ArtTraveler digests recent happenings affecting Spanish artists

"El Santero de la Cofradia" by Joaquin Sorolla

Spanish national police (Guardia Civil) a month ago posted a four-plus minute video on YouTube appealing to recover stolen masterpieces, especially "El Santero de la Cofradia" by Joaquin Sorolla, stolen last April from the Museo Benlliure in Valencia.

The Guardia's historical section also wants "Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois" by Malaga born Pablo Picasso, which thieves ripped off in May from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Other stolen works featured include those of Velazquez, Van Gogh, Matisse, Rembrandt and Cezanne.

Painter Agusti Puig continues his joint exhibition with Korean sculptor Jaeho Lee at the Gallery DeNovo in Ketchum, Idahoe (USA) through 7 Feb.

Deadline for applications for the artist's Spanish residency program, Campo Adentro, is 14 Feb. The project includes all disciplines (visual arts, music, dance) exploring the relationship between art and agriculture. Contact: TSIA, de Conde Duque 5, 28015 Madrid. This is open to all international Spanish speaking artists with no age limit.

Patty and Jay Baker paid $1 million for Spanish sculptor Manolo Valdes' work, "Reina Mariana" at the recent Naples (Florida) Winter Wine Festival auction. The festival ends 30 January. Valdes donated the work. Proceeds go to the Naples Children & Education Foundation.

On 26 January, 31 works of Spanish sculptor Gerardo Rueda went on show in Shanghai in the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. 

Street artist JR released a mini-documentary focusing on Cartegena, Spain's seniors, "The Wrinkles of the City," which recently hit Shanghai is worth a view.

Artists from the Andalusian International Artists Group show their paintings, watercolors and photographs of local landscapes from 19 to 28 February at the Malaga International Airport.

With a mere Bic ballpoint pen, Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas draws photo-realistic pictures of people, some of them three metres high.

The recently completed new headquarters for the BBC in London features a glass and steel kinetic sculpture by Jaume Plensa costing BBC a reported £900,000 and faces All Soul's Church. The work, titled "Breathing," serves as an icon in the night sky, representing the spirit of broadcasting as well as a memorial to journalists killed on assignment.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

See ArtTraveler videos on YouTube and view the photo gallery describing the 1,000 km pilgramage of Dutch walkers Joost and Rob from Seville to Santiago de Compostela, Via de la Plata.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

Four Thai ice and snow sculptors face meltdown in Egypt's political mayhem

 

It appears a case of political meltdown.

Fresh from winning first prize in popular vote and third overall in the International Ice & Snow Sculpture competition (Concours International de Sculptures sur Neige et sur Glace) in Valloire, France on 28 January, four Thai sculptors, who had a week to kill, decided to visit Cairo just when the popular uprising erupted.

My friend and fellow journo, Lance Woodruff, English sub-editor of MCOT Online News, asked me to share this breaking news story with you.

The Thai coordinator of the four-man team, Arnat Limjirawattana, said the four were set to arrive Saturday (yesterday) in Bangkok.

But when tens of thousands of Egyptians rose against their government, the airport closed.

Wrong place, wrong time and meltdown for the Thai Four?

As of early today, no word yet from the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry whether the sculptors are allright.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Also see ArtTraveler videos on YouTube; check in on the life and times and foto gallery of Dutch walkers Rob and Joost on their 1,000 km pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compostella (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM)

Capturing young lovers in Palma, Mallorca, ArtTraveler probes the boundaries of the long lens

My first creative love is photography.

I owe much to friend and veteran photojournalist Lance Woodruff, who continues his profession in Bangkok, a former Vietnam War veteran of the cadre of combat journalists.

While we attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota together in the early 60's, he taught me how to use the lens as a mirror of the soul and to compose, sense the shutter speed in your brain, that certain moment and click when you know in your heart of hearts you've got it, you have captured the instant as you saw it and it all came together.

In 1964, I bought a Leica M-2 and years later, a Nikon F-2, both steadfast companions to many photojournalists.

