TOLEDO * PART 1 * PRE-RENAISSANCE

Very special lecture on the history of Toledo via its architecture, sculptures 

and of course paintings.  

REVIEWS

"From the Visigothic and Roman roots of Toledo with its unique cultural legacy of Christian, Arab and Jewish communities living alongside each other to the horseshoe arched mosques and haunting canvases of El Greco, Karla crammed all of this and much more into her enthralling and spellbinding lecture.

Toledo now holds a far greater appeal than ever before, I simply must return to truly explore and appreciate this magnificent medieval city. Wow!

Karla's teaching style is full of  Passion and Knowledge and I "always" recommend her to other.

* Sue Martin, Pedreguer

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"Where to start? As always Karla shares so much knowledge.

I learnt the range of people's coming into Spain and eventually Toledo including the Romans, Visigoths, Jews and Muslims. This seat of learning also showed how many different cultures could live together in harmony and learn from each other.

I learnt how to understand the different styles of architecture, the more simple style of Rome to Mudejar from the Muslims. This was using materials readily available, clay to make bricks, stones from the fields. The skill to carve and embellish plaster.

I could go on for so much longer, but I can't wait for her next lecture, Toledo part 2.

If you want to learn about Spain and it's history Karla's teaching through art is wonderful. The feature I love about her teaching is her knowledge and passion. I  Highly recommended her lectures."

* Lizzie Clayton. Benitachell

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FRIDA * ART FILM

For those of you who attended my Frida Kahlo presentation, I talked about this film.

JALON ARTISTS GO INDIE WITH SELF PROPELLED ART SHOW

I was invited to an art exhibition opening in Jalon on Saturday by a group of independent artists trying to DIY their way into the gallery world.

The inspiration for a group show came from a resident artist Anna Jansen who wanted to showcase an International cross section of artists from Jalon.

Karla Darocas with Katherine Waters

Myself and some of my gang arrived at the show and was surprised to find it being held in a non-commercial venue. Anna had convinced the agent at Karma Properties to give her the venue for the exhibition. Of course, she and friends had to clean it, which was not an easy task, but the walls were white and ready for art.

The show was a mix of both 2 and 3 dimensional art, paintings, collage and sculptures. The artists involved were...Anna Jansen Jans, Josbel Mengual, Jaume Nogera Mengual, Don Henderson,  Virginia Blanckaert, Ines Garces,  Lois Jansen,  Mari Ivars,  Yolanda Melieray Fullana, and  Katherine M Waters.

I was impressed by the variety of expressions being presented.

It was Katherine Waters who invited me and it was her artwork that impressed me the most. Yes, it is true, art is subjective, but I am picky! I have been around art my whole life and teaching for many, many, years and I am a hard client to please with a work of art!

She had a series of work, both sculptural and painted based on the biblical icon of Eve and her trials and tribulations with the bad apple that got her and Adam expelled from the Garden of Eden.

In the painting that held my attention, the narrative is clear... Eve is burdened with a giant apple in a cart. Her apron has a tree of life on it that look are symbolic of women's reproductive parts. The style reminds of the work of Spanish artist Remedios Varo, who was a para-surrealist, symbolist and one of the first feminist artists.



DETAILS:
The exhibition is open 10:00 - 14:00 every day throughout October.
A percentage of the sales will go to help this year's Fiesteras in Jalon.
LOCATION
Carrer Sant Joaquim, 42, 03727 Xaló, Alicante, Spain
Google map -  https://goo.gl/maps/DhK1YGzEwiG2

FRIDAY KAHLO * REVIEWS

REVIEWS

"I found the lecture excellent, very informative, and a very moving experience

Karla's teaching style is enthusiasm, passion, knowledgeable.

I would Absolutely recommend Karla"

* Beverley spence Lliber Spain

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"Incredible experience...Karla always gives such knowledgeable and perfect insight on the lives and works of these wonderful Artists. The time always flies by!!!!

Great location and always take away a great admiration for each Artist and a true feel of their personal lives/struggles etc.

Karla's knowledge and enthusiasm is how I would describe her teaching style. I absolutely recommend her to others."

* Diana Santiago, Javea

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"The lecture on Frida Kahlo was very interesting, informative and well presented. Karla makes the information accessible to all.

Whilst I had read about Frida Kahlo and seen an exhibition of her work at the Tate Gallery in London, I now have a much greater understanding of her work and the symbolism within it.

In addition, I now have a fuller appreciation of how her life had such an impact on her work.

We will certainly attend and look forward to other lectures in the future when we are in Spain and are only sorry to have missed so many in the past.

Karla's teaching style is very easy and she has an accessible manner of delivery. I would recommend her to other in Full!"

* Gladys Pilar Cummings Javea Spain and St Albans UK

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Once again Karla had me totally captivated with her moving and inspirational account of the traumatic life and works of Frida Kahlo.

An artist who, whilst I had a some knowledge of prior to this lecture, had no real insight into how tragic and painful her life really was. Tissues were handed out as tears flowed during this session, an indication of how touching this lecture proved to be.

