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Posts tagged ‘Spain’

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.

The ultimate Paris shot

The best day of my life

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Leger mural at La Colombe d'Or

Big Wheel, Paris

Calder ripples

Summer sunset, Provence

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!!!

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.    

Dec 30

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2015: My year in photos (Part 1 – Mallorca)

Ever since I started The Daily Norm I have ended the year with a look back at my year in photos – in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 – and here I go again. Every year I found the exercise not only intensely enjoyable, being able to relive my favourite moments of the last 12 months through some of my best shots, but also extremely rewarding. For in surveying just how much I manage to have done in each year, I consider myself extremely lucky to have seen, smelt, breathed and experienced all I have.

And this year is no exception, for 2015 has been a year of significant change for me, not only because I have been following a completely different career path, but because it is the first complete year I have spent living in a completely different place… the paradise island of Mallorca.

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Franciscan Monastery, Palma

Alfabia pondlife

The almond blossom season

Fishermen paraphernalia, Puerto Andratx

Photos can communicate so much better than any words just quite how beautiful an experience it has been living a year on this Mediterranean island. From the consistent days of winter sunshine, when a glass of wine caught outside by the sea in January felt like I was cheating the seasons, to the incredible pink almond blossom which filled the mountainsides in the Spring. From the endless inspiration which the charming trees of the old town of Palma de Mallorca provided, to those sumptuous days of summer spent on beaches of turquoise waters and powdery white sands.

The monastery of Miramar

One of Mallorca's many windmills

Treasures of the Bellver Castle

Sunshine on New Year's Day

Autumn colours

My year in Mallorca has exposed me to some incredible sights; the rippling craggy Tramuntana, the Cap de Formentor; the Caves of Drach and the awe-inspiring mountain village of Deia, and while I have also seen some wonderful places outside of the island this year, such was the level of beauty seen in Mallorca itself that this year my photographic review had to be split in two. This first part looks back on my year in Mallorca. A true paradise which brought a glimpse of joy every day.

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.  

Nov 23

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Yet more praise for Mallorca’s awe-inspiring autumn

Now before your eyes roll upwards as you cast an initial glimpse over yet another post dedicated to Mallorca’s autumn, allow me to excuse my inexhaustible passion for the season as it exists on this island. For coming from England, autumn is an altogether damper affair, and while there are moments when the sun shines and the colours of the trees shine through, by that time, most of the leaves are already sludge on the pavement after the preceding days of rain; and then of course there are the howling winds which have pushed them there.

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Here in Mallorca, autumn is a very different story. I’ve often seen pictures of the perfect autumn images – trees totally transformed into shades of orange and red, glowing like fire under a crisp blue sky. But I had never experienced such an idealised season before I came to Mallorca. And here, you benefit not just from the beauty which results from consecutive days of sunshine, but also the little quaint villages whose ochre stone walls and green shutters work alongside the autumn shades as though they had been meticulously selected for the purpose..

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This union of natural and manmade autumnal magic was no more obvious than on a recent visit to the stunning little village of Valldemossa; a mountainous retreat whose cluster of houses in a deep mountain valley has become the very picture-postcard image of Mallorca. And with good reason, for it’s one of those villages which is utterly quaint at every turn, and at every time of the year… no more so than in autumn, surely my most beloved season in Mallorca.

Oct 30

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Daily Norm Photo of the Week: Layered Landscape, Felantix

I’m not sure whether these photos look more like the rolling hills of Tuscany, or somewhere in the North of England. They are in fact taken from a roadside near Felantix in Mallorca. I had been driving along one of the long straight roads which characterise the Eastern side of the island when I noted the beauty of a nearby hillside toped with a series of ancient castle towers and windmills. In the foreground, the soft light glowing gently around the edges of the local sheep enchanted me, and the mix of pastoral idealism and the industrial scene shown at mid level in the landscape meant a must-have shot. So, much to my partner’s horror, I stopped the car mid road, jumped out, and quickly took these few shots. Not to be recommended, but well worth the effort.

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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.