I worked as photojournalist and later reporter and editor for the St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota (now a once-a-day daily, St. Paul Pioneer Press), again in part, thanks to Lance helping me create an artist's eye.

Then, like Lance, I only shot black and white and managed my own darkroom.

Going into the darkroom was like scuba diving, you totally lost sense of time and in some cases, oxygen.

A couple years ago, I toured Palma, Mallorca.  There, sitting on a bench with my camera on my lap, the bridge type with super zoom lens, a high resolution Fuji digital, a computer that I usually set on auto....and across from me two young lovers.

As a photojournalist with my M-2, I never used a telephoto lens except the 90 mm for portraits.

I also owned a pathos and ethos that prodded me to get close to my subject.

And most of the time, I used a 35 mm lens, preset to about 15 feet, hung so it rested on my chest, and after awhile, I developed some excellent grab shooting techniques and results. And the M-2 was small and very quiet.

It was then I realized I was intuitively inspired by the spirit and style of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who died in 2004 (more to come on a great collection of these I saw in L.A.).

So, while in Palma I shot these two young lovers. I was sitting directly opposite them, perhaps 10 metres away.

I did not hide my focus nor did they disguise their affection.

All above images by Stefan van Drake.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

See also ArtTraveler videos on YouTube; please also take a look at the photo gallery illustrating day 18 of Rob and Joost's great adventure, the Via de la Plata pilgramage (walking) from Seville to Santiago de Compostela.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

"El Modernismo" - Sorolla to Picasso, 1880 - 1918 -opens in Lausanne today

One of Ana Perez Pereda's sculptures,

The Fondation de L'Hermitage in Lausanne, Switzerland today, 28 January, inaugurates its El Modernismo exhibition of about 100 works by Sorolla, Picasso, Anglada,Casas, Beruete, Regoyos, Rusinol, Zuloaga and Pinanco and Miro.

The Hermitage foundation showcases the Spanish avant garde during this critical geo-political period when Spain lost its empire.

El Modernismo runs to May 29.

The Hermitage said most of the paintings come from the Prado, the Sorolla Museum, the Thyssen-Bomemisza Museum and Valencia Fine Arts Museum. A few others from the Musee d'Orsay and the Musee Rodin complete the exhibit.

In another major February happening, Spanish sculptor Ana Perez Pereda and painter Jose Molina for three weeks of frenzied creatvity on the NUI Galway, Ireland campus beginning next month will create hanging sculptures entitled Jovian Sequences, connecting science and art.

Their works in progress happening coincides with NUI's annual Muscailt festival of drama, music, art and comedy, which runs from 7 to 12 February.

Molina's drawings and oil paintings defy generalization.

It's as though Picasso, Dali, and Miro decided to get high and collaborate.My favorite is his "Sentiementos Collection."

After viewing a YouTube video of Pereda's spartan metal circular/angular and kinetic works, this will be quite the artistic metamorphasis on the NUI campus of 16,000.

The performance process may be more eye catching than the results?

This year's theme: Exploration.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

See ArtTraveler videos on YouTube; and look in on the photo gallery from Dutch walkers Joost and Rob on day 17 of their pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM)

Art travel to Andalusia and immerse yourself in sculpture, mosaic or Raku workshops

Moira Schepel, left, with one of her workshop wood carving students.

How do you get your head inside a stone?

Eventually, you will find yourself inside the stone, Moira Schepel, maestro sculptor and my sculpture  instructor told me with confidence when I first took a week-long workshop from her in 2006.

I looked at the hulking, heavy slab of Spanish alabaster, studied with fierce bewilderment the small clay model I made of my planned reposing cat and never imagined I could do it.

But with her as my coach, we did.

Moira kept telling me to stop and study the work in progress, look at it from every point of view, and pretty soon, I started thinking inside the stone.

And another thing happened: My concentration became so focused, I found myself inside a deep calm. All the other baggage from racing neurons of our world vanished into the stone.

As a novice painter, I sometimes work quickly, almost at times frenzied. And with painting, you can usually fix your mistakes.

With stone, it's another world.

