Post Inspiration Frenzy

Getting back home I was anxious to get started, it was like a kaleidoscope of ideas, one just blurred into another.
I wanted to try and be a little more free and less meticulous as Picasso often had, using the colours and 'because, why conform' spirit that Gaudi had evidently utilised throughout his architecture in Barcelona.
I decided to just get to it, and see what happened, using a new brief as subject matter I began to put some of the ideas down on paper.
After working in blacks and grey tones for so long, it was refreshing and actually quite therapeutic to just go at a canvas with no barriers or rules.
After a while I ended up with a few pieces that formed the basis of my 'fishtank' idea.

A free hand was let loose.

I painted the way I wanted.

Because I could.

And was surprisingly pleased at these results.

The inspiration is quite apparent and I was left feeling quite content at getting my own interpretations of Barcelona down as a visual instead of just an idea. 

Ideas that grew.

Inspired by Barcelona Pt2: The Picasso Museum

Barcelona's 'Gothic Quarter' is like a step back in time, the streets are narrow and cinematic with washing lines hung between the buildings either side of these picturesque through ways with louvred shutters flanking tall glass windows set behind yet more detailed wrought iron balconies.
It sounds like romanticising because it is, in the short time I was there I feel in love with Barcelona.
The history is evident, the passion and home pride of the Catalonian people is unmistakable.
So it is no surprise that when Pablo Picasso was drawn there as a youth, he blossomed.
An extensive collection of his early works can be found in the museum which itself is built inside five adjoining medieval palaces.
Excited, as I stated in one of my first blogs, Picasso was a major reason and influence to me ever beginning an interest in art. I was not disappointed.
It is a surreal feeling to be standing so close to a painting created by probably the most recognisable name in the entirety of art history.
Standing so close you can see the brush strokes that a master put there himself. Pure Inspiration.
The gallery, houses over 3500 pieces from small pockets sketch books to full framed art works,
I was unsure of the rules around photography, so I took very few pictures,.. and quickly.

The exterior of the five palaces that house Picasso's work

Science and Charity

Las Meninas, a Picasso homage to another Spanish master, Velazquez.

Salvador Dali also painted a version in Homage.

Just being in the same rooms as these works and masterpieces is an abundance of inspiration, teamed with it being in the city defined by Gaudi's presence and steeped in so much rich and varied history.

A history built on art, whether that be design, architecture or football, whatever we regard as art, examples of it can be found in Barcelona.

History and modernity live in a healthy balance in Barcelona, within which, history is the most apparent and modernity is allowed to happen, but in the back ground.

Four nights was not enough time in Barcelona but was still more than enough to return home raring to go and put some of that I had encountered into my own work.