Oct 28

Discovering Mallorca: Porto Colom – Porto Cristo

The island of Mallorca is simply awash with little caves and ports, calas and bays, embarcaderos and beaches… after all, it is surrounded by the sea. But it is the uniquely mountainous, richly geological landscape of the island which means that where that land meets the sea, it does so with a series of stunning natural results. One such consequence of this relationship are the caves I featured a few posts ago, and those incredible underground chambers are far from unique on this island of plenty. But only a few minutes from those caves, and indeed extending all the way along the Eastern coast of Mallorca, are a series of little bays and ports all of which betray a certain tranquil nature much removed from the bustling city of Palma.

So now that the intense heat of the summer has past, we recognised that the time to set about discovering more of Mallorca was surely upon us, and with my mother’s visit in part coinciding, we set about discovering two of the ports on the East Coast.

Porto Colom

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The Porto Colom was all about its embarcaderos… the little boat houses with their whimsically painted doors, lined up in a row just like the typical English beach hut, but having the distinctly Mallorquin advantage of plunging straight into a turquoise blue sea. Spreading across a zig zagging craggy coast line, the port had something of a dual character, with a charming old town, a two-towered church at its centre, on one side, and a more commercial fishing port lined by gently angled pine trees on the other.

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Just up the coast, and 3 minutes from the Cuevas Drach, the Porto Cristo was an altogether more touristy affair. Chasing the nostalgia of my mother who had holidayed there in the 70s, the port remained in part exactly as she had remembered it, with a horrifying array of crass tourist menus displaying row upon row of numbered photos of food, without even a description to explain what the dish was.

Porto Cristo

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However happily our initial shock was replaced by the happy coincidence of our discovery of the port’s beautifully sandy beach, with cerulean waters splashing gently against the cliffs which plunge dramatically into the sea along the beach’s egde. We were also glad to find that not all the restaurants relied upon a catalogue of photos, and a short walk along the waterfront led us to a more salubrious slice of town, where we wiled away the early afternoon with a glass or two of wine and a few delicious Italian dishes… with no numbered photo in sight.

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.

Oct 19

An Englishman in Andalucia

Dark, broody, flames flickering through a purple and chocolate brown backdrop…a portrait on the wall is alive. Dressed in the guise of a toreador, it is my self-portrait, part alarmed, part anxious, as I consider conflict in my life… the ever omnipresent concerns which come of big changes and repercussive decisions, a conflict which is played out in reflection in a Spanish bull ring; the steady workmanship which comes of intricately embroidering the matador’s traje de luz being the catalyst of the conflict, as blood pours from the pin which pierces at the heart of the bull.

An Englishman in Andalucia (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas)

An Englishman in Andalucia (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil and acrylic on canvas)

Set in the context of Andalucia, where I was when I painted the piece, this is the work of An Englishman in Andalucia… when my displacement in Marbella triggered a time of contemplation, when internal thoughts just poured onto the canvas. In the midsts of expressing my preoccupation of the time, I was inspired to utilise the Spanish corrida as my protagonist, having passed a bullfighting poster on my way to the beach. From that second onwards, this painting sprang into mind as I lay on the beach, and that afternoon I rushed home to start work on the piece.

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It is a painting which deals with the contrasts and conflicts which are always present in my life. The fact of being English and living in Spain, the repercussions of pursuing a creative career which inevitably meant the sacrifice of another. It is a brooding contemplative piece, but for me its creation made for a satisfying process. And in so far as its motifs are therefore consequently dark, the effect of painting it was to fill my mind with clarity and light.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown 2015. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included on this website without express and written permission from Nicholas de Lacy-Brown is strictly prohibited. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacybrown.com

Oct 14

Deia’s Autumn Review

Beautiful, wonderful Deia…the little village which clings so serenely to the vertiginous slopes of Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains, but which has inspired so many artists, poets and writers a thousand times over. And such is the staggering beauty of this mountainside marvel that the manifesto of every artist should include a visit to the village, at least once in every season. So when my Mother recently came to stay, it seemed a perfect opportunity to once again take the winding coastal road from Valldemossa to this famous home of creative greats, not only to re-encounter my adored Deia for the umpteenth time this year, but to see it in an altogether new light: an autumn light.

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Deia in the autumn did not disappoint. Shrouded in the golden light of October, it took on a new ephemeral beauty magnified by the sprinkling of clouds which cast strong pillars of light sporadically over the mountainside. In the garden of Robert Graves’ house, a must-visit for my erudite mother, Spring blossom had given way to rich orange bourganvilla, plump oranges and a fresh harvest of home-grown vegetables.

