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.
You can subscribe for the La Herradura-cultural web magazine with useful information and interesting articles about La Herradura and surroundings, events, sports, people, art, environment, recipes and where to go. It is free to subscribe. Your support as a subscriber will be greatly appreciated. Check it out here and subscribe on the right-hand side.
And if you like to purchase my book Reflections from La Herradura, please click here.
Would you like to be notified when there is a new blog? You can subscribe below for my newsletter which will always have a link to my latest blog. You can also follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RenartsBookWorld/
