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A Closer Look at Granada Grafitti Artist, El Niño de las Pinturas
Last March, when Cathy and Mike Naro were here from Chicago, Mike and I took a stroll around Granada while Cathy and Maureen worked in the studio. I wanted Mike Naro to see the extraordinary work of Raul Ruiz, the Granada grafitti artist. I made a few pictures of the street murals we visited and published them here on Maureen’s Printmaking Courses in Spain blog. Mike, who was a bit skeptical about walking out of our way to see street art, said, “This isn’t grafitti; it’s art!”
The other day I ran across this video of Raul creating one of his mural-sized portraits in a live performance in the Centro de Lenguas Modernas of the University of Granada on the occasion of the closure of their 2011-2012 academic year.
If you’re tempted to see more of El Niño de las Pinturas, here’s a link to his YouTube channel.
The Nicest Comment Ever
What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?
Cathy Naro and her husband, Mike, were here for two weeks last month and when they got home Cathy wrote a comment on Maureen’s Printmaking Courses in Spain blog which was the sweetest thing anybody ever wrote about Maureen and her workshops. Let’s share it here:
To any painters and writers, as well as print-makers – if you are considering a creative holiday at Maureen and Mike’s, DON’T HESITATE! After a 2 week stay last summer, I brought my husband back with me this April, and he couldn’t believe I didn’t rave about the experience more (actually I did, but seeing is believing!) Both Maureen’s light filled studio and the workspace in El Gallinero are perfect for inspiration and production. Maureen is an inventive, creative, supportive teacher and, in short, is my favorite art collaborator (I miss you already!) Yet it’s not all about the work, there are buses to transport one to Granada or the mountains, there’s the full moon over the uninhabited mountain view from the terrace, and there’s a sleepy little village a 5 minute walk away. A favorite last memory is a long (4 hour!) lunch in the sun there by the river… Come for a stay with your projects, your music, and your ideas and you will be glad you did. Best, Cathy and Mike Naro, Chicago, IL
So, our thanks to Cathy Naro, lover of the siesta, the salt-water spa and the four-hour lunch!
Regime Change in the Cypresses
What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?
Spring Again, Already?
Granada’s inspiring springtime is here again. It always takes us by surprise, first with the almond blossoms then in quick succession the Chinese quince and loquat flowers and then the songbirds returning from Africa to nest in our fruit and cypress trees.
Politics in the Cypresses
There’s been a regime change in the cypresses this year. After years of grudging coexistence between the plump wild pigeons and the predatory magpies, the former got tired of defending their eggs and their chicks from the latter and have nested somewhere else. The nests of the pigeons have been taken over by pairs of smaller, apparently more docile birds. We always think of doves as pacifists but that turns out to be a myth. They defend their nests tenaciously and are keeping the larger, more truculent magpies nicely at bay.
Other birds are appearing, as well: blackbirds, European robins, big streamlined black-and-gold orioles, friendly songful finches, wrens and the magnificent (though very plain Jane in appearance) nightingales that nest in the willows down along the river. It only takes two rival nightingale males to form a glorious all-night singing contest which is directed at The Gallinero, and in stereo.
Is My Husband Clever or a Lunatic?
What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?
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Or Both? Which is Most Likely the Case
Mike has made me another blog. It’s called Maureen’s Printmaking Videos and you can see it here: http://maureensprintmakingvideos.com. “But I already have a blog for my videos,” I protest. “No matter,” he says, “you can never have too many.” He always says that. To him websites, blogs and social networking sites are like store fronts; the more you have the more doors are open where clients can walk in. “Besides,” he says, “I discovered a new WordPress theme (Sundance) which is specially designed for displaying videos and it has some cute little buttons.”
The Cute Little Buttons in question: 
So, your guess is as good as mine. Why has he created me yet another blog? Is he an Internet-strategy genius? Or was it the cute little buttons?
Have You Discovered Pinterest.com?
What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?
