Ola from Spain!

Ola from Spain!  I am teaching a Watercolor Journaling Workshop for French Escapade tour company in Spain.  My students and I have been so busy having fun, exploring, soaking up the local culture and sunshine, and painting like crazy that I have not found time to blog until now.

Our guide Jackie found this beautiful village Calella de Palafrugel on the Costa Brava, Spain which is our home base for the first part of our trip.  

 The Hotel Mediterrani is our beautiful home, and those balconies you see in the photo are ours.

Tom and Linda enjoying the view.

And this is the view from our balconies, talk about picture perfect!

Saturday night in Calella de Palafrugel brings out the local band,

and locals and visitors alike join in the traditional Catluna folk dance.

We enjoyed a lovely and very very filling dinner together at a restaurant Jackie chose that had a huge menu of choices.  We had a great time getting to know each other and learning about and tasting the various dishes.  

Our first day of painting was a Sunday so we avoided the weekend beach crowds by going to a beautiful botanical garden with its very own castle called Jardens de Cap Roig.  After a demo everyone chose their own view and got to work painting a page in their watercolor journals and I went from student to student assisting them with tips.  Even on the first day, I can see very individual styles showing as each artist captures the essence of what they love about the castle or garden.  They are a bit shy about their first day's work of course, so I will post photos of their work on later days.  Here are some photos of the castle and garden.

 After returning to our hotel we were off again to take an early evening stroll around the lovely hilltop medieval village of Pal where we will be painting in a couple of days.  I liked having the opportunity to photograph the village in the late afternoon light knowing it would look completely different in the morning light when we return to paint.

This is a medieval village so Linda got right into the spirit of the place.

Linda keeping her husband Tom in line!

Dinner was at Can Joan in a nearby town that some locals recommended to Jackie when she was planning her first tour of this area.  The specialty was a unique version of Paella made with the rice negro grown here and a very soupy style sauce and of course loads of fresh seafood and sausage etc.  Really great, as were all the many tapas.  But June (who sat at the far end of the table from her daughter particularly enjoyed the Sangria!

The next morning at breakfast June confessed that she did not have quite as much "spring in her step"!