Return to the Caves
Our daughter, now in her second week of...
Return to the Caves
Our daughter, now in her second week of school, decided this morning that she wasn’t having it. It was of the “my stomach hurts” variety that to me seemed fair enough – the kid has been thrown into a chaotic classroom full of Spanish speakers and she’s been handling it all like a champ. To have one day where she just want to stay home seemed like a good thing.
So I put down my brushes and we went off on a field trip - to the Cuevas de Nerja – the Nerja Caves which inspired me early on during our time here in Spain. I had been planning on gathering some reference at some point for the sequence in Return that takes place in an ocean cave, so I figured today would be a good day.
Usually when I work on my books I start at the beginning and move my way through the final paintings one image at a time. It helps me stay focused on the flow of the story as I work through the time consuming paintings. I was about to start work on a section in the book that takes place at a castle at night, but then I realized “Wait a minute! We’re about to move to Granada in January – into an apartment with views of the Alhambra (a fancy Moorish castle – that they light up at night!). Why not work on the cave sequence now while we’re so close to these terrific caves!” My daughter and I reviewed my sketches from the book and studied what sort of rock formations would be good to study. Once in the caves, I handed her my iphone camera while I went around with my Canon. We had the run of the place!
Afterwards, we got some paella down at a nearby beach. And then found some requisite playgrounds. All in a days work, people.
