Alan Pearson, a retired maintenance engineer from the UK discovered a passion for painting as a young boy, and has developed his art around the scenes he sees in his daily routine. Many of the canvases in Alan’s portfolio date back to the 1980s while working in England, although he has been at his most prolific since moving to Spain.
Tag Archives: Ronda Artist
Leslie Redhead, Artist
Leslie Redhead is an award winning artist and teacher known for her dramatic watercolours. Her art focuses on the combination of spontaneity and detail that watercolour has to offer. She continues to explore the possibilities and pushes the medium beyond its limitations to achieve luminous and incredible results.
Leslie began painting with watercolour in her teenage years. She then explored acrylic and oil but her passion for watercolour never left her. She returned to the medium years later as she struggled to recreate what she envisioned. Leslie found the versatility of watercolour to be what she was looking for. She then began intense exploration into figurative studies and watercolour.
Leslie’s paintings and knowledge of watercolour are now in demand worldwide. Her portraits are filled with light and colour and have brought her much acclaim. Leslie is exploring a new series of “focused pours” of architectural subjects involve pouring layers of paint. These pieces are fresh and exciting. Recently, her pours have been on clayboard as well as paper as she recreates scenes from her travels in Andalucía. Leslie finds the clayboard to be ideal for capturing the beautiful light and mood of Southern Spain.
The artist currently resides in Victoria, BC, Canada. She is a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. She conducts workshops in Canada, the US, and Spain. Her work is featured in the book Splash 10: Passionate Brushstrokes from the Splash: Best of Watercolor series and in Leslie Redhead: the life of an artist.
For more information about a painting holiday in Andalucía, Spain, please visit www.flavourofspain.net. To view more of Leslie’s work, please visit her blog at leslieredheadart.blogspot.com.
Ronda Artist Luisa Fontalba
Internationally renowned Ronda Artist Luisa Fontalba this month presented a selection of water colours, sculpture, and artistic jewellery in the Santo Domingo Convent in Ronda’s historic old town.
Describing her work as coming from the heart, Luisa is infectiously passionate about colour, telling Ronda Today that art doesn’t need to represent a particular thing as in tradicional portraiture, instead she prefers to produce art that can be interpreted in the eye of the beholder.
Drawing on her background growing up in Andalucía, Luisa has found a ready audience for her work in Italy and the United Kingdom where the imagery of Andalucían passion, light, colours and perfumes are in great demand, not least as the flamenco movement undergoes a global resergence.
Luisa was brought up in Ronda, on her father’s side she is Rondeña, and on her mother’s side proud of her Arriate heritage, and Luisa considers herself an ambassador for the Andalucían lifestyle, even though she is currently based in Milan, the fashion and art capital of Italy.
Whilst Luisa’s art can be described as loose and flowing, lacking in form, Luisa is quick to point out that her brush never touches the canvas until she feels the spirit of her goal, and she is proud to produce art that cannot be defined in words.
Wandering through her exhibition, the viewer is struck by the chromatic dreaminess of her pieces, some strong and determined, full of fire and heat, with others suggesting the tranquility of the ocean or a lazy summer Andalucían afternoon.
Ask any two people what they see and a different story emerges, for some the elegance of the flamenco dancer confronting their ghosts is evident, for others the torero leaps into life. As a self confessed fan of artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, I see in Luisa Fontalba’s works a pleasing echo of spiritual concepts where soft shapes blur, and colours define their intent.
Enjoy our gallery of some of Luisa’s art which was on display in Ronda, and if you’d like to contact Luisa, she has her own website – Luisa Fontalba Art.
Poster for Olvera and Ronda Carnavals
Ronda Today received an email from a very excited local artists today, Alan Pearson, a man whose art is already featured in our artist pages. Alan emailed us to tell us he’d won a competition in Olvera for artwork to be used in the town’s Caranval 2010 poster.
Alan is justifiably pleased to have been selected because he’s made such an effort to integrate into the local community, with many prominent Spaniards in Olvera calling him a friend. As winner, Alan’s painting was selected from 10 submissions, and also won 300€ in prize money.
The artwork selected was a piece painted by Alan a wee while ago, and shows what Carnaval in Olvera might have looked like at the turn of the 20th century. The castle and church in Olvera can be seen towering above the townsfolk as they enjoy Carnaval in the streets of this beautiful little town only 30 minutes away from Ronda.
In Alan’s painting you can see a group of people playing a traditional game of Cancarro where a pottery jug is thrown around the circle, and behind them a swing setup with a rope suspended across the street.
Carnaval in Ronda is also scheduled for February, and below you can see Ronda’s Carnaval poster designed by José María Sabater, known locally as ‘Chemi’, a popular computer design artist.
Carnaval is a time of great celebration in Spain, and whilst not as flamboyent as those in Brazil they are certainly still very enjoyable. Look out for grand processions, street parties, and side show alley at the feria grounds in Ronda.
In the streets children will be eating candy floss, holding aloft balloons, singing Carnaval songs, and playing games. All told, Carnaval is a time when Spaniards let their hair down and party.
Ron Morley, Benaojan Artist
Ron Morley, born in London 1938, painter in oil and occasionally watercolour.
Before his retirement in 2005 he worked freelance as a magazine and newspaper designer, moving around Fleet Street, London, in the cut and thrust of tight deadlines and graveyard shifts.
He now lives in Benaojan, Andalucía, and with a complete change of lifestyle, has time to ponder and tentatively paint.
His subject matter is close at hand and all engulfing, and for the moment it is enough to paint simple village scenes, explore the narrow streets, relish the blue skys and delve into the deep shadows.
He loves the medium of oil, working with its richness and depth gives him huge satisfaction and a freedom he never knew in the black and white rigidity of the British press.
More of Ron’s work can be seen at the Hotel Molino del Santo, Benaoján Estación.
Gallery of Ron’s Paintings
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