Sunday, June 19, 2016

Spanish Sounds


Thinking about Spanish sounds flamenco music quickly comes to mind, and rightly so, but what about those other sounds? Like young men driving around in their cars beeping their horns to celebrate the winning of yet another football cup. Or the tail of cars, beeping their horns, following an expensive looking vehicle dressed for the occasion with flowers and bows, transporting a wedding couple from the church to the party venue. Or the extremely loud bangs, which unfortunately create a lot of fear in most animals, used to mark the start and finish of a local festival, and this on a daily basis for as long as the festival lasts. Those typical Spanish festivals with live music starting at midnight on the local square, lasting till five or six o’clock in the morning. Most villages also hold an annual main village festival which usually includes a fair with lots of loud attractions, each trying to outshout each other with their own deafening ‘disco’ music to attract people. Those festivals that usually end with a firework display with again an overdose of loud bangs. You could easily come to the conclusion that Spain is a very ‘noisy’ country and that the Spanish are very sound tolerant.
But there is also the pleasant sound of the coffee-machines in the bars, grinding their coffee and heating up the milk for the next milky coffee. I am listening to it right now as I sit here in my favourite seafront CafĂ©. I listen to the chit-chat that surrounds me in a mixture of languages from all over Europe, including Spain of course. People often feel that Spanish people talk very loud when they have a conversation and it always seems as if they are arguing. I think this is not necessarily true. Yes there are people who talk loudly but when you don’t understand a language it can easily seem as if all the words are glued together and that people are angry when they talk. However, there does seem to be a large amount, both men and women who have a very raw, husky voice in Spain and I used to think that this was a case of too much tobacco over too many years. However, I changed my mind when, the other day, I heard a very young boy, somewhere between eight and ten years old, talking with that same husky voice. It actually makes me wonder whether the tone of our voice can be influenced by what we hear around us when growing up, which could explain why I get the impression that in some areas in America but also in the UK there are groups of women with very high-pitched sharp voices something that is rather unusual in my country of origin, The Netherlands.
A strong wind is picking up and I hear the soothing sounds of waves on the pebbled patches of the beach. It brings me back to my pleasant reality on a day like this in June. The month where spring turns into summer way before the 21st, a month of excellent temperatures, warm during the day and fresh during the evening and the month where the sounds become even louder. More people, more happiness, more live music and dancing and more noise in the apartments next door. It is all part of living here.

If you like to read more about life in a small seaside Spanish village get your copy of “Reflections from La Herradura”. For sale on your nearest Amazon or you can get it from the La Herradura Cultural website.

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Monday, June 6, 2016

Sunshine and water in Spain,

I live in Spain and this means I get to see a lot of blue sky, orange glows created by late-afternoon sunshine on mountain ranges and ever changing horizons whilst the sea is playing with a large spectrum of blues and turquoises, which is, quite frankly, absolutely marvellous. Bring into the mix the light from the south of Spain in general and you get an excellent inspirational elixir, especially for artists like me. I don’t have to paint landscapes with olive trees, amazing skies above a dark indigo sea during a winter sunset in the La Herradura bay for it to become evident that I am influenced by all this. Looking at my body of work over the years it becomes very clear that the light and many hours of sunshine have influenced my art. The colours in my paintings have become brighter, livelier and more intense. I don’t use models for my paintings but like to observe and I get a lot of inspiration from just watching people and enjoy the variety of what’s on ‘offer’ in La Herradura.
Especially during the spring, autumn and winter season it isn’t very difficult to distinguish between the different types of people. Without wanting to generalize you could say that those who live here permanently notice their bodies adapt over the years to the summer and winter temperatures, becoming more tolerable to high temperatures, but less tolerable to the cold, which their winter dress codes clearly shows. Working on a tan also becomes less important. Those who escape the winter months in their home country can often be recognised by their sun tanned skin and more summery clothing, but possibly with a jumper draped over the shoulder. Then there are the holidaymakers who run around in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops whilst the locals and permanent expats put on an extra jumper and shiver in the corner of one of the sea-front cafes.
But now, the beginning of June, summer has truly arrived, like it does every year. Everybody has got their summer gear out and I watch a group of women passing by the table where I am enjoying a milky coffee and some wholemeal bread with tomatoes, salt and extra virgin olive oil. There is an invasion of flip-flops, uncomfortably looking flimsy footwear in bright colours, exotic designs with or without a wobbly rubber flower. I am surprised by the audacity and guts of some of the female owners. Flaking nail polish on too long toe nails proudly peeking out into the open air. Cracked heals carry the smooth legs freed from unflattering hair. I am also fascinated by the ease some classy women show off their strangely shaped feet, deformed by having been squeezed into pointy tight stiletto heal shoes for too many years. Their expensive leather flip-flops revealing the fruitless attempts of yet another pedicure. Corns, dried out blisters and plasters a little black around the edges catch my attention…. I seem to be surrounded by damaged, not very attractive feet. Nobody seems to care… I wonder why I do.
So I take my attention back to the colourful mixture of people strolling along the seaside attracted by the sea, the sunshine and some ‘lucky ones’ who will be able to go back to a villa with a swimming pool to wash away the heat. Something worries me though. Most people, the tourists, the expats and also the Spanish often seem to take water for granted. Excessively watering the plants in a much loved-garden, leaving the tap wide open when brushing teeth, cleaning vegetables or freshly caught fish, and long showers to sooth a sun-burned skin or a warm bath to pamper a chilly body … it all feels so normal.
Nobody seems to even wonder where all this water is coming from. When it rains, which is quite frankly not happening anywhere near enough, it does usually pour down and streets can turn into rivers in no time, but to my amazement I then often hear people moan about it. Although it is rare to have a week without sunshine, it can sometimes happen that it rains every day of a week which happened in the beginning of May. For people who have come here for a sunshine holiday to then finding themselves in a rather chilly and wet week, this is understandably a little sad, but if you are in the privileged position to call this beautiful country your home for longer periods during a year you might want to look at the rain as a gift.
It is so very necessary in Andalusia, also in La Herradura. The local economy is based on agriculture, like avocado and tropical fruit farms, and tourism and both need large amounts of water. In a sense we are lucky that there is a large underground water reservoir in La Herradura, but to keep that full it has to rain during the winter months. When there is too little rain the salty sea water mixes in with the fresh mountain water and water from the tap will become salty, disastrous for the farmers and not so handy if you want to shower off the salty sea water.
I pay for my breakfast and realise that I am having a moan about the moaning but I also realise that I am one of the lucky ones to call this beautiful, inspiring little seaside village my home. That is something I will never take for granted and guess what…

I feel a painting coming up!

If you like to know more about La Herradura this is now possible on the new website, www.laherradura-cultural.eu that I have created together with Ferry Verhoeve. Lately Ana Espildora has also joined our team and we are working on getting La Herradura better known as the cultural hotspot that it already is.
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