180 DAYS IN SPAIN: Sketchbook I



In March of 2006 I set off on an artistic voyage through Spain for six months, generously funded by a grant from the Art Students League of NY. My intent was to travel through the lands where so many of our inspirations had done before and hopefully understand a little better why generations of painters before us had felt so inclined to leave their studios behind. I traveled from Madrid to Andalucia to Morocco and back to the north of Spain, all the while drawing and painting whatever grabbed our attention. It was an immense and overwhelming experience, and I lived it through my paint. In doing so, I learned that there are many things that cannot be learned in the studio, things that require a new and strange place to awaken all of our senses.

This was the first sketchbook I started in Spain. Some of the drawings were done at the Circulo de Bellas Arte and the rest were done on the streets of Madrid. I eventually decided that sketching on toned paper wasn't for me, but not without a few interesting results.