Ibiza | The Daily Norm

Dec 31

2015: My year in photos (Part 2 – Beyond Paradise)

Living in Mallorca, there can be no doubt that we are utterly spoilt, for all around us, from the city of Palma to the beaches and mountains beyond, we cannot help but discover unhampered beauty wherever we go. And yet while we could quite easily have indulged ourselves for a year’s worth of admiration of the island, the travel obligations of work, a long planned weekend to Paris, and the most life changing of events – our wedding – took us further afield, to enjoy the incredible beauty of the world beyond Mallorca.

And so, in this second of my two photographic reviews back over the year of 2015, I feature just a few of my favourite shots of the incredible surroundings beyond the Balearics. For 2015 was significant not just for its being our first year in Mallorca, but also for the opportunity it gave us to finally tie the knot after almost 6 years of engagement. The honeymoon which followed made for the most unique of holidays, with a stay in the famous Riviera paradise of La Colombe d’Or in St-Paul de Vence rivalled only by a short but sweet spell in bustling Barcelona, and an acquaintance with the chic seaside spots of Cannes and Antibes.

But it did not end there, for months before our wedding, a trip to the world’s primary city of love enabled us a further reconnaissance with our most adored Paris, while post-marriage and still revealing in the new blushes of marital bliss, we were able to rest on the beaches of Marbella, indulge in the new cultural hotspot of Malaga, and drop into Madrid, onto Ibiza and back home again for the most magical of Mallorcan Christmases.

It’s been a magical year. Thank goodness I can relive it all in photos. Until the next… Happy New Year!!!

: Leger mural at La Colombe d’Or

: Marbella shadows

: The Tulleries

: Calder ripples

: Madrid rooftops

: Three muses, Paris

: Ibiza sunset

: Love and marriage

: Church detail, Madrid

: Summer sunset, Provence

: The town of Vence

: Sunset over the Riviera

: Returning to Barcelona

: A friendly visitor, Ibiza

: Biot

: Dusky pink, Ibiza

: St Paul de Vence

: Africa viewed from Marbella

: Getting married

: The Puerta Alcala, Madrid

: Geometric baroque, Barcelona

: Sunbathing in the shadows of Alexander Calder

: Big Wheel, Paris

: Ibiza ceramic

: Flying over the Riviera

: Jasmine in shadow

: Calder’s pool

: Cibeles Palace, Madrid

: Sunset over Ibiza Town

: Botanic garden, Malaga

: Talamanca Beach, Ibiza

: The best day of my life

: Unique rooftop, La Colombe d’Or

: Fallen petals at the Colombe d’Or

: Putting out the laundry, Marbella

: A very summery wedding cake

: Greenery, Ibiza

: The ultimate Paris shot

: Christmas comes home

: The glamour of the Riviera

: Autumn in the Retiro, Madrid

: Getting ready for a Spanish Christmas

: The Gothic Quarter, Barcelona

: Cannes

: Fresh produce, France

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Apr 24

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My travel sketchbook: Ibiza Town

Ibiza’s charms not only manifested themselves in the photography i featured on The Daily Norm on Wednesday but in a little artwork too. For despite long working hours and a lot of time out and about, I occasionally returned to my hotel before nightfall and one such late afternoon return was accompanied by a precious sunset which sunk over the island’s famous Dalt Vila. This area – the old town of Ibiza’s capital – is the very antithesis of the club scene for which the island is better renowned – a historical citadel clustered around a domineering hill all set within mighty great ancient walls and crowned with a cathedral on top. It was this ancient view that I was lucky enough to enjoy from my hotel, and I could not help but open up my travel sketchbook to capture the old town, in the late afternoon sun, before I got back down to work.

Ibiza Town (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Apr 22

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Reflections on Ibiza in bloom

My January weekend on the infamous island of Ibiza feels like an age ago, and while my recent return to the island to open a new restaurant for work was only around 8 weeks after my first visit, the island was transformed. True, it was not the boom-beat party-rammed hedonistic madhouse into which the island metamorphoses in the height of the summer (thank god!), but with the onset of the Spring, it was an island transformed. In the streets on the foothills of the Dalt Vila (old town) where I was based, restaurants had reopened after a long winter break, squares were once again filled with life, and an atmosphere of allegria seemed to waft through the air.

Now being as project managing the opening of a restaurant is a fairly hefty role, it will not surprise you to know that I did not have all that much time to enjoy what are otherwise the beautiful surroundings of the island around me. However, when the odd opportunity afforded it, I took out my camera to snap Ibiza, and this post is the culmination of those odd moments – my reflections on an Island in bloom, whether it be the yacht filled marinas, or the squares newly dappled with sunlight through fresh spring leaves.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Mar 4

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Interpretation No. 13 – Ibiza Town

Busy times are upon us in the Spring-awakened island of Mallorca, and with the high season just around the corner, all of the businesses across the Balearics are preparing for the onslaught of tourists in their thousands. For The Daily Norm that means something of a quieter pace of life, as my creativity is diverted and energies exhausted on the multiple requirements of work. Nonetheless, I have happily retained the odd hour for a little personal engagement in private creations, and next off the easel is the 13th gouache in my collection of “interpretations” – landscapes reinterpreted with a simpler finish and flattened matt colours.

