ArtDaily

92-2821 – Pegasus

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After visiting Barcelona Cathedral, and based on the suggestion of our friend, we visited the Palau de la Música Catalana. This amazingly ornate building, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, was built between 1905 and 1908, and is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The concert auditorium is decorated with a myriad of sculptures of muses, singers and composers. We sat for a while on the upper balcony where the arch is supported by winged horses in honour of Pegasus, the Greek symbol for creative imagination.

Sat-17-Aug-2024

92-2820 – Barcelona Cathedral

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On the day after we visited Girona (Friday 16th) we went to the Picasso Museum (one of the highlights of our holiday for me) and met with with an old friend. I didn’t sketch that day. The following day we started with a tour of Casa Batlló – another one of Gaudi’s masterpieces. After this we went for a long walk around the area of the Barcelona Cathedral where I sketched this – the cathedral (technically called the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia was built in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. I had planned to do more to this sketch…but I dislike sketching from photos and decided to keep it as a simple on the spot sketch that still reminds me of our time there.

Sat-17-Aug-2024

92-2823 – Sant Jeroni Hermitage

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I am jumping ahead with this post, as I have a number of unfinished sketches before this one. After a couple of days in Barcelona we took a second trip out of the city to Montserrat by train. Apart from seeing the Basilica and the Black Madonna, we also took the funicular rail up the mountain and went on a 7km hike, where I did this quick sketch near the peak, where we had our lunch.

Sun-18-Aug-2024

92-2817-9 – Girona

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Barcelona Sants to Girona

Back to Spain with this post – on our second day we went to Girona (a medieval city founded by the Romans over 2,000 years ago and a fantastic place to visit). My first sketch was done on the train – but it didn’t turn out too well! When we arrived, we sat in Independence Square for coffee. I couldn’t find out anything about the fountain (with a boy sitting on a turtle) that I sketched – it’s called “The Turtle Boy” (“El Nen de la Tortuga”) – but the statue in the middle of the square is by Antoni Parera. The second sketch was done in front of Basilica de Sant Feliu (church of St. Felix) where we sat to eat our lunch. The baroque façade was built in the 13th-18th centuries.

Child of the turtle
Basilica de Santa Feliu

Thu-15-Aug-2024

92-2810 – Scott Monument

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On our second day in Edinburgh, our friends gave us a tour round the older parts of Edinburgh and we stopped for a coffee in Princes Street Gardens, sitting on the grass with this view of the Scott Monument (I’ve delayed posting this because I wanted to do some more work on the sketch). The monument is to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (famous for historical novels like Ivanhoe and Rob Roy). When he died in 1832 a competition was held to design a monument and a draughtsman and self-taught architect won, using the pseudonym of “John Morvo”. We were very lucky to have beautiful weather that day, and also visited the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Fri-19-Aug-2024

92-2816 – Porter’s residence at Park Güell

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On our first day in Barcelona we visited Park Güell. This was sketched after our walk through the park. At the main entrance there are two buildings that form the porter’s lodge – the one I sketched (to the right as you face the entrance from outside the park) was used as the porter’s residence. The roof was built with traditional Catalan clay tiles covered with “trencadís”, a mosaic made of tile shards. To me it looks like a giant iced cake!

Wed-14-Aug-2024

92-2815 – Edinburgh Airport

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On Tuesday 13 August we left Scotland and headed to Spain – taking the tram to the airport (very easy to get there). We didn’t have a great experience arriving in Barcelona though – we had a mad rush through Schiphol airport (which is absolutely massive) to make our connecting flight (thanks KLM) and then our bags got left behind so we had to wait for them in Barcelona. In the end we arrived pretty tired at the apartment we had rented.

Tue-13-Aug-2024

92-2814 – Birnam Hotel

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Our second day in Dunkeld and Birnam started with a big thunderstorm – luckily it stopped just before we headed out on a long hike up Birnam hill. I sketched this when we made it back to the village and sat in a park for something to eat before going back to Edinburgh (slight trouble on the trains). This is a view of the hotel where we stayed from the Beatrix Potter garden. The hotel was built in 1850 and was visited by the King of Spain and the French Empress…though these days it seems a bit timeworn.

Mon-12-Aug-2024

92-2813 – River Tay nap

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On our first day in Dunkeld (before checking in to our hotel and after our lunch) we visited Dunkeld Cathedral and then sat by the river with this glorious view of the bridge over the river Tay. This bridge was built between 1805 and 1809 by Thomas Telford – a Scottish engineer most famous for a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire. After checking into to our hotel we went on the Hermitage and Braan Walk, through beautiful wooded glens and fantastic countryside.

Sun-11-Aug-2024