We´ve recently discovered Pinterest.com and we’re excited about it as it seems to be an ideal showcase for the work of visual artists, a constant concern at our house. Essentially Pinterest is an online scrapbook application. Instead of pasting magazine illustrations, family photographs, etc. into a scrapbook, you “pin” them onto a virtual board which Pinterest provides you. Besides images you can also pin videos, which adds a lot of interest (and possibilities for artists) I think.
It seems that Pinterest is the fastest-growing Internet startup ever, going from zero to 12 million visits monthly in just a year. That’s 12 million possibilities for visitors to see your work displayed there every month. And it will soon be 20 million, and then 50. And then who knows?!
Have a look at the Pinterest site that Mike recently created and is still building and see if it doesn’t give you some ideas of your own.
The Story of This Print: El Último Día/The Last Day
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.
The Story of This Print: “El Patio del Harem”
What’s a Gallinero? And why would you want to stay there?
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Back at the Alhambra
I’ve started on a series of medium-sized liquid-metal prints on Alhambra themes. Granada’s medieval fortress and palace has been for centuries a source of inspiration for artists, writers and photographers, so much so that today it’s difficult to get an original take on it. This time I’m relying on the inherent looseness of the liquid-metal technique to try to achieve Alhambra images with some originality.
I had one of those wonderful printmaking experiences at the beginning of this project. The first proofs I pulled from the first plate, El Patio del Harem, looked frankly great and I thought, “This is it, I’ll print up an edition.” But before I could start, I took a close look at one of the plates from which I had just pulled a proof. In the ink residue left on the plate I could still see beautiful detail. So I rubbed a light layer of yellow ink into it, rolled some fresh silver ink on top and put it back through the press, making a “ghost print.” I was shocked to see how superior the ghost was to the live one. I have placed the original print at the top of this post, the ghost below. See if you don’t agree with me.
This print was done with liquid metal on an old, previously-etched copper plate, a still life with fruit. I put the cold solder on with a palette knife and when it was still quite sticky I drew into it with a stylus. I didn’t press any texture elements into it until about an hour and a half later. I left it overnight to harden and printed it on 600 gr. handmade paper. The ghost print was printed on 375 gr. Paperki handmade paper. I like this one better.
Mel Strawn’s Theoretical Observations on Solarplate Printmaking
Mel Strawn and his lovely and talented wife, Bernice (“B”), spent three weeks working with Maureen in her studio during last February. Mel and Maureen worked mainly on solar-plate techniques using Dan Welden plates. While Maureen is eminently intuitive, Mel, a lifelong art professor who started making digital prints in 1981, likes some theoretical grounding. So when he got back home to Salida, Colorado, he started thinking about what exactly the two of them had been doing with the solar plates. Here are his preliminary conclusions. Read more…
Take a Look at This One-Minute Video from the Granada Tourist Bureau
Curious about what Granada and its province has to offer visitors? Here’s a quick roundup:
Maureen Booth Talks About Her New Printmaking Tutorial Videos
Maureen Booth is the master printmaker who has published what some fine-art-printmaking insiders consider to be the finest printmaking tutorials on the Web. She affirms, “Making videos is like making prints. The process is essentially the same. You just try to do it better every time.”
Anglo-Spanish master printmaker, Maureen Booth
Maureen in her Granada printmaking studio.Q/ How did you happen to embark on this printmaking-learning-videos project, Maureen? Did you have sponsorship or institutional backing of some sort?
A/ Something of that sort would have been nice, but instead of growing old waiting for it to happen, video producer, Juan Carlos Romera, and I planned and executed the whole thing ourselves, and my husband, Mike, is doing the Internet promotion. The Printmaking Master Classes project was actually Juan Carlos’s idea. He’s been fascinated with etching ever since we shot some scenes of his short film, “Bive,” in my studio seven or eight years ago. That was my first experience in front of a camera. I played an English printmaker who falls in love with a Spanish fisherman.
What prompted you both to devote the time and effort—all summer on the first five videos—to this project? What were your objectives? And what made you think it would work as a business? Read more…
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"El Gallinero"--An Artists' & Writers' Refuge in Granada 