Her teaching style is Inspirational and Passionate. I always recommend Karla to other.

Sue Martin, Pedreguer

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GATA DE GORGOS BOASTS A WONDERFUL EXPLOSION OF COLOUR AND ART

Steve and I with two friends decided to go to Gata de Gorgos on Saturday 19th August 2017 to see the hanging textiles that make up the Art al Vent, (art to the wind). This open air textile art exhibition continues until the 3rd of September.

Review and Photos by Lizzie Clayton
(click photos to enlarge)

3 FLOORS OF FUN AT BIG ART SCHOOL SHOW BRINGS ALL AGES TOWARDS THEIR VISIONS

The Escola de Pintura Mediterránea de Xàbia (Javea School of Mediterranean Painting) opened an exhibition of 116 paintings to showcase its students as it wraps up another school year.

I was curious as to what types of visions were being created by these students so I visited the Lambert Arts Center to have a look.

Review by Karla Darocas, Hons.B.A. Fine Arts Historian

MURCIA CITY AND MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS EMBRACES STREET & GRAFFITI ARTISTS IN A REALLY BIG WAY

Urban art: From the Street to the Museum is a really exciting show that is on offer at the Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia (MUBAM) · From 05/04/2017 to 07/09/2017.

GOYA * FOLLY, WAR & MADNESS - tba

The second half to Goya's life and works showcase his overall perspective of life becomes dark and cynical. Now he turns the dramatic Romanticism deep into the monstrous side of the irrational and the dangerous flaws of Enlightenment.

He uses the new invention of "aquatint" (a print resembling a watercolour, made by etching a copper plate with nitric acid and using resin and varnish to produce areas of tonal shading.) as a form of print making to fuel his revelations and revolutionary expressions in order to lampoon, satirize and mock the institutions, practices and commonly held beliefs of his time.

In 1799 Goya published 80 Caprichos prints depicting what he described as "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual."

Another collection of 82 prints called the Disasters of War, 1810s, Goya vents his visual voice with protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814.

The scenes created withing these prints are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in the face of death and destruction. Goya expresses the randomness of violence in these prints, and in their immediacy and brutality they have been described as analogous to 19th- and 20th-century photojournalism of the atrocities of war.

They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons.

Goya created another set of prints - Tauromaquia (the art of bull fighting) between 1815 and 1816, at the age of 69. Bullfighting was not politically sensitive, and the series was published at the end of 1816 in an edition of 320—for sale individually or in sets—without incident. It did not meet with critical or commercial success however.

His late period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls of his house the "Quinta del Sordo" (house of the deaf man) where, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain he lived in near isolation.

The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of the house, later they were lifted off the walls and attached to canvas. Currently they are held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

At the same time, he worked on 22 prints called Los disparates (The Follies), also known as Proverbios (Proverbs) or Sueños (Dreams), again a series of prints in aquatint and etching, with retouching in drypoint and burin, created between 1815 and 1823.

The scenes of the Disparates, which are difficult to explain, include dark, dream-like scenes that scholars have related to political issues, traditional proverbs and the Spanish carnival.

Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may or may not have been his lover.

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APPRECIATE ART & CULTURE * LOVE SPAIN
Resource Books written by
Karla Ingleton Darocas 
and published by
SpainLifestyle.com 

* CLICK  HERE *

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GOYA "WITNESS OF HIS TIME" * RARE ENGRAVINGS SHOWN IN ALICANTE

The Gravina Fine Arts Museum of Alicante (Mubag) held an exhibition in June 2017 entitled "Goya. Witness of His Time", which brought together 138 prints from private collections. They invited reflection on themes that are still relevant 200 years later.

SEE WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE AT THE TRIBUTE TO VALENCIAN ARTIST * MIGUEL SALA COLL

This morning my friends and I were very pleased to visit the retrospective tribute to the Valencian painter - Miguel Sala Coll at the the Lambert Arts Center / House in the old town of Jávea.

ART FILM * THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL . directed by Luis Buñuel.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29TH
10:30 * Coffee, Film & Discussion
5 euro donation
DAROCAS STUDIO * Benitachell

Starring Silvia Pinal, Jaqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal Mexico 1962, 35mm, b/w, 94 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.

Watch as the legendary Spanish surrealist film master Luis Buñuel psychologically tortures a mansion full of uptight high society dinner guests.

Leaving Franco Spain for the artistic freedom of Mexico, in 1962 Buñuel stays true to his surrealist roots and makes this iconoclastic film.

It is a film that demands your attention by breaking narrative rules.

It also draws you into the tragic reality of the characters who cannot process nor escape their situation. These characters are a class of people who thrive by materialistic values and conventional attitudes. They are bound to their rules by duty and etiquette. When the reality of their dinner party becomes very strange, it is their base instincts and phobias that come to the surface.

This film is full of sarcastic wit, unconscious and dreamlike images, Freudian slips, drugs, sex, death, suicide - just to make sure you are paying attention... and so much more!!

It is a timeless masterpiece of surrealist art.

It is also a revolt against all oppressive civilizations... like Franco's Spain.

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