… or very nearly… after returning from our holiday in Catalunya. We’ve currently broken the trip with a stopover in Cardiff, and will be back at Ty Isaf this evening. Much to write of here, and it shall all be set down in good time. A bad thing is that Peter and I picked up the virus from Hell at a Corpus Christi Festival we attended in the town of Berga, and we’ve both been struggling with the fallout from that. I’ve had it for a little longer and had it rather worse because I get asthma, but Peter too has been looking pretty crushed by the damned thing. This has all been a shame as we were both in need of a really good rest, and wrestling with feeling terrible while travelling and trying to fit in lots of exciting things is exhausting.
However, one of the wonders I’ll be reporting on before long will be our time at the Patum de Berga, where we saw one hundred and twenty devils garlanded in leaves, infiltrate the crowd…
…at which point the lights dimmed and their firecracker horns and tails were set ablaze! That certainly set everyone capering, devils and crowd alike!
The crowd was also chased by fire-breathing dragons…
…and towered over by dancing giants.
The following week in Barcelona we had a wonderful day at the Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, where I finally came face to face with the ‘Master’, Bernat Marorell…
… and I was able to study at close quarters what a truly staggering painter he was. I’ve been looking at Martorell for quite a while now. His ‘Saint George Slaying the Dragon’, one of the treasures of the Art Institute of Chicago, was the inspiration for my ‘homage’ to Martorell, ‘Green George’.
All this and more… including drawings made in Catalunya for the background of ‘The Woman Taken in Adultery’… coming soon.
