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Posts tagged ‘Positano’

Dec 31

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2014: My year in photos

It has become something of a tradition on The Daily Norm to spend the last day of the year looking back at photos capturing the 364 days before it, reflecting on all of the splendid and captivating sights which have made up the year. And perhaps more than any other that has gone before, 2014 has been a year which the camera has loved. For when I look back at my photos of the last 12 months, I am met with an overwhelming body of diverse and beautiful shots which encapsulate a year overflowing with incredible sights and experiences.

I count myself very lucky to have seen and experienced all that has passed in a single year. From the quaint dark streets of Barcelona in February, my travels took me to the incredibly unique medieval citadel of Dubrovnik, the jaw-droppingly beautiful Amalfi Coast (including Positano, Ravello and Capri), the inspiringly-vertiginous mountain town of Ronda in Southern Spain, the vine-rich planes of coastal Tuscany, the floral festival of Pilar in Zaragoza, and the much applauded Czechoslovakian beauty that is Prague. And travels asides, it was the year when I held my first solo art exhibition in 6 years – a huge amount of work which dominated the first half of the year, but a wonderfully satisfying artistic and commercial success which will mark out this year as a creatively significant one.

The famous clock of Capri's main piazza

The ultimate ripples, Palma de Mallorca

Paradise on earth - Capri

Floral walkway, Positano

Colour profile, Marbella

Grape harvest in Castagneto Carducci

Beach umbrellas, Positano

However, appearances can be misleading, and when I look back on these photos, in particular those taken while travelling around Europe, I remember those holidays as escapes into unreality, moments of happiness snatched and nourished in between a stark reality which was becoming more and more difficult to endure. Once my exhibition was over, I found myself faced with a career which failed to inspire me, a city which made life a daily grind, and my partner feeling increasingly depressed for the same reasons. And it was this realisation, and a very unique opportunity that came from it, which triggered perhaps the most significant of all experiences that 2014 brought: our move to Mallorca. A life changer on so many levels; a bundle of new experiences which have only just begun.

And so it is sitting here in sunny Mallorca that I make this review, delightedly gathering up my memories of the year full of the positivity which has accompanied our move to a new life in Spain. Fast forward 365 days, and I look forward to telling you all about it.

Happy New Year to you all!

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 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.

Jul 28

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Positano & beyond | Photos Part 5 – Epilogue

I began my Daily Norm tale of my time on Italy’s stunning Amalfi Coast with a post examining the unrivalled beauty of the town of Positano, which we had made our base, and in particular the ravishing sea views from our room. As the weeks have gone by, and I have shared with you tales of our visits to Capri, Amalfi and Ravello, as well as walks around Positano and days on the beach, not to mention my many sketches and paintings which the trip has inspired, it has never failed to amaze me what a beautiful place the Amalfi Coast is. Of course you realise it when you are there – how can you not? Yet it is of course so easy to slip into easy complacency when you are surrounded by perfection at all times. But happily, complacency never got so much that my photographs, or indeed my artistic expressions of Positano and beyond ever ceased, and sat now in a far more urbanised London environment reviewing both my posts on this blog as well as my many photos and souvenirs from the trip, I can appreciate with renewed energy that it really was a paradise on earth.

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My final hurrah at this conclusion to my Amalfi Coast series is a good old hodgepodge of miscellaneous shots which otherwise never made their way in to any of my more focused posts. They are accordingly a wide-ranging bunch, from further shorts of the lush green gardens of Ravello, to yet more views from our hotel balcony. The selection is also packed, as always, with plenty of the finer details which caught our attention and tickled our interest when we ambled through the quaint narrow streets of Amalfi’s coastal towns. Sure they may have bankrupted us, but they sure were wonderful places to explore.

And with these photos I bid a hearty farewell to my engorged photo album of Positano & beyond, as my travel-hungry eyes rove around the globe in search of new pastures to explore. The possibilities are quite frankly endless. Best get saving…

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 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.

