Valencia: street; about Valencia

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 Valencia

Valencia is the most depersonalising big city I`ve spent much time in. I think you could become quite depressed living here.

It`s one of the least inspiring places to make art, despite the sunshine.

There`s a lot of flatness in Valencia. Flatness is very bad for a sense of place. You can feel quite hemmed in by buildings. The seafront is oddly uninspiring and sad and sits some way from the centre.

There are grand and often fantastical structures in the centre: railway stations, a fine food market, and of course the absurd but undoubtedly memorable City of Arts and Sciences building, but most of the city consists of eight storey peach, ream or light yellow blocks going on and on for mile after mile.

Valencia: street, oil on card, 25 x 20 cm - available

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Valencia: flat 2

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Valencia: flat 2, oil on card, 20.1 x 21.6 cm - available

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Valencia: flat 1

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Valencia: flat 1, oil on card, 22.3 x 21.7 cm - available

This flat had some sort of nastiness in it so we were always suffering from faint maladies Sick building syndrome.

Valencia: space between blocks in Patraix

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Valencia: space between blocks in Patraix, oil on card, 22.5 x 21.1 cm - available

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Valencia: blocks in Patraix

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Valencia: blocks in Patraix, oil on card, 21.2 x 21.2 cm - available

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Valencia: highway 2

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Valencia: highway 2,  oil on card,  22 x 19.5 cm - available

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Valencia: highway 1

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Valencia: highway 1,  oil on card, 21.2 x 21.5 cm - available

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Valencia: blocks near the railway crossing: La Raïosa

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Valencia, blocks near a railway crossing, oil on card, 24 x 30 cm - available

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Valencia: blocks near the railway crossing La Raïosa

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Valencia: overpass,  blocks, oil on card, 30.5 x 27.5 cm - available

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Winter in Spain and Morocco- more details

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Winter in Spain and Morocco- more details

We leave in about six weeks, to visit. in sequence:

Marrakesh,

Sidi Ifni

Essaouira (probably)

El Jadida (probably)

Meknes

Tangier

Seville

Valencia

The weather here in Aberdeen has turned sharply colder, and it isn`t easy to go out comfortably.  Scotland in Winter is quite inhospitable. Moreover, the fact that I hate Christmas makes spending December in an Islamic country extremely appealing.

Northern Morocco tends to be rainy in the Winter, so we will spend most of our days in the Atlantic coast.

While in Morocco we stay in hotels, in Spain we have rented apartments. 

I`m getting boards ready: I`m thinking about continuing in black and white, at least for part of the trip.

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