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Road Trip Zaragoza

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Morning and Afternoon Everybody!

I thought that it was time to get out of the studio and go on another visual road trip. In 2019 we went on an epic adventure, driving form Barcelona to Zaragoza, Bilbao, Guernica, Lourdes and the Pyénées-Orientales. I did a lot of painting on that journey, but what inspired this series is the small packet of postcards that I found in France of Zaragoza . There were 20 cards in the pack and I hope to highlight them in the coming weeks along with small paintings, postcard size .
I'm really excited about this colourful road trip. I hope you enjoy it as much as me!

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Hi Everyone!

Well, buckle up, we have already left Barcelona and headed into the mountains and then thru the flat lands. It takes about 3.5 hours to reach our first destination but for you ….7 days ! Hahah.
Enjoy!

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Hello fellow travellers,

We are half way to Zaragoza from Barcelona and its starting to look a lot like another planet all together! The lands are very flat and dry, olive tress, and wheat fields. The heat has risen to 109/69 degrees!

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Hi Road Trippers!

Its a wintery Monday morning here in New Mexico . I’m sitting at my desk looking at the snow drifting around my plants and the birdies hopping back and forth like their little feet are really cold. Meanwhile I’m painting scenes from our 2019 road trip to Zaragoza where the air was so hot that I thought my eyes would pop out of my head if I didn’t get inside with some air-conditioning !
We are about 15 minutes outside of the city and I am always mesmerised by the remnants of ancient castles and ludicrous tour companies.
I hope the week ahead is filled with possibilities ! Cheers.

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Morning Friends!

Today we are passing right over the Greenwich Meridian! I know! I couldn’t believe it myself. We have actually been to Greenwich in the UK and to be back on this very 0 degree meridian marker was really cool and a complete surprise.
This part of Spain is much like the western part off the states with deserted villages and desert scrub as far as your eye can see.

We should be in Zaragoza in a few minutes…or for you only another week!

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Hi Everyone!

As we drove over the bridge across the enormous Ebro river, I was amazed to see this fairytale city rising out of the dusty desert plains. So magical! Interesting history at every turn and it truly felt like time had stopped just past Meridian.

The city predates the Romans back to the Iberian tribe, Sedetani. The Romans were the ones who named the city Caesaraugusta, between 25 BC and 11 BC, which I guess they kept slurring thru the years for it to sound like Zaragoza, haha.

As the capital of the autonomous region called Aragon, this city has the distinction of being the “Chocolate City!” Cant get better than that! It makes up for the true history of plague, war, and ….wait for it …the Spanish Inquisition. But Its an honour to visit this place and to meet with Fransico Goya, true as life.

Well….I don’t know about the heat and all that chocolate, but by the time we got out of our car and headed to the air b&b I was melting pretty fast and my eyeballs felt like they were popping out of my head! I have never felt that intense heat since I was in Morrocco. It made me grateful for aircon.

Welcome to Zaragoza!

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It's National Woman’s Day!

Just a colourful shout out to all my Sista’s!

It would be a pretty boring place without us.
Show yourselves some love and respect, you deserve it!

I thought today would be a great day to get a better perspective, so I have included these "bird’s eye views!’'

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It's another day in sunny Zaragoza!

We’ve gotten an early start before the heat and the hordes!

My post is a little later than usual, I’ll blame day light savings time.🥰
If your clever, you’ll notice the street we are on is the same as the one on the card!

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The best thing about mornings in Spain, besides the temperature, is the Orange Juice!

It really puts a spring in your step and for me a perfect still life!
No road trip is complete without a chance to paint and capture something of the busyness and
beauty right in front of me!
We are on the square looking right at the Templo del Pilar. This Basilica was built between
1681-1872 and is considered the first church dedicated to Mary, ever in history.
If you look to the left side of the lower postcard, you can somewhat see the plaza in front of the
Church where we enjoyed the view and coffee!

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Hi Trippers!

