivia

Santo Antônio de Lisboa, April, 2014, oil on card, 15.5 x 17 cm - unavailable

This time of year, Autumn can be great for painting here. It isn`t so damn hot, and there is often a fine, silvery and somewhat melancholy light, both clear and subtle.

I`ve painted from virtually exactly this spot before. I like revisiting places and seeing how they have changed, and comparing my reactions with before.

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I`ve booked flights to Bolivia- or rather, Campo Grande, from where I get a bus to the border. I`ll be there for just under a month, in July. I`d rather have flown direct to La Paz, but the air fares to there were extortionate. 

I have still to figure out my Bolivian itinerary. The lesson of previous trips is that one should not try to see everything, and that for painting it`s wiser to stay in fewer places, and get to know them, then spend one`s time rushing about just tick sights off a list.

 

Back from Chile

16 from my Chilean trip.

Back after a week escape from this little apartment, from teaching English and rotting. 

Overall, I'm very happy with the trip. Chile is beautiful and fairly well organised. Santiago is elegant and comfortable to work in: Valparaiso is rather slummy, but is full of architectural interest.

 It was a pity that it rained so much on my first couple of days, restricting me to working from cafes or  the eaves of buildings, but I was able to do a couple of still lives on the worst days.

I stayed in hostels, which offer the strangest of communities: gap-year British teenagers, American and Canadian loners, Australians on extraordinarily long world trips, Germans sitting alone, and a fair smattering of friendly French. The atmosphere is very friendly: easy come, easy go.

I feel sufficiently inspired to contemplate a longer trip to Bolivia.