Maureen and Cuca’s July
July was full of surprises. After two months of what we assumed was a false pregnancy our nine-year-old Shih Tzu bitch, Cuca, gave birth to her first-ever litter, two lovely female puppies. We named them Dolly Brown and Pony. This birth, we are told, is the equivalent of a 55-year-old woman having her first child. In two-and-a-half short months Dolly and Pony have developed from a couple of blind worms, capable only of sucking and sleeping, into semi-professional hell raisers adept at harrassing the cats, digging up flower beds and chewing up anything that even remotely resembles a shoe. That is to say, they are a delightful addition to our family, providing untold joy every day. Pony is more Shih Tzu and Dolly (above) more terrier so, as you can understand, we’re obliged to keep them both.
While we’re on the subject of pets, do you remember Rosie, the pussy from the pantry? She had her first litter, too, just a couple of weeks before Cuca, so her two kittens, Alley and Dolly Black, can run a bit faster and jump a lot higher than the pups. Lucky for them.
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Painting and Walking Therapy
Our old friend, Rafael Sánchez, stopped by on the first day of his holiday. He was looking dreadful. He’s a vascular surgeon and 11 months of that can be a stressful, according to Rafa. Mike showed him El Gallinero and Rafa said, “That’s it, if Maureen will spend some mornings painting with me I’m spending the first week of my vacation here!” In the end he spent the first three weeks. As Mike is always looking for someone to accompany him on his morning walks, and Rafa clearly needed some physical and spiritual exercise, it wasn’t hard to convince him to get up at 7:00 a.m. and spend a couple of hours each day on the river trail that goes from our village to the Puente Verde in Granada. “I never thought I could find so much satisfaction in getting up early,” said Rafa when he left. “It’s the best holiday I’ve ever had!”
And that’s what got me painting. Every morning when they returned from the walk Rafa would come down to my studio and we would paint together.
Snapshots from July: Rafa Sánchez & Maureen, Rosie & Family, Maureen & Grandson Claudio, Garden-Fresh Courgettes, Carmen, River Walk, Maureen-Maureen, Rosie’s Kittens, Tanya & Bill 1975
August in Our Valley
August was about the horror and satisfaction of fires. The former came as a brushfire just four km. down the road from us in the Sierra Nevada foothills opposite the village of Cenes de la Vega. Luckily for us the planes, helicopters and firefighters on the ground were able to put it out before it advanced into our neighborhood. Unluckily, before they could get it extinguished it had devoured some 2,000 acres of pines, live oaks and underbrush, along with all its wildlife.
On the brighter side, Mike discovered a mid-summer bargain in olive firewood and had 5,000 kilos delivered. So far so good. Then someone has to wheelbarrow all that wood down our entrance stairs and stack it in the placeta. Mike managed it with the help of our grandson, Alex and a friend. Firewood is a major issue here between the house, the studios and the Gallinero, as we have a total of three fireplaces, two wood-burning stoves and a wood-burning kitchen range. A lorry load of wood insures a cozy winter all round.
A Country Lunch at Puri’s
The highlight of the month was our first meal at the home of our son Bill’s new compañera, Puri. Why do I use the Spanish word for “girlfriend” or “partner?” Because the Spanish word is better. It denotes more profundity than the former and less sense of a plumbing partnership than the latter. Puri’s house, set in a wooded riverside enclave with fruit trees and a vegetable garden, is like its creator: a fine distillate of beauty, joy and creativity. Kids love it because there are lots of animals, from a brood of new baby chicks and a corral of miniature rabbits to a great dane the size of a small pony. Bill’s lunch of fried fish and pipirrana (finely-chopped tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers in an olive oil dressing), served on a shady terrace with crusty village bread and a cold white wine from Rueda, was perfect for one of the hottest days of the year.
New York photographer and printmaker, Christine Morro, spent a week with me in the studio and Gallinero in the middle of the month. She spends most summers in a high-mountain village on the seaward side of Sierra Nevada, called Sierra Alpujarra, so it was a short hop to our house. Christine, a warm and gratifying person to work with, has an original printmaking technique based on painting with ink on plates. While she was here she worked on incorporating some color into her work which, until then, had been exclusively monochrome. She loved the puppies’s and promised to come back next year for a longer stay.
A Bit of Editioning
Málaga artist, Bea Taillefer sent me a couple of plates for editioning at the end of the month. Luckily my daughter, Tanya, was here and was able to work with me for a few days as my assistant. That’s luxury. She loved the music in my studio and kept saying, “More Bach, more Mozart!” So, the end of the month came and went and I still didn’t finish the painting I was working on. Maybe next year.
Tranquility and Wellbeing
I’ve been collaborating with Madrid artist Fran Ramírez for several years, working together to get his images onto solar plates and printed up. Before Fran left for his holiday in Italy in July he left me a stack of plates and asked me to do some creative printing with them. Back from Italy, Fran arrived in my studio the other day with Paco, the architect who designed his new studio in Madrid’s chic Barrio Salamanca district. While Fran and I were discussing the work I noticed Paco, seemingly transfixed, standing on the entrance stairs staring out across the garden to the olive groves across the valley. When he came back into the studio he said, “I’m convinced there’s a confluence of magnetic forces here that generates tranquility and wellbeing.”
“I’ve always felt that,” I replied.
Snapshots from August: Brushfire Down Valley, Rafa & Anissa, Riverside Walk, Bill & Claudio, Bill & Puri, Maureen, Christine Morro with Pony and Dolly, Dolly, Pony
What we were listening to this summer:
Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
J.S. Bach – The Well Tempered Clavier Book I – Glenn Gould
JJ Cale – After Midnight, 1971
A heavier dose of JJ Cale, along with Leon Russell, 1979
You’ve lost that loving feeling Live vocal 1965 Righteous Brothers
Everly Brothers- “All I Have To Do Is Dream/Cathy’s Clown” 1960
Louis Armstrong – When You’re Smiling
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Born And Livin’ With The Blues
And much, much more…
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