Jul 18

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Art-in-Amalfi – Painting 4: Positano IV (Yellow Vespa)

As much as Capri may have entranced me, it was Positano that we returned to at the end of the day, the beautiful clustered town gripping for dear life onto the steep mountain slopes of Italy’s stunning Amalfi Coast. And such is the geography of that nature-defying location, that almost everywhere you go in Positano, you end up gazing in wonder at incredible views, either across the sea, the valley in which the bulk of the town is situated, or up at the vast mountains rising almost unendingly up behind it. No wonder then that I was inspired to paint so much when I stayed on the Amalfi Coast and although I was only painting with a small travelling watercolour book and a box of gouache paints, I got the most out of my limited materials.

This fourth and final painting of Positano is loosely based on a charming walk we took along the upper mountain road, where the town feels more authentic and Italian when compared with the tourist-centric core of the town down by the sea. This area, being Italy, was full of all of the characteristics which make a place intrinsically Italian – gossiping old women sitting outside their homes, old men propping up the bar and drinking espresso, and outside one of the most Italian sights of all – the Vespa. This painting captures the moment when we stumbled into a perfect specimen of Vespa – a bright yellow one which, when propped up by the side of this incredible mountainous view, just begged to be painted. And here is the result.

Positano IV (Yellow Vespa) (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

Positano IV (Yellow Vespa) (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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

Jul 11

Art-in-Amalfi – Painting 3: Positano III (cluster on the upper road)

Following hot on the heels of my photographic post on Positano’s upper mountain passages is the third of my Positano paintings it inspired. Unlike my previous two works of Positano, both of which included the sea and the beach as prominent compositional elements, this one concentrates solely on Positano’s mountainous backdrop as it focuses on a cluster of houses on the town’s upper mountain road. With its resulting rocky background and not a slice of sea or sky in sight, the group of pastel houses collected onto the mountain side is even more striking set against these dark and looming surroundings, emphasising just how striking a sight is created by a small town built upon the steep sides of huge imposing mountains.

I kept this painting as simple as possible, and even though the mountains have the appearance of craggy complexity, the brain is doing most of the work here – for in reality I have painted neither shade nor light into the purple mountain – only the impression of texture as created by the strategic placement of green detailing indicating where the mountain’s verdant plant life would be. It’s an effect which I find altogether pleasing, and a simplicity which ultimately does all of the work which a more detailed illustration would provide. Yet in this simpler form it seems altogether cleaner and more contemporary – and for that reason I love it.

Positano III (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

Positano III (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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

Jul 10

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Positano & beyond | Photos Part 4 – Mountain Passage

The thing about the wildly romantic mountainous geography of the Amalfi coast is that its pure altitude and geological breadth gives rise to equally dramatic weather conditions. And so in the short time that we were on the coast, we not only enjoyed days of glorious sun and blue skies, but also intense humidity, evening temperatures in the 30s, thunderstorms which came as barely a relief, and some mornings when clouds were literally tumbling over the mountains which loom large over the town. These days, while not as dazzling as the sunny ones, were still gloriously warm, but not so uncomfortable as when sun is beating down upon your shoulders, and so they made for the perfect weather conditions to hike up the steep stairs and slopes of which Positano is comprised, and explore the town.

On one such day, instead of turning right out of our hotel and down into the valley and onto the beach of Positano as we usually did, we headed up a very small little set of stairs opposite our hotel to try and establish where they led to. Unbeknownst to us, those stairs led up and up and up, almost to an endless infinity of altitude, until we reached an until then undiscovered upper road snaking around the town. This road not only led us along the quaintest of little shops, garden stores, and one of the most charismatic coffee bars we visited on our whole trip (where the coffee was by far the best – the most authentic flavour of Italy), but it also afforded us some of the most stunning views across the mountainous valley, stretching all the way down to the town below.

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One gets the feeling that much of the glitz and glamour of Positano’s boutique lined streets is put on for the tourists, and as lovely and extravagant as the experience of walking in amongst them is, the little mini town, higher up in the mountains, felt truly, authentically Italian. Old locals sitting outside doorways gossiping; others meeting in a bar clad with old adverts for coffee; garden shops and groceries overflowing with the most mouthwateringly fresh produce and stunning floral displays; and old fiats and scooters parked haphazardly in the streets in a way that looks as though they had been set up for a vintage movie shoot.

