PALAU DE LA MUSICA CATALANA IN BARCELONA

The hot weather in the Bay Area has turned me into a slug, so I thought I would go back to some of my Spain drawings and photos to share with you. Hopefully the cooler weather they are predicting for tomorrow will inspire me to get back to my paint brushes.

Probably our favorite place in Barcelona was not at Gaudi building but this amazing "Modernista" (Art Deco) building which is a music hall. The photos are of part of the outside of the building shooting up. The streets are narrow and it is impossible to get back far enough to take a great shot of the building. The amount of detail and color is astounding. Really mind boggling. You are not allowed to photograph the interior so I purchased a book with all the beautiful details. This is an extremely popular tourist attraction so you have to book a tour in advance. You cannot just wander around inside and must have a guided tour. Ours started at 9 AM and when we went into the area with the stage, there were some people practicing for the evening performance. The sound was so magical I could have sat there all day listening. Naturally we had to move on after about 10 minutes. We decided to see if there were tickets available for the evening performance. We had wonderful seats and it was a huge bargain...only 10 Euros each for the tickets. It was a major piano competition with three different contestants playing that evening. I brought my sketchbook and was able to draw for about 20 minutes before the performance and during intermission. This is part of the ceiling. I hardly knew where to start there was so much detail in and on every inch of the interior of the hall. We loved the evening so much we thought we would see what else was available. The following night was a "Gospel" concert! Wow! Gospel will be mind bending in this place, so we bought tickets. Well, Gospel in Barcelona is not Gospel in the States. It was more Caribbean and African rhythms sung by all white people. They were enthusiastic and had excellent voices but there was not the authenticity we had hoped for. It made me realize how important authenticity is to any art form. When art comes from the soul, from one's personal experience, one's culture, it has a quality that can't be duplicated .