Barcelona (The Yellow Painting)

I’m on a new road, it’s an artistic revolution, and as part of the journey my art has become abstracted. I have discovered the joys of simplicity, like breathing the freshness of countryside air after years spent in a congested city. Perhaps, now I come to think about it, my new style is the subconscious manifestation of my new life in Mallorca, a freshness of mind which has opened up since my departure from London.

Whatever the cause, my mind is alive with new ideas, and when I recently spent the Valentine’s weekend with my partner in Barcelona, this new painting, simply entitled Barcelona (but better known in our household as “The Yellow Painting”) leapt into life. It was inspired primarily by the textures and experience of our hotel room, whose luxurious black bedspread inspired the black form in the centre of the painting, while the rose is of course the very symbol of Valentines. Meanwhile amongst the simplified shapes, the four spires of one face of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia can be found, as well as the curved square blocks of the Eixample area which predominate the shape of the city when seen from above, and which also appears in the simplified rose.

Barcelona (The Yellow Painting) (2016 ©Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

But this painting is so much more than what is plainly visible. It is a feeling, a sensation – moments of happiness in a weekend of discovery. When we felt free, and excited, and reinvigorated by the city atmosphere. And its predominant colour – a yellow full of hope – just about perfectly sums up the optimism which this new period of creativity has engendered.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacybrown.com