A new way of seeing. Una nueva manera de ver.

How can it be so long since we last met ! Thank you for continuing to follow my blog.  As most of my readers are  Russian, I'm going to Google translate this for them.

 

¿Cómo es posible que tanto tiempo ha pasado que no nos conocimos?

 La mayoría de mis lectores son rusos, por eso  voy a Google traducir esta  para ellos.
 

Как это может быть так давно мы в последний раз встречались ! Спасибо за продолжая следовать мой блог . Как и большинство моих читателей русской , я собираюсь перевести это Google для них .

 What a wonderful summer this has been.  Post chemo, life is just getting better and better. In May I got the first all clear from my new oncologist, then again on the 20th of July.  In October I left her office with a huge smile in my heart, and had a wonderful lunch on the beach with my dear young friend Maria.

Ha sido un verano  maravilloso. Después de terminar la quimioterapia en mayo, cada semana  la vida ha sido mejor y mejor.  En mayo mi nueva oncóloga dijo que estaba bien. El cáncer había ido,  a continuación,  otra vez el 20 de julio me dijo lo mismo. Y en octubre dejé su oficina con una sonrisa enorme y tenía un buenísimo almuerzo en la playa con mi querida amiga Maria.

 


Какой замечательный летний это было . Начать химиотерапии , жизнь становится только лучше и лучше. В мае я получил все Очистить форму моего нового онколога , и снова на 20 июля я получил все ясно. А в октябре также , я оставил ее офис с огромной улыбкой в моем сердце, и был замечательный обед на пляже с моей дорогой юный друг Марии .
.

 October was a month of new beginnings.  Ken Scott's Mindful photography course changed the way I use my camera.  I hope the photos I'm going to share with you speak for themselves. I leaned about back lighting, F stops, and being mindful about what I look at. The world changed in front of my eyes.  What a gift.  What a joy.

Octubre era un mes de nuevos comienzos. El curso de la fotografía ‘consciente’( Mindful Photography)  de Ken Scott cambió el modo de que uso mi cámara.  Me aprendí unas  nuevas habilidades técnicas, pero lo más importantemente  fue  aprender a mirar en una nueva forma, en una manera consciente.  El mundo cambió delante de mis ojos. Qué regalo. Qué alegría

 

summer blue, everywhere...

Октябрь был месяц новых начинаний . Памятуя фотографии Конечно Кена Скотта изменил способ я использую мою камеру . Я надеюсь, что фотографии, которые я собираюсь поделиться с вами говорят сами за себя . Я наклонился о задней подсветкой , F останавливается , и памятуя о том, что я смотрю на . Мир изменился в моих глазах . Какой подарок . Какая радость

the one eared cat...

and now Christmas is coming.... и теперь Приближается Рождество


Ken's photography courses :  http://www.touchingthelight.co.uk/

A bit of a metaphor!

Greetings from La Fragua artists residency  @ Balalcar Monastery, near Cordoba, Spain. 2015.

outside the main studio

I've been here 6 weeks now, just two weeks left.
Artists come and go.  The average stay is two months.  It's sad sometimes to say goodbye, but our new arrivals are always interesting. Nanao is from Japan.  Gio from Brazil.

Here's what happened on Sunday !

Gio from Brazil.

Yesterday, 3 of the new artists came with me to find a huge lake (the Embalse de La Serena) across the border in the province of Extramadura.

They have bikes to cycle to the studio from their house in the village. I'm the only artist living in the convent, the only one with a car.

So, we would have a picnic and they could swim, that was the idea, my idea actually. Fabulous they said in Portugese, German,  Italian and Japanese. We left at 3pm.

Soon, we got extremely lost. The road was straight and empty and beautiful for almost 30kms.

Finally we found out where we were, thanks to the Italian artist's GPS. How could you get lost on a straight road ? Because we were driving west, not east !! The lake (with little beach and café) was stunning. The colour of the water incredible. Almost pure ultramarine.The girls had a swim and some beers.
I had a not too hot coffee and felt something close to blissed out !
In these situations, the poet in my soul comes fully alive!

for some strange reason I didn't want to take a pic of the lake...

Coming home we met a large sheep who had found a way out of her field. She was strong and robust but clueless as to what to do next. I just kept thinking the whole expedition was a bit of a metaphor !!

and finally back 'home' to Belalcazar

www.lafragua.eu

PS.  Two summers later, July 2nd 2017,  here I am at the blue ‘hideaway’ near Comares in Spain.

It's  not an artist’s retreat, but there are artists living nearby.  This morning I met one, and his wife  and  shared the story of Nanao, the young Japanese artist whose work ( two years ago)  touched my heart.
Nanos art  tells  stories with clay. Her drawings are unique, and also tell stories with delicate line and thoughtful colour.

 

Three years ago while taking part in a  ceramic artists residency in Columbia , Nanao ‘story searched’ the old and wise in the village, as she always does, to find a special  tale.   From it came her piece of art.

The Columbian grandfather, sitting outside his primitive house hours from any city,  told her:

'Long ago there was a tailor in this  village who was the best in the land.  He was famous for his exquisite stitching,  his beautiful  cuts, and people came from far and wide to have their clothes made by him. 

One dark night a jealousy tailor from another village stole into the masters house and cut off all his fingers.

The fingers were so shocked they ran away to a faraway land. The master tailor was unable to sow for 20 years. 
One day, when the cherry blossom was in full blown, the fingers sneaked back and attached themselves to old man hands.'

I can’t remember the final line to this story, but Nanao made her ceramic piece out of clay which she dug  from the land in the self-same Columbian  village. 

The  piece was  called The Ten Runaway Fingers, and that’s exactly what is was.  Ten fat brown cut off fingers. Nothing more.  Nothing less.

                                                                      ...............................

Love sees sharply, hatred sees even more sharply, but Jealousy sees the sharpest for it is love and hate at the same time.

Arab Proverb.

Love this.

                                                                    ................................

First Sunday at the blue hideaway... organic market, swiming, ripe sweet cherries... sunshine...what metaphors,  teachings, people, stories and paintings will appear in the next  8 weeks??

Belalcazar.

Greetings from the Convent of Santa Clara !

Thank you for following me. 

Most of my readers  it seems are in Russia , guess they just look at the art work, but every month people are dropping in from all round the world.  I so wish I knew  who you were. Please, sometimes, leave a message, or email me personally  @ megrobinson@yahoo.com.

I'm  here for a month (hopefully a bit longer) in the 15th century monastery in the village of Belalcazar near Cordoba, Spain. Part of the monastery, now a convent, has been converted into an  international arts centre.

Have a look at the  art's center/ convent's website : http://www.lafragua.es  .   You'll get an idea of what happening here.  It's exciting, stimulating,  nurturing,  humbling, and awe inspiring.

 I'm staying in the convent making a part silent retreat, working on new blub books, and the other part I'm  making a new series of paintings on the theme of the Spanish Golden Age called La Convivencia.  It was a fascinating period during which Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in harmony together, for many generations.

Here are a few of my preliminary sketches to share with you.

Exhibition space at La Fragua arts centre.

La Fragua Arts Centre, Belalcazar Cordoba, Spain.

At the back of the arts centre is the convent where I'm staying.  My

 room is top right !

outdoor studio