This was a day of two halves again. In the morning, we visited another of Manrique's projects: his house on the lava field at Tahiche. The upper section was sleek and minimal. It had more recently been turned into a gallery, showing his paintings and those of his friends.
It featured big windows framing views of the volcano and lava which, in one place, was actually allowed to flow inside:
But it was the subterranean section which was really unusual. Manrique had sited the house amongst more lava-tubes. These were less gigantic than the ones we visited previously, and consisted of a series of 'bubbles': rounder sections between narrower fissures.
He made corridors from the narrower walkways through the lava and turned the bubbles into a series of connected indoors-outdoors rooms, with the uppermost part of each bubble open to the sky. Perfect spaces for somewhere so hot.
After our sightseeing, we went for a walk along the beach beneath the Famara Cliffs which I painted earlier in the trip. It was VERY windy, so apart from a couple of other walkers, the only people on the beach were a few kite-surfers.
When we had walked up and back, I really wanted to paint, but the only shelter from the wind came from some sand dunes. We tucked ourselves in behind one, which did help a lot.
It was only after I had been painting for about 10 minutes, that I realised how much sand was whipping round behind the dune and sticking to my watercolour. If you enlarge the picture below, you should be able to see the sand all over the sketchbook:
A few more minutes, and there was more sand than paint on my palette! I soldiered on, but very soon it was ridiculous. We realised that we too were covered in sand - it was all in our clothes and encrusted into our hair.
So we beat a retreat. At least I got more or less finished and the majority of the sand brushed off once it was dry.
He made corridors from the narrower walkways through the lava and turned the bubbles into a series of connected indoors-outdoors rooms, with the uppermost part of each bubble open to the sky. Perfect spaces for somewhere so hot.
After our sightseeing, we went for a walk along the beach beneath the Famara Cliffs which I painted earlier in the trip. It was VERY windy, so apart from a couple of other walkers, the only people on the beach were a few kite-surfers.
When we had walked up and back, I really wanted to paint, but the only shelter from the wind came from some sand dunes. We tucked ourselves in behind one, which did help a lot.
It was only after I had been painting for about 10 minutes, that I realised how much sand was whipping round behind the dune and sticking to my watercolour. If you enlarge the picture below, you should be able to see the sand all over the sketchbook:
A few more minutes, and there was more sand than paint on my palette! I soldiered on, but very soon it was ridiculous. We realised that we too were covered in sand - it was all in our clothes and encrusted into our hair.
So we beat a retreat. At least I got more or less finished and the majority of the sand brushed off once it was dry.
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