compostela ilustrada

I'm back from the 2nd edition of the festival "compostela ilustrada" in santiago de compostela.
that was a wonderful and intense weekend surrounded by 200 sketchers from spain, portugal and france that came to participate to the workshops, talks, exhibitions and books presentation for 4 days.
I met there some old friends as alfredo, jorge arranz, isabell, santiago, joaquim, fernanda or teresa… and get to know some new ones: mr zé, blanca, munehiro ikeda, miguelanxo prado.
I teach inside the cathedral of santiago, talk about "lost poblenou" and sign my books of barcelona, paris, cuba and modernisme.
muchas gracias por todo gemma y miguelanxo!
 

compostela ilustrada

next week, I will participate to the 2nd travel book meeting "compostela ilustrada" next to la crème de la crème of spanish and portuguese artists: alfredo, jorge arranz, fernanda lamelas, teresa ruivo, isabel seidel…
I will teach a workshop inside santiago de compostela's cathedral, talk about my process and my project "lost poblenou" and present my latest books "paris, je t'aime", "barcelona original", "barcelona, modernisme beyond gaudí" and "cuaderno de cuba".
There are still some places available, check it out!

"españa esta de moda"

I'm witnessing the major crisis of the politic confrontation between catalunya and the spanish government for the last ten years, since I'm living in barcelona. on sunday is organized the unilateral referendum by the catalan government to vote the independence of catalunya. the referendum is prohibited by the central government, and the tensions are at their maximum after the arrestation of a dozen of catalan politiciens and the massive arrival of policemen in catalunya to prevent the election. catalans citizens are still planing to vote and nobody knows what will happen in the following days…

so, who is the genius that decided that it was the good timing to buy some advertising spaces for this clothes brand? is that on purpose as the policeman I sketched in front of it on the rambla told me?
while sketching it on the plaça catalunya, the people looked at the poster as if it was a bad joke or a provocation.

if "spain is fashionable" somewhere, it's definitly not in plaça catalunya this days.

malaga

I was invited by luis ruiz this week to participate to a great workshop at the university of malaga: "miradas en la ciudad. urban sketching y street photography", comparing the visions of street photographers as miguel trillo and eduardo d'acosta, and the vision of urban sketchers as inma serrano, clara marta and me.
here is a video about my vision of the city:

and a few drawings of the 2 days I spent there.

seat 850-D especial

simca 1000

santes creus

santa maria del mar

belchite

on the way to zaragoza 2 weeks ago, some sketchers friends and I passed by the village of belchite wich was destroyed during the civil war in 1937, and since then, keep as it is: a battle field.
strange feeling there…

workshop "de vuelta con el cuaderno"

I'm back from the 4th workshop "de vuelta con el cuaderno" in zaragoza last week end, where I was invited by the director clara marta to join gérard michel, sagar, luis ruiz or josu maroto (…) to lead 100 sketchers during 3 days.
we spent a wonderful time sketching day and night.

photo: ©airojo

each sketcher had a hand made japanese sketchbook made by choni naudin.
here is mine:

gracias clara, y hasta la proxima!!!

more from valencia

valencia

some sketches made last week in valencia, spain:

architect: santiago calatrava.

35th sketchcrawl in "la rioja"

here are some of the sketches I made here and there, eating tapas, drinking beers, and listening to good music with good friends… during the 3 days marathon in "la rioja", famous area for its red wine, that javier de blas organised there.
it was an evidence to visit the wine museum "dinastia vivanco", in which I sketched part of the biggest exposed collection of corkscrews ;) and I loved it!

more sketches of the sketchcrawl in "la rioja" on the sketchcrawl forum.