Painting a portal to the past
Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by the possibility that you might open an old wardrobe or get lost in an overgrown garden and find yourself in another world. If there were a portal to another time or place in Granada, then an archway at the Generalife would be the perfect place for it. The summer palace at the Alhambra isn't as grand as the Nazareth Palaces but I think its intimacy is what makes it feel so special. Its beauty always takes me by surprise and I think that's part of why it's actually my favourite part of any visit to the Alhambra.
Your first impression of the summer palace is a brick archway followed by a fairly ordinary courtyard, albeit one smelling divinely of orange blossoms and jasmine. But then you wander up a dark, twisty stairway and suddenly you're in the Court of the River. The abundance of flowers catches your attention first, followed by the music of the fountains and finally the white palace itself. You pause to bathe in the visual harmony and listen to the birds sing.
You start to meander to the palace, delighting in a painted tile here, trailing around a pole there and into the shade of the covered corridor. Through the glassless windows to your left, you admire the view of the main palace and the surrounding landscape. But every few moments your attention is drawn back to the archways that line the right-hand side of the corridor, as the colours of the flowers swirl in your peripheral vision.
If there were a crack in the fabric of space and time, how easy it is to imagine that it would be here. The corridor is in shadow, and the archways perfectly frame the riot of flowers and the walls glistening in the sunshine. I wanted to capture that sense of magic with this watercolour painting, that small chance that at any moment you might find yourself slipping into another world, another time.
What stories capture your imagination again and again?
If there were a portal to another world in your home town, where would it be? Where would it take you?
Sketches from Granada celebrates every-day moments of connection with strangers, friends and ourselves. I know how easy it is not to be present in your life, and I hope these sketches inspire you to seek out the moments worth savouring in your own life.
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