It's what you leave behind that counts and each session (9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.) brings you closer to a final shape and form. It's a slow and deliberative process and it's good for your head. And anyone can really do it. Moira's that good.

You start to think about the lines, the shadows, the total shape, and you look and look and look some more.

Moira for years has offered small group workshops (maximum of 8 participants each) first in sculpture and now also in mosaics. Her expansive studio is perched atop a hill backed up to the national park near Competa, Andalusia.

After a week's workshop, I began to see and feel the depths of the third dimension.

And I was well on the way to eventually (it's a long journey) creating "Reposing Cat," pictured below. I have only completed four alabaster sculptures but there's a world of learning that comes with each.

Moira Schepel's bronzes lurking in one of her many garden areas.

Moira also teaches sculpting in clay, marble, olive wood and bronze and other media for students at all levels of competence.

Her first workshop this year is 7 March with others slated for 11 April, 2 May, 6 June, 11 July, 12 September, 10 October and 7 November. To sign up, go to www.spanjeanders.nl.

Moira, who intensely studied mosaics in Italy, continues encouraging beginners to take up mosaics.

And more recently, she teaches an occasional Raku firing workshop.

Moira, born in Tanzania, East Africa, gained encouragement from her Kenya boarding school art teacher and by graduation, had contributed a work to the private collection of Kenya's first president after independence, Jomo Kenyatta.

She has studied in the UK and in Holland, attending many workshops and intense courses at the "Vrije Academie." in pottery and sculputure.

She also studied under well-known Dutch sculptor Karel Gomez and has exhibited in the Netherlands and Spain.

Moira putting the finishing touches on the mosaic part of the public work, "Transition," (pictured below.) She and Swiss artist Irene Bertoni created and gave the town of Competa the sculpture/mosaic in 2009.

Moira enjoys creating the whimsical but her primary love is the human figure.

"Reposing Cat", alabaster, by Stefan van Drake

Torso by Moira Schepel.

Clay figures abound in the grounds of the Schepel villa near Competa.

In this Moira Schepel ceramic piece, you can see her whimsical side.

One of Moira's students with an alabaster work in progress.

Moira Schepel's works often focus on the human form.

"Transition," installed along the exterior wall of Competa's cemetery, by Moira Schepel and Irene Bertoni.

Rock on and practice peace and love. (All images by Stefan van Drake.)

Also see ArtTraveler videos on YouTube and check in on the foto gallery that Dutch walkers Joost and Rob are creating on their pilgramage blog as they trek from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler (TM).

ArtTraveler showcases portraits of the heroes of Andalusia's mountains, the campesinos

People often ask me, as one of the handful of Yanks living in this area, why I chose Canillas de Albaida in the mountains above Torre del Mar.

My answer is the people.

The people define this landscape in every way.

Especially the campesinos, the farmer - peasants of the land. The land is integral to their corazon, the heart and soul of these people, especially the men who toil tirelessly regardless of age on the small plots of land they call their own.

I frequently walk the ancient goat trail from Canillias de Albaida to Competa, about a 30-minute walk into the national park. And along it I saw the campesinos workiing the land and simply enjoying the ambience that was and is theirs, a hertiage.

When you encounter these men, you feel an immediate bond.

These are men of the earth, whose dedication to land is likely second only to the Virgin Mary. It is their strength, their simplicity and wisdom and transparency of personality that reveals them as men whose affection for Spain and especially Andalusia is closet to their hearts.

O

All images by Stefan van Drake.

Rock on and practicer peace and love. See also ArtTraveler videos on YouTube, and please check in on the travails of Dutch walkers Rob and Joost on their 1,000 km pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

ArtTraveler: Dali and Picasso featured in gala Opera Gallery opening 28 Jan. in Bahrain

"Dos Hilanderas" by Jose Guerrero, 430 x 390 cm.

Back to the future.

Do you think Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso ever imagined their works drawing elite crowds in the Middle East?

Doesn't matter: It's happening at the Opera Gallery in the West Atrium of the Harbor Mall, running from 28 Jan. to 2 Feb.

