A miscellaneous delight along the way….

Alex Lask was a wonderful artist that we happen upon while exploring art galleries in the small town of  Eus France.
His work was quite delightful and Lauren and I throughly enjoyed spending time with him in his studio. Even though there was a tremendous language barrier and most of our communication was achieved through gesturing and pantomime, I feel like we learned a lot him and his passion for art. It was especially nice to get to know Alex since the sign that led us into his studio said...no tourist or pictures!!

Petra Vlasman's Directorial Debut of "The Egg!"

A true highlight to mine and Lauren's adventure with Funds with Teachers was meeting Petra Vlasman. She was on loan to us, for three days, from the Education Department of the Dali-Foundation. Not only was she an authority on the life and works of Dali, a wonderfully creative educator, but she was an awful lot fun to be around!! Petra guided us through the Dali triangle, she took us to the shore line that inspired great works like the "Great Masturbator",  she was our docent through the  Dali-Theatre Museum, Gala's Home and much much more!! One of the thing we enjoyed the most was taking part in some of her lessons that she used to inspire her own students! Her video of us with the Egg is just one example of her extraordinary lesson plans for students!

Dali Theatre-Museum

The Dali Theatre-Museum is the refurbished theatre of Dali's youth. It is located in his home town of Figueres in the Catalan region of Spain. Dali wrote that he wanted ..."people who come to see it will leave with the sensation of having had a theatrical dream."

The roof is adorned with his fascinating eggs, the facade with mounds of bread and  the stage and his crypt is topped  with a glass dome. Inside is housed the largest collection of Dali's work and most of it was from his own personal collection.  It is a place that you can easily roam for hours and hours!!!

 Included in this amazing place are some extraordinary  installation pieces like the  full size automobile inspired by his piece "Rainy Taxi" sculptures and his living room installation piece inspired by Mae West. 

Dali-jewels is a permanent exhibition at the Theatre-Museum. Two floors house the 37 gold  and semi - precious pieces of exquisite jewelry as well as many of Dali's drawings and studies of these pieces. 

The whole Dali-Triangle was amazing. Lauren and I  enjoyed so much seeing  the rocks and coast line that inspired Dali .. The house where he worked and shared his life with Gala  and finally the castle.. All amazing!! It did not stop there.. We also immensely enjoyed the town where almost everywhere you went  or are you could see Dali's  inspiration and incrediable  wit!! 

Gaudi's La Casa Milà "La Pedrera"

La Pedrera, "The Quarry"was built between 1906-1910. Architecturally speaking it was seen as very innovative.  His use of columns for support and lack of load bearing walls freed up space for his unique designs. We found the roof to be most interesting.  Ordinary chimneys and skylights become fun sculptures covered with limestone, mosaic glass and  marble designs. (A fun fact is that the limestone used in this building came from the 'quarry' in Villefranche in the Escarow region of France.)

In the attic you actually get to see some some

 of the furniture that he designed for this house and Casa Batlló. Both La Pedrera  and  La Casa Milà are  worth your time and  the price of admittance😊

Casa Barllò

Casa Batllò was mine and Lauren's favorite of Gaudi's two apartment buildings. This Modernist building begins with the fun front facade with  balconies that look like skulls,the columns look like bones and the back side of the building is said to look like a dragon.  Casa Batlló truly  reflects Gaudi's passion for marine life in the colors and structures he uses through out  the whole structure. The detail he gave to everything from archways to skylights is equally as impressive.

More Catalan artist

Lauren and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend quality  time with some extraordinary artist from the Catalan art dynasty! 

The first was Gail Duncan. Gail splits her time between England and Escarow France where she organizes artist retreats and teaches. Gail escorts groups of art enthusiast  to visit  artists studios, area museums and historical sites around the Catalan region of France. As she is an accomplished painter, we spent a delightful afternoon painting while she instructied us patiently, in the fine points of watercolor techniques. Lauren was a star student but I had more fun:)!!

John Goudie Lynch is a Scotsman that has now lived and painted  in the Catalan  region for some 20+ years. His work is delightful and humorous as well as artistically brilliant. John was unique in that he rounded the corners of all his canvases and had a reoccurring character in all his works that he claimed was not himself. 

Orus Frederique's studio is in Montalba Le Château France. She was absolutely one of mine and Lauren's favorites!!  Her work was large, abstract,nonobjective an absolutely beautiful!!  Orus told us she has worked on her  secret process for years and is one of three artist that has perfected the glorious sheen technique. My vocabulary is too limited and my pictures of her her extraordinary work do no justice to talent and genius!  Orus's work is just something that you have to see in person to really understand what I'm trying to say.

The last of the studio visits was to the Escaro artist Celine Pierre. She is an artist whose work very much resembles that of Picasso and other Cubist artist. Celine was a true joy to spend the afternoon with  even though there was limited communication... But as we know this was not a real problem because ..Art has it's own universal language!!  

Villefranche France

Lauren and I spent a wonderful day exploring a 13th century walled city by the name of  Villefranche in the Catalan region of France. The streets  of the walled city were filled with music and  arts and crafts from local very colorful artist. Our first great find was an interesting lady whose shop was filled with her wicked creations .. Witches on broomsticks. Most of her doll were  your stereotypically ugly witch with warts and etc.. ...  many others, however were delightful and artistically cute ... Like the one I purchased for my classroom!!

Another  person we met worth noting was an encaustic artist. His work was beautiful and we spent much time just silently watching him in augh. Lauren and I left his studio inspired with future lesson plans for our students!!