Its always interesting entering a very old church and trying to get your head around the work that went into the construction.
I find it just as curious as to why a church would be there in the first place. Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, presumed to be the earliest in Spain, was dedicated to Mary. The story goes that she bi-located (it is what it sounds like) while she was alive, to encourage the disciple James who was very depressed sitting by the Ebro river. She traveled with a thousands of angels, as you do, and told James to get off his butt and build a temple. All of this was believed to have happened in 40 A.D. according to several Cardinals and google

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Today we take a trip to the Fransisco de Goya Museum right down the street from where we had breakfast.

No trip to Zaragoza is complete without paying tribute to this artist and his sacrifice to tell the truth.

Goya was born about 40 k’s away in the small village of Fuendetodos. He came to Zaragoza for his schooling and that is where he began painting in the 1760’s. He went on to be a court painter for most of his life, even under the Bourbon or French reign of terror. He painted thru the Inquisition and the Napoleonic wars as well. Documenting atrocities which would only be exposed 35 years after he died.

The reason that am I including him this morning, even though I am not the type of person to go down this road, was to remind us of the importance and value the artists bring to history. Even though he has been gone for nearly 2 centuries, the suffering and brutality he witnessed was not buried with the brush but still hangs on these walls as an honour to those whose lives were taken and to the diligence and care of this great compassionate soul.

He truly was the forerunner of artists who speak out honestly and visually to the issues of social justice.

Tapas! A trip to anywhere in Spain is not complete without a tapas stop! The owner of our air B&B suggested this gem of a place which was tucked away, hidden down a small back street. The outside windows were adorned with "best restaurant" prizes of years past and the interior was covered with old bull fighting posters and a giant bulls head.

The tapas was fantastic and the beer on tap was wonderful as well. If you're ever in Zaragoza, it's a must!

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Hi Everyone!

I love the way things connect when I am considering the postcards for the following week.

If you notice, the first card is the 'Casa Correros’ is Spanish for post office. So I went looking for some Spanish stamps that I have in my collection of stuff and I found this great little stamp of Leandro Fernández de Moratín. The portrait was painted by Goya!

Leandro was a poet and playwright. Born in 1760 in Madrid, he was a supporter of Joseph Bonaparte, whose rule had allowed far more expression of liberal thinking than Spain's Bourbon monarch Carlos IV. Moratín was given the post of royal librarian. However, his 1805 comedy El sí de las niñas (The Maidens' Consent) was denounced upon the reinstatement of the Inquisition when Ferdinand VII regained the throne after the fall of the Bonapartes. He had to abandon playwriting and was forced into exile in France where he died at 68.

So today I honour Leandro for being true to his calling as an artist even in the face of the religious regime.

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The best part of any road trip is the chance to go night painting.

For those of you new to my morning postcards, I love to paint at night.
The darker the better but in the city, its pretty bright at night!

The painting I was painting, (which I have included in this postcard
email), lives in the home of two wonderful art collectors and friends in Beziers, France
so it is not available. But many other cards from this trip are!

Enjoy the day and the night …its always brighter than you think.

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We only have a two more stops in the city of Zaragoza
and then we travel on to Bilbao!

The best way to get to our to our final destinations,
Aljafería Palace, and the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta,
will be by trolley.
Hope the day is colourful and bright!

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The Aljaferia has an incredible history starting with its design in the 11th century during the Muslim reign.

There were vegetal, geometric and epigraphic reliefs in shades of red with blue backgrounds and gold for reliefs, which, together with the undersides of the eves in alabaster with epigraphic (carved text) decorations and the floors of white marble, gave everything a great sense of magnificence.

Approximately 200 years later it was taken over by the Spanish and became the residence for the Christian Kings of the Kingdom of Aragon. Lots of restructuring took place thru the ages, it became a military fortress, served as a prison during the inquisition and now is the headquarters for the regional parliament of Aragon.

In 2001, after its creation over 1000 years ago, it was added to the World Heritage site along with the Alhambra and the Mosque Cathedral in Cordoba.

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It's our last day in Zaragoza and we spent the morning strolling the paths of this 100 acre park.

This beautiful oasis in an otherwise desert environment was named after a famous poet and political activist José Antonio Labordeta.
Too many vistas to paint so I decided on the entrance and a contemplative rose garden.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the trip so far.

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Out of gallery

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