I don't want to get in to it, but something disastrous happened to me while in Barcelona (so disastrous I'm still trying to sort out the mess despite being home for nearly 3 weeks), making it officially the worst vacation of my life.
While it would be easy to just hate on Barcelona and write it off like an angry tourist, I've always considered myself an optimistic person. So despite the horrid experience, I'm concentrating on the positive - the city of Barcelona is undeniably full of beautiful and inspiring art. And for an aspiring (and struggling) artist, I consider this point much more important than all the negative things I can think to say (and believe me, there are A LOT).
I particularly enjoyed visiting the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) and the Museu del Modernisme Català, which I would happily add along with New York's The MoMA and Paris' Musee d'Orsay, as some of my all time favourite art museums. There were great examples of Gothic Art and Art Nouveau there that I could have easily spent hours admiring (below):
(Source: Bonanat Zaortiga 1430-1440, MNAC)
(Source: Alexandre De Riquer 1887, MNAC)
(Source: Museu del Modernisme Català)
While I was in no mood to pick up a pen or paper during my whole time in Barcelona (a majority of my drawing abroad was done passing long leisurely days at München's Englischer Garten,) it was while admiring the art in Barcelona that I was suddenly able to realise how to execute my pieces aesthetically and technically, taking the sketches beyond scribbles to (hopefully) works of art. Below is an incomplete piece from Men In Trees, followed by a computer generated mock up inspired by Catalan artwork...
Excited? I know I am.
:-)
Cheers.
S
*Also, it is because of the Barcelona 'disaster' why I suddenly find myelf with so much time to work in my studio. I guess every cloud does have a silver lining...or in my case, Artline 990XF fine tip 1.2mm Metallic Gold/Silver lining.
