Sabden Fold Landscape Painting

Sabden Fold Acrylic on Canvas 70 x 70 cm location owners UK- sold

It was with some interest that I wait for Halloween in Spain. In the UK Halloween has been taken over by fantasy and Hollywood. Having witnessed the vibrant life filled 24/7 festivals in Andalucias Manilva and San Roque I'm wondering what will take place in a week's time. The guide books all say that in Spain Halloween is a time of special respect when the Spanish people in families remember, honour with prayers and flowers their dead relatives. The work above is one that I painted last autumn in Sabden Fold Lancashire, there the small farms that are huddled under the lee of the moors in a linear settlement pattern look like a string of pearls, frost or rain or more rain is the order of the day there. Sabden is a place of witchcraft. That is why I painted the work in the spiritual colours of healing and peace as I thought about that last walk of the so named Pendle Witches who were wrongly accused of witchcraft and drowned because of greed for land.

Here in Andalucía, Spain had its inquisition to, though the threat from the legacy of the Moorish past was far greater to Catholicism than that of the witches in the UK. Having said that Calvanism was born in Pendle. For the Fincas and small holdings here there is much more space and much more wilderness. Society here appears to be far less broken, families are more intact and in the developing gloom and dark of the winter night a community of adults still seem to control the streets and old people here look forward to a knock on the door.

Gaucin Landscape Painting Andalucia

Gaucin Pueblo detail-Acrylic on canvas-sold Gaucin is a particularly attractive pueblo/village to paint. Steeped in modern and ancient history with an urbanization of casa blanco/ white homes, timeless steep calle/streets, una castile/castle and remarkable mirados/viewpoints; it makes for more than interesting study. Set high on a mountain ridge it creates a visible white mark for many kilometres. As far as Jeraz de la Fronteria maybe.

Farmworkers

Ronda Gorge Andalucia

This is one of the premier views in Spain

the bustling white town of Ronda perched high on a huge cliff

and the gorge that splits it in two with a

tremendous bridge holding the two together.

Sunflower Farm Landscape painting On the road to Sevilla

Sunflower Farm on the road to Sevilla. Acrylic on Canvas 70 x 70 cm location Manchester UK sold. The expansive plains of Sevilla in central Andalucia are very fertile, with an abundance of light. In the summer the plain is host to millions of sunflowers which are harvested for their seed. Reflecting the Andalusia's' Moorish heritage, houses in the region have traditionally been designed with the goal of protecting residents from the heat of the sun. Often long white buildings built of stucco with thick walls and few windows, often with an inner courtyard to keep people and animals cool as well as safe in Andalusia's turbulent past. Windows overlook patios filled with potted plants. The house is often built around a shady central court-yard—sometimes including a fountain—in which the family can relax and cool off. Houses in and near Seville often have intricately carved wrought-iron gates over their doors and windows and splendid entrances to their drives

San Roque Pueblo Landscape Painting

Deserted Pueblo near San Roque-watercolour and pencil on paper (for sale)

Finca Cortesan Watercolour Painting

I found a spot to set my easel up on the side of the quiet Casares highway looking up the valley away from the sun coast . Horned brown cattle were grazing below a hot sun with small white farms and villas scattered across seemingly bare and arid ochre fields. The karst rock formations show a clear anticline which has been rent by a scar and the rocky land gives rise to surprisingly busy and productive farming. A different view to the one in the opposite direction were the lakes and greens of next years Volvo Cup host, the beautiful Finca Cortisan Golf Course sparkle against the Mediterranean sea.

watercolour ink and acrylic on paper (for sale)

Normandy Farm Painting.

New semi outdoor studio

A new work for my neuvé estudio here in Casares on a nice, bright, windless, day full of October sunshine. The studio is on the terrace and gives me a reasonable space to work in, it is unquestionable light and airy with views across to the Med. I've put the new studio to the test today by starting the finishing off process for a work I began and that appears in an earlier post. It is a painting of a grand old distinguished Cork Oak tree in the heart of the Cork Oak forest near Casares.

Landscapes of the soul Andalucia.

Rob Miller drawings for the work pueblo Andaluz

I started this work after driving past a number of semi deserted villages were dogs scavenged in the rubbish; and buildings once homes slowly died through neglect; It was easy to make comparisons with the clearances of the Highlands in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England; and connect with the images that I had begun on Roeburndale. Here to are many religious shrines and small chapels; which maybe points to the dire need that people who lived here; working off the land; have for a spiritual connection and for a source of more than human sustenance. In fact in many cases the church here it can be argued, within its history, abused this need. My research on this led me to a reading of the Spaniard, the Nobel prize winning poet Juan Ramon Jimenez and his poetry; " the landscapes of the soul." This Spanish poet converted words into music-into something weightless, vaporous, almost resembling light.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Juan_Ram%C3%B3n_Jim%C3%A9nez.jpg

Juan Ramon Jimenez's biography can be read in many articles and translations. His work is described as being strongly visual his early work linked to yellow and green and his later work to white. In his late years the influence was largely spiritual. How does he compare to Hughes and Jaccottet. Hughes poems on Crow were largely invited by and written to accompany the work of the sculpture Leonard Baskin. Well he compares more than favourably both in terms of sound and visualization. Its not really my thought though to go into the complexities of poetry; but to use poetry to enhance my understanding of my subject matter and creative work as an artist with the work of poets.

This pueblo and others that you come across tell the same story as the clearances of the Highlands and the removal of people from the moors of the North of England. Haunting landscapes.

Casares Pueblo Andaluz Landscape drawings

Watercolour sketch Casares

Urbis Centre Cathedral Square Manchester 9th-12th October 2008.

Work in progress Bridgewater Canal

at Ascot studios alongside other pieces

May 2008

Completed work Manchester Bridgewater Canal 1

on show at the

Buy Art Fair

Urbis Centre

Cathedral Square

Manchester

9th-12th

October 2008

Translations from Spanish Land poets

Oh Earth Wait for me
from memorial de isla negra.
A poem by Pablo Neruda
translated by A.S.Kline.

Turn me oh sun
towards my native destiny,
rain from the ancient forest,
return to me the fragrance and the swords
that fall from the sky,
the solitary peace of field and rock,
the moisture at the margins of the river,
the scent of the larch,
the wind, alive like a heart
beating among the remote flock
of the great araucaria.
Earth, return to me your pure gifts
the towers of silence that rose
from the solemnity of their roots:
I want to return to being what I have not been,
learn to return from such depths
that amongst all the things of nature
I could live or not live: no matter
to be one more stone, the dark stone,
the pure stone that is carried by the river.

Landscapes of the Soul. Roeburndale NW England

Pentecost

Haylot the crying of lambs

an empty road under a sky crowded with jet vapour trails

Guardians at the gate

space and meditation

This is a new and developing series that builds upon the notion and the circumstance of the spiritual dimension to the landscape. The drawings here are based upon Roeburndale and the valleys below Casares in Andalucia.

Landscapes drawings of the soul Roeburndale,

A series or theme of work that begins to look at mans vision and his spirituality within the landscape.