That wonderful walk, and all of the sights it delivered are the subject of this fourth photo display from my trip to the Amalfi coast. I hope you enjoy them.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 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. 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

Jul 9

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Art-in-Amalfi – Painting 2: Positano II (the other side of town)

So excited was I by my first gouache interpretation of the Italian town of Positano, that as soon as I had completed it, I started another. This one is based on the other side of town, Positano viewed from the densely packed cluster of houses which had inspired the first painting, with only the rooftops of that view visible in the immediate foreground. Otherwise, the town’s iconic domed duomo takes centre stage in this depiction of the town, alongside a number of buildings which, like before, are stripped back to their basic cubic elements, devoid of all of the architectural details which might have spoilt the simplicity of the image. Meanwhile, in the background, the awe-inspiring silhouette of the Amalfi Coast’s mountainous scenery fades gradually off into the background, towards the little white-washed down of Praiano.

Positano II (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

Positano II (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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

Jul 8

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My travel sketchbook: Positano 2 – View from the Beach

You will have seen from yesterday’s Positano beach post just how incredible the views of the town were from the average sunbed on its wide pebbly beach. They were indeed the same views that inspired my first gouache painting of the holiday (posted last week). The views were so good in fact that it felt sinful to simply lie out on a lounger, eyes closed against the sun, ignoring the view. Rather, not only did I feel compelled to keep my eyes on the view for fear of wasting such an incredible sight, but I also felt the inspiration rise within me to sketch it.

And so, stretched out on a beach lounger, a glass of wine in one hand and a pen in the other, I set about sketching this very detailed but fairly quick impression of the town of Positano – the gem of the Amalfi coast. Unlike my gouache interpretation of the same scene, this sketch is more fastidious in capturing the details of Positano’s buildings, and all of their details – windows, balconies, garden terraces and so on. But devoid of the pastel shades contrasting against the grey-purple and forest green backdrop of the mountain, the whole architectural force of Positano appears to melt more permissively into the mountainside, as though nature and mankind have become a single inseparable form. And it’s a beautiful form to behold, both in reality and, I think, on the pages of my sketchbook.

Positano Sketch 2 - View from the beach (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Positano Sketch 2 – View from the beach (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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

Jul 7

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Positano & beyond | Photos Part 3 – Giornate in Spiaggia

Ah beach days. Those heady days of sunshine bliss, when you can lie out in the sun, meditating upon the swish of the waves curling in upon the sandy shore; when lying back enjoying the sun makes relaxation feel purposeful (after all, you are getting your intake of vitamin D, with all of the protections of sun lotion, naturally); when a refreshing dip in the sea affords all of the thirst-quenching satisfaction of an icy drink on a hot summer’s day; and when, at the day’s end, your skin feels sweetly sun kissed and your whole body groans in the pleasure of having embraced the good life. I’ve always been a beach lover, my partner even more so, and in Positano on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, we were afforded the opportunity to enjoy beach life with an indisputable bonus: a view which has to be one of the most stunning I have ever experienced from a sun bed.

From Positano’s surprisingly long stretch of beach, your lounger gives you a view not only on the crystal clear Mediterranean sea, with the swish yachts moored a little further out and the small ferries gliding in and out from the island of Capri and the town of Amalfi further down the coast, but it also gives you an unbroken panorama of the splendidly clustered town of Positano, its little pastel houses gathered together on the steeply plunging mountain sides. There was therefore no greater pleasure than simply lying out on a lounger gazing at this view – on one particular occasion I don’t think I was able to close my eyes once for fear that I would somehow betray the beauty of this landscape. And when taking a dip in the sea, and therefore straying a little further out, the views just got better and better.

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This set of photos was taken either from the beach, or of the beach, both viewpoints providing wonderful vantages from which to catch a beach and a town full of abundant colour in the Mediterranean sunshine. On one particular occasion, we managed to bag two sunbeds set out on their own on a jutting rock, giving us unrivalled views of the town and the beach below – no wonder we had to toast the occasion with a glass of chilled white wine. This was a beach experience which is unlikely to be beaten.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 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.

