April landscape near Sare

April -May 2012, 50 x 70cm-  Acrylic on canvas

Paysage en avril près de Sare

Paisaje en abril cerca de Sara

The beech tree in Spring

April 2012 Acrylic on canvas 73 x 100cm

In the Basque Country there are so many beautiful places to experience but that doesn’t stop me from revisiting many of them that I’ve been to previously. I fact I love to be able to do that. Each time is always unique & you see things in different ways. Several weeks back I was able again  to experience the sight of beautiful wild daffodils for another  year. I hadn’t really been intending to do another painting of them (I made a different smaller version in 2010),  but what motivated me was that on the same walk, where for the last few years there were lots of yellow Welsh poppies alongside a stream, there was now a newly “cleaned” road edge with nothing whatsoever growing! Part of the reason for going on this particular walk was to see the fragile, silk- like poppies that were so specific to that place.

So later on the same walk, when the daffodils WERE still there, along with the tree, I started thinking about how you shouldn’t ever take things for granted. Life has both  strength & fragility. So I painted this subject for a 2nd time.

Ever since then it has hardly stopped raining, so I was able to spend nearly my entire holiday painting & not be enticed out of doors!

La haya en primavera

En el Pais Vasco hay tantos lugares maravillosos para descubrir, pero este no es decir que ya no hay que volver a los que ya se ha visitado. De hecho, me encanta hacerlo. Cada vez es distincto y se ve las  cosas de forma distincta. Hace unas semanas tuve la ocasion de ver otra vez, un año mas, unos preciosos narcisos silvestres en el monte. No habia tenido el idea de hacer otro cuadro con ellos ( hize otra version aunque mas pequeño en 2010), pero el hecho de haber visto que ya no estaban las demas flores (un tipo de amapola amarilla) que estaban floreciendo cerca de un riachuelo en el año pasado,  porque se habia “limpiado ” y rehecho el camino de hormigon, me hizo reflejar en como nunca deberiamos  tomar dado por hecho la vida. Estas flores eran muy especifos a este lugar.

La vida tiene fuerza y tiene fragilidad. La haya y los narcissos de los años pasados todavia estaban. Entonces me puse a pintar otra version.

Desde entonces me parece que casi no ha parado de llover, entonces he pasado casi la mayoria de mis vacaciones  pintando sin la distraccion de salir a la calle!

L’hêtre au printemps

Le Pays Basque est riche en paysages magnifiques mais cela ne m’empêche pas  de vouloir retourner aux mêmes endroits pour une autre fois. Chaque fois l’experience est différente et on vois les choses d’un autre regard. Il y a quelques semaines j’ai eu l’occasion de revoir des belles narcisses. Je n’avais pas l’idée de les peintre de nouveau (j’ai fais une autre version, plus petite en 2010) mais le fait d’avoir pas vu des autres fleurs à côté d’un ruisseau pendant la même randonnée parce que le chemin avait été “nettoyé” m’a fait réfléchir autre fois sur la précarité de la vie.

La vie est forte et elle est fragile. L’hêtre et les narcises etaient encore là mais on ne sait jamais. Alors je me suis lancée dans une autre version.

Comme il a plu beaucoup pendant mes vacances j’ai passé presque tout le temps à peintre sans la distraction de vouloir sortir!

Western temples of the third millennium

March 2012 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 73cm (39.4in x 28.7 in)

From the moment this building was finished last year I wanted to make it the subject of a painting.  I see it from the train every day on my way to work in Donostia/San Sebastian. The architect is Rafael Moneo.

Templos occidentales del tercer milenio

Desde el momento en el año pasado en que se termino este edificio  queria hacerlo el tema de un cuadro.  Lo veo cada dia desde el tren cuando voy a trabajar en Donostia. El arquitecto es Rafael Moneo.

Temples occidentaux du troisième millénium

Depuis le moment où cet édifice a été construit j’ai voulu qu’il devienne le thème d’un tableau. Je le vois du train tous les jours quand je vais travailler à San Sébastien. L’architecte est Rafael Moneo.

Into the forest

February 2012 -Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60cm

 La forêt

Al bosque

Perhaps there won’t be too many more winter paintings now I’ve finished this. Today finally feels like Spring- the mimosa is in full bloom, it’s getting light in the morning when I leave home & there are blackbirds singing. This evening I’ve heard lots of midwife toads making their bell like music. When I first lived here I wondered what they were as I hadn’t heard them elsewhere. The male carries the eggs on his back before releasing them in water. We’ve got a small pond in the garden so we see lots of their tadpoles there. I don’t have much time for gardening these days – or I woudn’t get any painting done.  Anyway I like having a slightly wild garden – though it seems to be getting more & more difficult as we get built around & a lot of  people’s ideas of gardens is to my mind seriously lacking in imagination. I think some of our neighbours must  prefer the idea of  looking  at more appartments rather than appreciate the fact that they overlook our garden.

Recently  I tried painting something based on  lichens on rock but it didn’t work out because I couldn’t relate to it properly . But it made me reflect on how when I’m painting I have to somehow create a feeling which must come about from my memory from the sort of experience I’m trying to recall.  Although I usually start off with a photo that I have taken, the photo itself doesn’t give me a feeling of how I remember the experience of the place. (Also the printer is bad so the colours are never as I think they should be) . So I also tend to work more intuitively to somehow try to recreate a similar emotion that I can start to recognise as the painting developes.  I realise that I have far more experience of looking at & being in trees ( I walk through a small tunnel of trees every day on my way to work in fact). Whereas I’m not surrounded by lichens as an experience!

Oh dear  – no time to translate all his now ! Anway I’d probably make far too many mistakes – one of my sons has just told me you can’t translate “into the forest ” in French – apparantly you don’t say “a la forêt” . So probably the Spanish is wrong too. Anyone who knows what it should be- feel free to let me know!

 

Winter forest

Jan – Feb 2012,  Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70cm

Forêt hivernale

El bosque en invierno

Nightfall (towards Mendaur)

January 2012, Acrylic on canvas -50 x 70cm

La tombée de nuit (vers Mendaur)

Al anochecer (hacia Mendaur)

Nightfall (towards Peñas de Haya)

January 2012, Acrylic on canvas -50 x 70cm

The days ARE getting longer now, though it can still look a bit like this when I’m walking to work in the mornings too.

La tombée de nuit (vers les trois couronnes)

Les jours commencent à rallonger, même s’il fait encore nuit le matin quand je vais travailler. (Je trouve curieux le nom “Trois Couronnes” en français – j’ai décidé que ce soit à cause du fait qu’on voit 3 pics en le regardant de St Jean de Luz. Quelqu’un peut me le vérifier?)

Al anochecer (hacia  Peñas de Haya)

Los dias si se alargan ahora, aunque todavia hace poca luz por las mañanas cuando voy a trabajar.