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Meanwhile, down on the spectacular Cala Deia, which we descended in order to enjoy a phenomenal squid lunch down by the foaming sea’s edge, the low autumn sun cast dramatic shadows over the naturally surreal rocky landscape. And while the sun descended quicker than it had on my first visit to the Cala some months before, there were no shortage of people enjoying the beach. In fact at one point it was so full, it looked more like Brighton on a rare sunny bank holiday.

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No matter how many times I visit the magical village of Deia, I cannot help but be touched by the mystical atmosphere which envelopes the place. Whether it be in the mysterious mists of morning, the balmy summer nights punctuated by the chorus of cicadas, or now in the melancholic light of October, I remain firmly magnified by this little Elysium by the sea. And having now experienced its magic for herself, I can confidently add my mother to the multitude of admirers who fall in love with Deia afresh each season.

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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.

Oct 7

My Mallorca Sketchbook: Café at the Calatrava Hotel

In today’s Daily Norm post I continue sharing some of the pages of my flourishing sketchbook, and this time it’s a double whammy. Both were sketched during the balmy days of summer from the same table outside the Calatrava Boutique hotel in Palma de Mallorca. It’s one of my all time favourite spots in Palma… Alongside the sea but exhibiting none of the exhausting heat of the beach thanks to the shade provided by huge twisting ancient trees. Plus it’s just outside the main tourist thoroughfare of Palma meaning that tranquility really can be enjoyed here, in the middle of one of the Mediterranean’s busiest cities. 

Cafe at the Calatrava Hotel (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Cafe at the Calatrava Hotel (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

These sketches capture two aspects of this leafy patio in front of the suitably lavish boutique hotel – both looking beyond the cafe towards the incredible row of knotty trees, and then back towards the buildings of, and adjoining the hotel… glorious because of the intricate lattice work of their windows and the delicately ageing facades. 

Looking towards the Calatrava Hotel, Palma (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Looking towards the Calatrava Hotel, Palma (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown 2000-2015. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included on this website without express and written permission from Nicholas de Lacy-Brown is strictly prohibited. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacybrown.com

Oct 2

Marbella in shades of an Andalucian Autumn

It’s striking how quickly autumn has come upon us, even out here in Spain. Only a few weeks ago I posted my collection of photos with trees still clinging onto the last green leaves of the summer. A mere fortnight later, those leaves have fully caramelised and are starting to scatter to the ground. Last weekend, I took the short one hour trip from the heavenly shores of Mallorca to the equally beautiful seaside haven of Marbella to visit my parents, and to do a little work. There, the autumnal transformation was even more noticeable to me, since only 6 weeks before, I had been in the very same town basking in the heat of the summer.

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In late September, Marbella was a town transformed. In the creamy golden light of autumn, shadows were slightly elongated, and the orange tone of the sunshine intensified. Trees in Marbella had themselves undergone the inevitable transformation into caramel hues, but with the sun shining through their translucent layers, they looked glorious. But perhaps the most noticeable change of all was the beach. Now a far less hospitable place, with a more bracing wind shorting the shore, but with a low afternoon sun casting a sensational silvery light over the water. Incredible shades of colour in this amazing Andalucian Autumn.

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 30

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Norms in the Embarcadero of S’Estaca

It’s been many months since the Norms last featured on this blog, which is somewhat incongruous for a blog where these little one-armed white blobs are the protagonists. Yes everyone needs a holiday, and while for me that meant a rest from my Norm drawing board, for the Norms themselves it was a busier time… word has it they’ve been locked away in the Normaboratory engaged in top-secret scientific research about the luminosity of the outer Norm-mebrane. And although they’re keeping characteristically silent about the results of their work, they have at least come out to play. And happily for me, the Norms’ new playground is the island of Mallorca, where I found them only the other day at the incredible Embarcadero of S’Estaca.

Norms in the Embarcadero of S'Estaca (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

Norms in the Embarcadero of S’Estaca (2015 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

This stunning little setting, nestled in the rippling folds of the Tramuntana mountains as they plunge down to sea, was featured on this very blog only a few weeks back, and must have been noted by the Norms. For mere weeks later they can be found lounging in the very same place, bobbing around in the still waters amongst mysterious rock forms, preparing to dive, fish, and take the sun a little… All in the aid of scientific research of course.

© 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.delacybrown.com

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