It features an estimated $4 milliion in Dali designed, gem-studded jewellery, salted with a few works by Picasso, Renoir, Botero, Marc Quinn and Romero Britto. An invitation-only viewing is slated for 27 Jan.

The familiy of artist Jose Guerrero and Granada's provincial government last week settled a dispute affecting 60 Guerrero paintings at the Centro Guerrero in Granada. The artist died in 1992.

In 1999, Guerrero's children loaned the works to Centro. When the provincial government sought to incorporate Centro into its contemporary art bureucracy, the artist's children threatened to withdraw the works.

They remain, however, on indefinite loan after the independence of the Centro was apparently assured.

As the 2012 Olympics approach, it's perhaps time to recall the work, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" by Malaga sculptor Manuel Berrocal Ortiz.

According to Olympic.org, Ortiz, born near Malaga in 1933, intended the 300 x 285 x 182 cm, sculpture of six moving elements to illustrate an athlete's concentration of physical and mental fitness.

The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio recently acquired the 17th C. "The Infant Christ", a polychrome wood sculpture, by Spanish artist Juan Martinez Montanes. It is the first 17th C. Spanish sculpture added to the museum's permanent collection.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

And please see ArtTraveler videos on YouTube and look in on the life and times of Dutch walkers Rob and Joost, who are making the 1,000 km pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler (TM).

Fresh eyes discover Picasso's Guitar and a young-Goya masterpiece

When I first toured the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 1976, the USSR's stranglehold on freedom of artistic expression thrived.

My roommate for this two week study-tour of the Soviet legal system, John Kohan, then a researcher for Time magazine, who learned his Russian in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), knew key political dissidents.

He told me the Soviets confiscated hundreds of works over its Communist history from Russian artists the state deemed anti-social or anti-Soviet. John said they were housed in the cavernous bowls of the Hermitage. Where are they today?

There are hidden treasures yet to be discovered and authenticated.

And with fresh eyes and ample curiosity, there's much to celebrate, sometimes out of an old shoe box.

"Still life with Guitar" by Picasso, 500 X 417 cm.

"Guitar 1913" by Picasso, 448 X 600 cm.

Pablo Picasso painted a small wooden toy guitar for his daughter Paloma.  Picasso eventually gave it to a friend, Italian artist Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi. Parisi, according to media reports, at age 92 handed it over to an Italian busessman for perservation and display.

Instead, it ended up in a shoe box in the apartment in Pomezia, near Rome, only discovered last week. It is painted gray, black and yellow.

For Picasso and so many other Spaniards, the guitar remains a cultural icon. Federico Garcia Lorca explored the metaphysical domain of the six-string instrument.

Lorca wrote:

The Guitar

The weeping of the guitar                  

begins.

The goblets of dawn

are smashed.

The weeping of the guitar

begins.

Useless

to silence it.

Impossible 

to silence it.

It weeps monotonously

as water weeps

as the wind weeps

over snowfields.

Impossible 

to silence it.

It weeps for distant

things. 

Picasso's infatuation with the istrument takes shape as "Picasso: Guitars 1912 - 1914," opening 13 Feb. at the Museum of Modern Art, a show of 70 drawings, construction, photographs, construction. This exhibition stems from a MOMA discovery in 2005 of the missing part of cardboard to complete Picasso's construction, "Guitar."

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Museum of Art  opens a show 9 Feb. about the instrument itself: "Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen From Italy to New York."

This month another signfiicant revelation.

"Piedad" by Francisco Goya, 340 X 508 cm.

At age 28, Goya painted the Virgin Mary with the body of Jesus, in 1774--"Piedad."  So says Madrid art historian Anson Navarro. 

Purchased by a Barcelona collector in 2008, the work was thought to be by Francisco Bayeu y Subias. Sr. Navarro reportedly studied Bayeu and Goya for more than 30 years.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Check out ArtTraveler videos on YouTube and look in on the Via de la Plata pilgramage of Dutch walkers Joost and Rob on their blog as they trek from Seville to Santiago de Compostela.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

ArtTraveler digests recent happenings affecting Spanish artists

Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust"

MutualArt.com reports that the sale of 1,269 Picassos in 2010 led auction sales for the year at about $405.7 million. His Nude, Green Leaves and Bust grossed $106.5 million. Andy Warhol slid into second place at $355.7 million.

