"El Gallinero"–An Artists' & Writers' Refuge in Granada

The last day of waiting for Reyes

This is a very simple little print but I’m fond of it, perhaps because it’s based on a sketched portrait of my dear friend,  Reyes Hernández, perhaps because it came back to life after 35 years. I did the sketch in 1975. Reyes was visiting me at home. She was nine months’ pregnant, and  found herself uncomfortable sitting at the kitchen table where we were drinking tea, so she stood up and walked into the dining room where the window light illuminated her gently. “Don’t move,” I said, and went running for a sketchbook. Reyes gave birth to her first son, Raúl, the following day. And then that sketch lay dormant for more than three decades.

A couple of years ago I was flipping through the drawings in a drawer in my studio when I came across the Reyes sketch and decided to make a small edition of solar prints of it so I could give her one. In the end I added some dry point to give it a bit of texture. The color is a mix of magenta and primrose yellow, with a touch of black.

What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?