Travel Spain: 1976-1979

In 1976 I travelled through Spain settling for a time in the southern mountain village of Frigiliana and the coastal village of Nerja. Nerja was still very much a fishing village but after several weeks, as summer approached, it was obviously a tourist destination too as the beach restaurants which popped up overnight made obvious.

Fortunately Frigiliana in the hills above Nerja and at the base of the Sierra Nevada was an option. It had a small farming community and an old Moorish quarter overlooking olive groves and the coast below. And it was here I stayed with my partner Rafael through the summer months.

The original paintings and watercolours were simply the everyday observations of the local village activities and the surrounding landscape. Returning to Australia in 1977 I decided to assemble some large canvases around a number of the paintings to capture more fully the sense of actually being there.

Each of the works became a view from a window in the house we were staying in, with stark whitewashed interiors providing contrast. READ SCENES FROM A SPANISH JOURNEY