15/6/26
Hola! Monday mid morning and it’s already a very lazy 27 degrees in Pollença town.
I’m doing a wee watercolour under the sunshade at the pool. The lack of water in the garden has meant that the leaves on our wild banana palm have dried to glorious shades of pink, orange, red and purple.
Perfect for drawing but unfortunate for the poor plant! I love the easy way the watercolour gently flows to create dramatic light and colour contrast on the page.
The birds have arrived: their fly past is like clockwork – 11.30- unless it’s a cloudy day and there’s a bird of prey swooping around the mountains.
They are just a better class of pigeon I think – flying white against the Puig de Maria or black against the blue skies. If only I could capture their swish noises!
Yesterday I was hiding from the heat in the small studio. Working on a rather large canvas of the Puig de Maria bathed in blue at night. There’s a few swimmers going in, some bats and of course the sunburnt pink wild banana palm. Early days and lots to do but I’m enjoying it!
When we arrived a week ago the weather was much cooler and there was a breeze.
On a painting day out to the small hamlet of Biniaraix ,tucked-in the foothills of the Tramuntana near Soller you feel you are back in the days of old Mallorca. My friend Greg and I set up our easels at a wonderfully quiet – so we thought – shady and windy spot over looking the town (we only had to move our easels 4 times for farm tractors and a few cars) Greg works in a very different way from me and it was great to see his analytical approach as he started his canvas.
I jump in feet first with a big brush – this time with the lilac that has caught my eye on the gorgeous blue jacaranda tree and base the rest of the colours on that.
We were in painter heaven and followed it up by a fantastic lunch at bar Bodega Biniaraix.
Life drawing at Club de Pollença is not on tonight but last Monday we had a nice young Spanish girl who posed in the club’s beautiful old airy salon on the first floor.
And tomorrow –
Mañana es otro día!
