The cave
One week in to our time here in Spain and we are slowly...
The cave
One week in to our time here in Spain and we are slowly getting our feet wet. This, of course, in the most proverbial sense of the phrase. But also literally, as in we are living right by the sea and, it turns out, very close by some damp underground caves. Which is a very good thing.
When we left on our year long adventure, I had completed nearly all of my preparation for the work I’d be doing here in Spain: the paintings for the third JOURNEY book. My final sketches, my prepped watercolor paper, my color studies – they were all ready to ship. But the one thing that was nagging me was the cave.
You see, a good chunk of RETURN takes place in a cave by the ocean. I figure if I’m getting into the realm of Joseph Campbell with these books, I might as well go all the way. But I felt like I wasn’t quite ready to paint so many images of a cave if I hadn’t really studied one en plein air. And there aren’t too many good majestic caves to just hop down to in Massachusetts.
So you can imagine my thrill and surprise, when just a few days off the boat, we stumbled upon the Cuevas de Nerja – the Caves of Nerja - in a town just an hour south of our place here in Malága. We had planned to visit the coastal town of Nerja and while we were on the bus, an old woman got on and enquired towards the driver “Cuevas?”. Caves? This bus was going to a cave? Needless to say, we stayed on the bus past the town center and low and behold, there were these amazing caves to explore. With each turn down the staircase, the cave grew bigger and grander until it was all but unbelievable to behold.
I’ll be back with my sketchpad - if my art supplies ever arrive through Spanish customs. But that’s another story…