The Spanish Embassy in Ghana sponsors its first plastic arts workshop 24 - 29 January; one of the participants will win an all expenses paid trip to the ARCO Madrid art fair in February. Romulo Celdran, Spanish painter, will supervise sessions.

A Spanish art history professor disputes claims that Ecce Homo, a polychrome wood sculpture, is by El Greco of Toledo, Spain. Fernando Marias Franco of the Autonomous University of Madrid ("La Autonoma") disputes other experts, who attribute the carving to El Greco.

Ecce Homo is part of the annual Dutch art fair TEFAF held from 18 - 27 March in Maastricht. It's going on sale for an estimated 6 million Euros as experts continue disputing its origin.

The Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, Sastilla-La Mancha, offers some of the best of modern Spanish artists located in a series of 15th Century homes overlooking the Huecar Gorge.

Spanish artist Julio Lafuente has installed a sculpture of 72 circular marble spheres--waning and waxing moons--in a lagoon separating traffic along Jeddah's Corniche.

Maximo Riera has created a limited edition series of functional chairs: "The Animal Chair," all anatomically correct.

Spanish artist Oriol Fernandez Tur sorted the 540 iPhone apps on his phone so that each page reflects a letter.

Comic book artist Salvador Larroca at age 46 continues advancing his career with Marvel.

Starting 23 January, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (The Clark) in Williamstown, Mass. opens an exhibition of old masters portraits from the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, England and France.

The exhibition, "New Resolutions" continues through 31 January at Dibleys La Cala in Mijas, Costa del Sol, Spain.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

See also ArtTraveler videos on YouTube, and check on Dutch walkers Joost and Rob as they continue their three-month pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

ArtTraveler: Yale & Banco Santander join to restore Velazquez treasure, "The Education of the Virgin"

Facing four-year restoration after 80 years buried in the basement of Yale University.

Painted about 1617, the discarded Diego Velazquez was donated by two New Haven, Conn. brothers to Yale in 1925. 

The painting remains on show at the Yale Art Gallery through 20 Feb. Banco Santander will also fund 20 to 40 fellowships worth an estimated $200,000 a year for three years to develop strategic partnerships with the Yale community..

Experts from Yale and the Prado Museum in Madrid jointly shall restore the work.

In a related development, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City recently attributed a portrait of Spanish King Philip IV to Velazquez. But the verification of authenticity emerged only after restoration.

 

Rock on and practice peace and love. 

Check out ArtTraveler videos on YouTube and see how Dutch walkers Joost and Rob are doing on their pilgramage from Seville to Santiago de Compestela on Via de la Plata.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).

 

 
                                                                                                                                                                                           

ArtTraveler showcases sand and stone beach art in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Patience, passion and perserverence.

And financial survival as beach artists who work nearly 24/7 during the tourist season in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

It's not big business but for the handful of sand sculptors from Mexico and Latin America and those who create what appear impossible free-standing stone sculptures, a product of intricate balance and vision, continue to wow tourists, most of them from the US and the various cruise ships that off-load them frequently.

They walk down the wide promenade along the sea, admiring the beach art and making contributions to the many tip boxes.

While I lived there for three weeks in November 2008 studying oil painting under my friend and Spanish painter Jaime Adan, his partner Camila and their two-year-old son, Nilo, Jaime introduced me to one of his good friends there, whose studio of sand scuptures seemed to dazzle tourists.

The crew of three to four young men worked all day and most of the night.

Someone was always posted to guard the works and monitor the tip cans and from this, the crew survived allright in a small apartment close to the beach. Spartan but adequate.

What impressed me was the dedication and passion of these beach sculptors and the amount of hard work and skill as well as artist talent needed to create them.