I started this little landscape as soon as I came home from the island of Ibiza. My first time on the island left me much enamoured, despite the fact that in low season it was worse than deserted, not least in the historical old town from which this view originates.

Interpretation No. 13 – Ibiza Town (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2015. 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. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Jan 30

Winter Weekend in Ibiza | Part 4: The Birds

Watching Hitchcock’s infamous masterpiece, as I was the other night, you could really develop a complex about birds. Suddenly, the great master of suspense cinema has you thinking about these apparently innocuous creatures in an altogether more sinister light, especially when seen perched in a group as though anticipating their next attack. But as this last post of my little weekend trip to Ibiza must surely demonstrate, Hitchcock has really done birds a great injustice – for they’re perfectly photogenic and very, very cute.

The photos which follow were all taken in the sun-drenched surrounds of a very quiet Ibiza, at a time when nature had regained prominence on an island whose summer months are given over to all night discos and neon lights. Happily in these transformed tranquil surroundings, little sparrows hopped around cafes, eagerly awaiting the odd crumb from the few island visitors, and in the weak but warming winter sun, pigeons slept gracefully atop folded down cafe umbrellas. They may as well make the most of it. Party season is only weeks away.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Jan 28

Winter Weekend in Ibiza | Part 3: The beach at Talamanca

While to all intents and purposes, a winter weekend in Ibiza may not have found the island at its best (it was after all almost completely deserted with only around 10% of businesses open and even fewer people left remaining) there was one part of the island which lacked nothing despite the time of the year. Just minutes from our hotel at the Marina Botafoch lay a sensation in waiting – the beach at Talamanca.

With a wide white sandy beach and sumptuously crystal clear waters, this was the kind of beach that seduces millions with promises of the summer in travel brochures every year. Yet here we were on a January afternoon, with an exquisite long beach before us, the sun shining in the sky, and barely a soul around to interfere with our utmost enjoyment of it.

What struck me most of all was how serenely calm the waters were, almost as though the sea itself had taken advantage of the low season and gone to sleep for a while. The waters were so still, that they managed almost a near mirror-like reflection of the low lying coastal houses alongside them – the kind of image you expect to see in a still mountain lake rather than the Mediterranean sea. I was also delighted by the abundance of natural scenery located so close to Ibiza’s capital. For just past the hotels and holiday houses lay vast rocky outcrops calling out to be explored. It was there that, up on a cliff top, we stopped to read and relax with the most incredible view back on Ibiza Town and the vertiginous plunge down to the azure waters below.

So once again the Balearics showed that the melancholy of winter would not defy their beauty. Here on Talamanca beach, we had truly found a reason for all the fuss that surrounds Ibiza every year.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Jan 27

Winter Weekend in Ibiza | Part 2: Sunrise and Sunset

You can’t beat a good view, and whenever I go away anywhere, whether it be for a week or just a day, I make a point of finding one, not least from my hotel room. For some, a room in a hotel is just somewhere to shut their eyes and recuperate before exploring the outside. For me, it is an instrumental part of the travelling process, where I can rest and contemplate the sights I have seen around me, where I can write and sketch, and where I can soak in bubbles or take a long shower. Best of all, it is where I can enjoy a good view for long periods at a time, without the self-consciousness that I may be lingering too long in a restaurant or stealing the view from someone else.

Sunrise

On my weekend in Ibiza, the Hotel Ocean Drive did not disappoint, placing me and my partner on the third floor from where a beautiful view across the Marina Botafoch and over to the stunning hill-top Dalt Vila (old town) could be enjoyed. This combination of rocky outline coupled with the hilly topography which surrounds the city, together with the great watery expanse of the port and the various small marinas located within it meant for a stunning show at all times of the day, but no more so than at sunrise and sunset, when the colours turned from blue to a ripening pink, and utter calm descended across the landscape.

Sunset

This post is devoted to those moments, when shades of raspberry and peach and soft primrose yellow filled my camera lens, and added clarity to the dark outline of the city against a pastel-coloured sky. As I am unable to choose which of sunset or sunrise was my favourite, I have included both. For they were both manifestations of the most perfect of views; a vista which made my first experience of Ibiza unforgettable.

A room with a view

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Jan 26

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Winter Weekend in Ibiza | Part 1: The Dalt Vila

When I think of Ibiza, images of boozy beach parties and cocktails under the stars accompanied by the mechanical beat of Buddha bar and the chilled groves of Café del Mar spring to mind. And while for thousands every year, a trip to the Balearic’s most infamous island means, in the words of the Vengaboys, that they’re “gonna have a party, Whoa! in the Mediterranean sea…”, at this time of the year, the only party you’re going to have is with the shadows filling the deserted streets and beaches. For as I discovered when a business trip took me to Ibiza last weekend, Ibiza is officially in the midsts of its hibernation.

