Above Lagoa, July, 2020

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Above Lagoa, July, 2020, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm - unavailable

I painted the same view some years ago, in June 2015.

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Places to visit; rationale

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The world

This is my updated travel wish list.  I`ve scored off a few, and added others. 

Rationale

My logic, more or less, is to prioritize places that are good for painting in Europe or Latin America. 

I want sunshine but not so much heat that going out is impossible much of the day.  I like to continue exploring places I`ve been to before, adding to existing painting series. Thus, for example, I will return to Peru and Chile. Or perhaps I feel my paintings from previous trips weren't good enough. I also like revisiting because I`m curious to see if places are as I remember them and if they evoke some meaningful emotion. I`m surprised how rarely I discover this to be the case. 

There are places I go to because I feel I ought to, usually because they are noted for art collections or their architecture. It often seems that such esteemed places aren`t that fun to hang around in, or that they are costly or take themselves very seriously. I think I prefer to hang around obscure little towns in Peru to loitering in Paris. People seem to be a bit more fun and pleasant in such places. 

I've found travelling in Arab countries to be severely spoiled by harassment, which reaches the level of bullying, and although the towns and monuments are often visually striking this doesn't compensate for the discomfort I often felt in Arabic parts of Morocco or Egypt. The Berber and Nubian areas were notably more agreeable.  Ergo, there are no Arab dominated countries on this list.

I love nature and as I get older it gets more and more priority over culture. I try to visit a variety of landscapes across the year. 

Cost is also an issue. Being a guest is free, but necessitates submitting to, often unclear expectations. Usually, I damage something in my host`s house and there is some embarrassment about how I needn`t pay for it. A gift is essential- but what, exactly?

Another consideration is age. I'm 51 and I guess I've about another twenty years of easy mobility. I have to prioritise: I'd prefer a more thorough knowledge of a little than superficial familiarity with a lot. 

Hotels in northern Europe are costly and often joyless. In southern Europe there are better prospects. There is AIRBNB too, but that can be weird, an uneasy zone between being a guest and a tenant. And some AIRBNB places are downright weird. But Latin America is still affordable, and is where I am, and thus I favour it. India and Southeast Asia might also appear but they are so far that the air fare becomes high.

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R= revisit

Spain R

Cádiz
Seville
Valencia
Granada
Cordoba -NEW


UK R

West Coast of Scotland and the Western Isles R  - too much rain 
Galashiels - ditto too much rain 
Hawick  too much rain 
Selkirk  too much rain 
New Forest R
North Wales R - also a lot of rain. Might be removed
Portmeiron


Finland

Sweden

Norway R

USA

Paterson, New Jersey
Chicago -I went and didn't like it that much
Northern California
Montana
Idaho- I have a feeling it might be quite weird.
New York R- always seems to surprise me
Washington State - lost interest completely
Nevada -  NEW - This and the next two are here because they have such bizarre landscapes.

Arizona- NEW
New Mexico- NEW


Italy R

Rome R - I want to paint more bridges along the river
Turin R. -I regret not really seeing it properly when I went twenty years ago
Milan R
Ferrara -This and below are here because of de Chirico
Mantua

Brazil R 

Rio R
Rio Grande de Sul R - Especially the wine region to the north R

Mexico NEW

Mexico City and much more- I think here must be very visually striking. More research due.

Ecuador

Chile R

Patagonia -  this is a good January destination
Atacama desert

Peru R- There are quite a few corners left to explore

Bolivia R - I didn't really this place justice before

Turkey R

Istanbul R

Poland R

Masuria

Japan 

France R

Paris R 
Bordeaux
Brittany
Nimes
Lyons
Marseille - NEW

Switzerland R-  Mountains. The expense of this country, and much of Europe is very off-putting. Latin America is preferable just for this reason.

Armenia - NEW -  I have a romantic idea about this place

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Dunes, Joaquina, July, 2020

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Dunes, Joaquina, July, 2020, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm - unavailable

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Joaquina, road

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Joaquina, road, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm

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Andalucia, Parque Natural Sierras Subbéticas; tourism

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Most of Andalucia

I continue with a post-COVID-19 Spanish plan: the Andalucian plan, which involves flying to Malaga, which can be reached with a direct flight from Aberdeen, Scotland where I will first visit.

Previously I had thought of going from Malaga to Seville and then to a national park (Hornachuelos) north west of there.

But  the Parque Natural Sierras Subbéticas is only and hour and a half north of Malaga, halfway to Cordoba, and quite spectacular. I could stay in Zuheros. That would cut out some travel time. 

After a week or so painting there I could continue to Cordoba, explore that, then even Seville, Cadiz, Granada or Jaen. The region is extremely rich culturally.

But I confess that I tend to find a lot of must-see places quite tiring, even disappointing. However galmourous they might be, the heavily mediated experience of tourist sites with and their bossy notices, combined with queues of other tourists and historical explanations, wearies me.

A trip that includes too many of these becomes tiresome. I feel that I am scoring things off a list to silence people who will question me about them on my return

So perhaps just one of these Heritage sites should be included in any week-long period.

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Dunes, Joaquina, June

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Dunes, Joaquina, June 2020, oil on card, 28 x 26 cm   AVAILABLE

The light was unusually and deliciously silvery for a few hours, and the landscape took on a dreamlike quality. Wind.

I seemed to work efficiently and everything just fell into place like jigsaw puzzle pieces suddenly do  after a frustrating search for their partners.

A few hours later there was a terrible wind which left me feeling much out of sorts, appallingly alone and full of unhappiness.

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The painting was a rapid success. I suppose I carry within me the memory of different landscapes and the lessons from many paintings and at some moments these lessons yield their fruit. Or perhaps the unusual light lent a different urgency to my work and I couldn`t involve myself with psychological perambulations that sometimes slow my creative decision-making.

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Trees and houses by a lake, winter, Lagoa

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Trees and houses by a lake, winter, Lagoa   AVAILABLE

 oil on card, 25.8, 28 cm

An example of the blocky style, bold and almost poster-like. 

I started working in this way when I began working on a larger scale. The methods I'd used previously were fine for a smaller size, but become fussy when I moved up in scale. I wanted the work to express very simply the strong immediate feeling you get when arriving in a location, and wanted to to do so using big brushes and strong colours. 

I pinched ideas from Travel Posters of the 1930s, children's art, Japanese ink drawing and German expressionism. 

The style is hard to get right, you can easily over-work. Or one of the colours will have got dirty and when its complete you wonder if that matters and should you just start again? Or sometimes the light changes so that the reference for the immediate sensation that inspired you is lost, and with it the painting.

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