Rock on and practice peace and love. See ArtTraveler videos on YouTube. Also check in on Dutch walkers Joost and Rob on Day 11 of their Via de la Plata pilgramage.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM). All above images by Stefan van Drake.

West of England illustrator and painter Roger Backwell dies in Competa, Spain

When I first saw Roger Backwell in 2005 while just starting to dabble in acrylic painting, Roger was singing and almost skipping (If he were a horse, he would have been in the trott mode.) high on life, high on something and very happy, very alive.

Who is this strange man I asked? I later got to know him well and he became a good colleague.

Sadly at age 63, Roger died after a short but ravaging illness in Competa, Spain where he and wife Sue moved in 2001.

After many years building an international reputation as one of the UK's most respected advertising illustrators, he retired to paint in expressive, passionate colour Andalusian life and landscapes, but more vividly, he usually painted with humour, satirizing himself, the local arts and expat communiies, life in general.

He painted portraits of his local goat herder, Antonio, and with daring palettes painted a dish of paella to bullfighters and whimsical pictures of Don Quixote de la Mancha. 

 
His work as a cartoonist and storyboard artist armed him with talents to stand outside his body and laugh at himself and the world around him and yet appreciate deeply and spiritually his life, his family and his friends.

An active member of CompetaArt.com, a group of more than 25 artists in the Competa - Canillas area, Roger worked hard at helping other artists and supporting local charities with gifts of his works for auction. He exhibited widely in Andalusia.

Here are a few of his works. He and his immense talents will be dearly missed.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

                                                                                                               

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM). See ArtTraveler videos on YouTube. Also check in on the Via de la Plata walk - Day 10 - by Dutchmen Joost and Rob on their blog.

Roger Backwell circa 2008. Foto by S. van Drake

ArtTraveler digests recent happenings affecting Spanish artists

Not all rubbish is art and not all art is rubbish.

Take this week's opening of a mini-hotel in Madrid built from bobs and bits from among 12 tons of rubbish recovered from European beaches. It's temporary but for real and part of the Coronita Save the Beach campaign.

If it's anything like its predecessor in Rome, it's cozy and very colourful, a palette of hopefully santized refuse with a message.

The art as rubbish botique hotel is the brainchild and work of German artist HA Schult, who installed a similar venue for the UN World Environment Day in June.

For you few who trade in "trainers," as the Brits call them, or stylish "tennis shoes" as we Yanks often label them, Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miro shows up again, sort of, in the latest display of Air Jordan 7. OK, it's a good PR hook. And perhaps a good investment.

At the de Young in San Francisco,  three Spanish-Hispanic exhibitions are on show: "Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico", from 19 Feb. to 8 May this year. On loan from 25 Mexican museums, the Mesoamerica collection of more than 100 objects, reputed to be the most ever been seen by North American audiences.

Also at de Young, 26 March - July 4: Balenciaga and Spain, which looks at Spanish influence on the haute couture master Cristobal Balenciaga. And finally, from 11 June - 25 September, de Young hosts more than 100 Picassos from the permanent collection from the Paris Musee  Picasso.

Spanish artist Santiago Sierra may have just escaped Brisbane floods. He exhibited an installation at GoMa Sierra he called "7 forms measuring 600 X 60 X 60 cm," large wooden beams supported on one end by a hefty wall mount and on the other, by two paid men shouldering half the burden. It ran from 20 -26 November 2010 in Brisbane.

I admit I stray a little. I head to Argentina only to introduce Matt Fox-Tucker, orginally from Iffley UK, now Buenos Aires.

He recently published "Textura Dos: Suenos Aires Street Art," a six-month joint venture with photographer Guilherme Zaulth. It's bilingual (Spanish/English, costs 25 quid on sale at Blackwell's in Oxford or by contacting: affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk.)

Salvador Dali illustrations were recently shown in the National Gallery of Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria, the beginning of the Divine Comedy's graphic collection.

Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta continues with the photo exhibit at FOAM in Amsterdam, "Landscapes without Memory," running until 27 Feb.