Ibiza’s historical old town

This is no more obvious that in the hilly streets of the Dalt Vila, or “upper town” as the ancient old town of Ibiza’s capital is called – an area packed with stunning little cobbled streets which twist and turn all the way up to the Santa Maria d’Eivissa, the church which towers across Ibiza’s main port. While the plethora of quaint little houses lining those streets suggested that in the warmer months, they would be a tourist’s paradise, in January not a single business was open. And so it was that my Winter Weekend in Ibiza was a rather bizarre affair. For the Med’s party paradise was punctuated with neither a disco beat, nor any other human sound, and the only action that could be found was in the modern extension of the city (the Eixample), where some locals continued to live on, despite the silence all around them.

Historical streets of the Dalt Vila

Of course this desertion was not all bad. For crowds are undoubtedly overrated, and while the town undoubtedly lacked the charm it would exhibit when open for business, I was at least joined by my partner, and together we were able to explore both the old town and its surroundings relatively undisturbed. And with the sun shining its winter warmest, this could not have been a more pleasant experience, not least when the steep roads out of the old town took us onto the vast ancient city ramparts and the natural rocky outcrops upon which the city is built.

Rocky outcrops and views of the stunning natural surroundings

So while this first set of photos is unlikely to feature much by way of people action, I think it aptly demonstrates what is undoubtedly a charming and unique historical centre and a feature of the island which undoubtedly falls unjustifiably within the shadow of Ibiza’s all encompassing party reputation. After all, the clubs and the larger louts form a very small part of an island which is otherwise both geographically stunning and historically rich – features which are no more obvious than in January when the drunks are safely ensconced a thousand miles away.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Sep 3

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Mallorca Map Commission Part 1 – Mallorca and Ibiza

I never made a secret of the fact that I love Cappuccino Grand Cafe, the expanding café restaurant business which has taken the island of Mallorca by storm and is now gradually expanding across the sea to Ibiza, mainland Spain and the Middle East. In fact my love affair with the cafe, which begun in their sumptuous beachside Marbella branch, first manifested itself in my painting of Norms dining at Cappuccino Marbella, a painting which was later featured in their first issue of the Cappuccino Grand Papier, the suitably glossy homegrown publication which was published in May.

Imagine my excitement then when Cappuccino then commissioned me to hone both my artistic skills and my love for the café by illustrating a series of maps of the cafés across Mallorca and its elegant capital, Palma, to be featured in Cappuccino’s second magazine this summer.

Excited, I boarded a plane from rainy England to the sun drenched Balearics at the end of last May so that I could properly research each and every detail of the many Cappuccinos the island has to offer. I’d be lying if I said it was an arduous task, exploring as I was not only the many stunning and unbeatable sites the cafe inhabits across the island, but also sampling their rich and varied continental menu in each location. Full of ideas, I returned home to the UK in earnest, opened up my large drawing board, and got to work.

The finished Mallorca Map (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

The maps were not easy. The level of detail required to properly represent the various cafe locations as well as the Cappuccino brand and all its food took many painstaking hours of work over a series of several weeks. But I was delighted with the results. Yet despite finishing my maps back in June (and July for Palma – check that one out tomorrow), they’ve been the art world’s biggest unveiled secret until their publication in the Second Edition of Cappuccino Grand Papier this August. And now, finally, I can unveil the maps to you in all their many details.

On today’s post I present my map of Mallorca, the idyllic Spanish island from where Cappuccino Grand Cafe was born, and with whom the Cappuccino brand is now synonymous. With branches in the Port of Pollensa, the Port of Andratx, Puerto Portals, Palma Nova, Valldemossa and a great many more in Palma itself, there was plenty of detail to capture on my map. Using icons which characterise the various locations across the island, such as the famous Real Cartuja monastery in Valldemossa (where Chopin and George Sand famously spent a miserable winter), the sumptuous pine trees of Pollensa, and the fishing nets of Andratx’s fishermen’s port, I packed my illustration with both geographical indicators, and of course that all important coffee cup symbolising the location of the cafés.

Valldemossa detail

Puerto Andratx detail

Puerto Pollensa detail

Palma detail

Meanwhile for the map’s title, the brand of Cappuccino is surrounded by a glorious cornucopia of some of the chain’s most iconic offerings, from classic cocktails to its irresistible creamy banoffee pie.

Puerto Portals, Tahini and Palma Nova detail

Windmills and sea salt detail

Cappuccino Fusion detail

And such is the pace of Cappuccino’s current expansion that even while I was designing my map, two new cafes were opened on the nearby island of Ibiza. So a small bolt on map of Ibiza was to follow, including the two new cafes which are perfectly located on the waterside of the island’s stunning Marina Ibiza.

So without further ado, I leave you to check out the maps. Return to The Daily Norm tomorrow, when I’ll be profiling the second of my Mallorca maps – a focus on the beautiful capital city of Palma. In the meantime, you can see the maps in all their magazine glory in a digital version of Cappuccino Grand Papier. Take some time to flick through – it’s a great magazine!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. 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. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.