On Vacation in Spain

I have been on vacation in Spain, gathering inspiration around every turn. I spent a week in Barcelona, then a weekend in Cadaques, and now I'm in Madrid. For the first two days in Madrid I was ill, but I have made a full recovery and yesterday I was up for exploring Madrid.

While in Madrid, my husband and I are staying with a wonderful Icelandic couple who are here for the same reason we are. He is going to the meetings with Chris, and she and I are having fun exploring. Yesterday we had breakfast at a cafe by the metro stop nearest to our apartment. The fresh squeezed orange juice was divine, as always! Then we wandered around Parque de el Retiro and paused to sit on the grass and draw and paint el Palacio de Cristal as she read a book (1984 in Icelandic). It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon!

 

Then we went to Reina Sofia, the modern art museum, where I nourished my soul visiting Calder and Rothko and Picasso and van Gogh and Klee, etc. etc. ...  I met a new favorite, Lumière, through the hand-colored 1899 silent films called Serpentine Dance. I found a video online. If you don't want to hear someone talking about it and just want to appreciate the beauty, mute it. :)

Shot and hand-colored - frame by frame - at the end of the 19th Century. Still captivating today, but just imagine what it must have been like to watch an image move and transform like this in 1899! A beautiful example of the earliest cinematic ART.

I watched this over and over as it looped on the wall of the gallery. The collection had to do with visual art as poetry, and I understood it so well as I watched her twirl. Also, I want a dress like that. :)

Hope you have a great day! Remember to twirl! :)