According to the London Evening Standard (19.11.10), the Joan Miro painting, "The Farm" is headed to the Tate Modern along with about 150 paintings.

The story goes Ernest Hemmingway rolled the dice with its then owner Eyan Shipman, who had helped Miro stage a show in Paris, for the painting. Both loved it. Hemingway won, paid 5,000 francs for the picture and then donated it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He lived with it for many years in Florida. This is the first time it is on show in the UK.

"Goya  and the Bullfight" - two series of Francisco Goya's prints on bullfighting remain on show at the Worcester Art Museum through 17 April in Needham, Mass. in the US.

Spanish flamenco and jazz and Maghreb guitarist Javier Ruibal recently took center stage in concerts in four Istanbul bars. Rubial in 2007 won the award, the Medal of Andalusia, for his contribution to Andalusian culture. You've got to check out his music!

The Toldedo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio has acquired a sculpture by Spanish artist Juan Martinez Mortanes.

Every little bit counts: Wilth an auspicious and modest $666 grant to the Vista Grande High School Spanish class, the class will dabble in paintings inspired by famous Spanish artists. The name of the project? "We Are Not Picasso."

Rock on and practice peace and love,

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM)  See ArtTraveler video collection. Also check in on Day 8 of Dutch walkers Via de la Plata, three-month pilgramage, the adventures of Joost and Rob.

Swedish Vedic Art painter Philippine von Krusenstierna opens two-month show at Cerezo's Gallery on 19 January in Canillas de Albaida, Spain

"Blue Nude" by Philippa, acrylice on canvas, 65 X 81 cm 2010

Swedish Vedic Art painter and sculptor Philippine von Krusenstierna opens her solo exhibition at Cerezo's Gallery in Canillas de Albaida tomorrow, 19 January.

Her show continues until 19 March.

Canillas, a small mountain village about 15 kms above Torre del Mar, Andalusia, is where Philippa, since 1999 a devotee of Vedic Art, prolifically produces her acrylic on canvas abstract paintings.

Vedic Art draws on Hindu Vedas, mantras, meditation, inner stirrings of sorts but applies 17 principles, all tied to the Vedas.

Vedict Art techniques energize, help you warm up, inspire inner focusing and visualizing, like a heart pumping more blood through your body, ignites your creative impulses, Philippa explained.

The founder of Vedic Art, Curt Kallman, also a Swede who studied traditional art in Europe and  then, breaking from tradition by applying Hindu Vedas, died about a month ago.

But his legacy lives on, Philippa said. Vedic Art is spreading through Scandinavia, Europe and Australia.                      

Philippa describes her creative process on YouTube.

"Sometimes I do it without thinking, it sort of comes," Philippa says. She starts with a ground, adds texture and then paints intensely, intuitively. After she's well into the work, she begins to see structure and form and moves in whatever direction that takes her until she pronounces the work finished.

To temper her spontaneity in painting, she also sculpts in alabaster, clay and whatever strikes her fancy.

But sculpting in alabaster as a student at the Moira Schepel Art Studio in Competa provides a much more thoughtful adventure. "I am used to changing paintings or clay figures but with stone, once it's gone, it's gone. It takes a long time but it is a very thoughtful experience."

Once a year, Philippa joins other Vedic Art  painters in Sweden for a couple of weeks. She says it's an amazing energy with 25 painters in one large room, all painting, no talking, just pure creative energy.

How does Vedic Art help her in every day life? "Sometimes it helps finding completness in daily life."

"Guardian," acrylic on canvas, 73 X 89 cm. 2010

"Janus," net on steel stand: 185 cm high

Philippa von Krusentierna with work in progress.

From left: "The Hole" - "Turtle" and "Faces"

"Studies", watercolour, 35 X 25 cm, 1993, when Philippa worked as a graphic artist.

Rock on and practice peace and love. (See ArtTraveler videos on YouTube.) And don't forget to check in on Dutch walkers Joost and Rob on their Day 7 as they walk from Seville to Santiago de Compostela (Via de la Plata).

Stefan, the ArtTraveler (TM)