My Granada Sketchbook: Patio de Daraxa

Sometimes it can be pretty unnerving sketching in public, especially when to do so means being sat in the heart of a tourist location. Very quickly, the budding artist finds themselves being subsumed into the attraction itself, and becoming every bit the focus of the tourists´gaze. This is the position in which I found myself in the Alhambra when, desperate to sit down in a shady spot after hours of queuing and touring the mammoth complex of the Alhambra, the Alcazaba and the Nazrid Palace, we found a perfect little bench in the Patio de Daraxa, an idyllic little shady garden set at the very heart of the palace complex.

With a direct view onto the patio’s ancient fountain, its water sparkling in the light, and surrounded by the intricately trimmed box-tree hedges, fragrant orange and cypress trees, and agapanthus flowers dancing around in a gentle breeze, I knew that I had to capture the essence of this space in my sketchbook. So reaching more my pen, I started nervously mapping out the space, hoping to do homage to the perfect symmetry which the Moorish inhabitants had executed with such precision. However no sooner had I placed pen to paper, than tourists, without any kind of timid apology, started peering onto the page, beckoning their friends closer, taking my photo and waiting stubbornly for the completion of the piece. That never happened. After only a basic sketch I retired from the spot, unable to bare the intensity of the tourists´gaze any longer.

Patio de Daraxa, Alhambra (2016 ©Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

This sketch was finished over coffee in one of my favourite haunts in Marbella. Despite that, I believe it still captures the magical spirit of that perfect Alhambra resting place.

© 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