Jul 3

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Art-in-Amalfi – Painting 1: Positano I (viewed from the beach)

Having seen my post of photos on yesterday’s Daily Norm, and perhaps even my photos of the incredible views which we were lucky enough to enjoy for our week’s stay at the Palazzo Talamo Hotel, you will easy to understand why I was inspired to create by the town of Positano on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Not only is the town a picture perfect dazzlement of beautiful houses clustered against a vast imposing mountain backdrop, but it is also a riot of pastel colours in an otherwise natural landscape of verdant greenery and sheer greyish purple rock. The most striking thing about Positano is the fact that the small town appears to defy nature as a small cluster of dwellings clinging, almost like limpits, to the sheer side of the otherwise inhospitable mountain sides. The effect is a stark and beautiful contrast between the man-made regularised geometric forms of buildings and the irregular looming presence of the nature-made mountains, and it was this contrast which struck me the most as I set about painting my first homage to the town.

Positano I (viewed from the beach) (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

Positano I (viewed from the beach) (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper)

Stretched out on the beach a day after our arrival, I started work on this piece: Positano I (viewed from the beach). Using simplified geometric forms and stripping away all of the details which otherwise characterise the houses and hotels of Positano (windows, balconies and so on), this painting purposefully reduces the buildings of Positano to their most basic cubic form in order to emphasise the contrast between rigid geometry and rugged mountain, all the while expressing the beauty of Positano’s very colourful cluster of houses. The result is a painting I love. Made in gouache on paper, for me its colours and sunshine brightness sum up the mediterranean mood, while the geometric gathering of cubes echoes the shape of this small town which makes it so unique on much publicised postcards and travel guides throughout the world.

As with all of my travel-inspired art works, this painting gave me great satisfaction to create, all the more so because it was started on the beach and completed on my balcony with a view. Now who can ask for a better  art studio than that?

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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

Jul 2

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Positano & beyond | Photos Part 2 – Down into the town

On Monday I shared a collection of photos showing the dazzling views of the seashore and the vast mountains of the Amalfi Coast which greeted us from a hotel balcony every time we awoke and entered our bedroom at the Palazzo Talamo Hotel in Positano, Italy. And this was just for starters. Up in the hotel, on the meandering upper road which snakes its way across the mountain sides and over the town, we were approximately 300 steep steps (or a longer sloped descent) away from the bustling centre of Positano, and if we thought the views from up there had stolen the show in the beauty stakes, Positano’s beachside centre was about to show how it too could take centre stage.

One writer (who shall remain unnamed) in my Rough Guides travel guide to the Amalfi Coast maintained that Positano was unfavourably given over to tourism and lacked authenticity. That writer has either never been to this picture-perfect gem of the Italian coast, or is just plain foolish. Of course, Positano has its fair share of souvenir shops given over to sales of limoncello and beautifully hand crafted pottery, but what shop on the Amalfi Coast doesn’t, when the beauty of its landscape is so obviously going to pull in and ravish tourist hoards in their turn? But in Positano, those same shops are nestled together in a cluster of pastel coloured houses which almost glow by contrast with the dark mountains looming behind them, and which, at ground level, are so small and quaint, situated in tiny little lanes covered from the sun with vibrant pink bougainvillea, that at every turn there is another photograph begging to be taken.

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So this post of photos moves from our hotel’s coastal panoramas to the finer details of the town centre itself. From groups of children dancing, to locals chatting over a stall selling granita de limon, and from the brightly coloured tiled dome of the duomo to the vivid stripes of the umbrellas lined up along the wide pebbly beach: these photos show a town which is bursting with the spirit of Italia, and is certainly far from the inauthenticity which Rough Guides has alleged. Picture-perfect houses and a landscape to die for; a beach side paseo bustling with locals and tourists; little shopping streets with their wares almost falling out onto the street like in nearby Naples, and a central core with a grand church at its centre – Positano for me is the very epitome of the Italian dream – an almost fiction-like paradise whose reality is ever questionable – close your eyes before it and you may realise you were simply dreaming.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 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.

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