Christmas dining in the mind of a young Pablo Picasso.

Photos may come later.

I was invited to join a very amiable bunch for Christmas dinner in the building that was the childhood family home of Señor Pablo Picasso. And, very nice it was too. Fabulous food, fabulous company - thank you very much.

Malaga is Picasso city. He was born here, but left for La Coruña aged just 10 and never returned. The Picasso museum is fabulous, but I have not been tempted by the Casa de Picasso (or, Picasso foundation) yet. Cash is tight, and I am having to put in every hour working on the streets just to get by day to day ATM. The Picasso foundation is home to an archive of all sorts Picasso, a library and a recreation of the living room of the home complete with a painting by his father on an easel. His father was an artist and art teacher. Later the family moved to Number 15 of the same building. It is a Five story building on the North side of Plaza de la Merced. At the time it must have been a very middle class/bourgeoisie place to live. On the edge of the old town, just a stones throw away from the working class terraced streets. A very priviledged place to live as a child.

On the 5th floor of the building I was enjoying fine French cuisine, good company and wondering what was going through the mind of a 10 year old genius Picasso during his days here. The balcony looks over Plaza de la Merced towards the cathedral, across roof tops and DOWN! It is like viewing the World from a very different perspective. Common today to be living at such an elevated height, not so common back then. Young Pablo probably played in the plaza, looking up at the almighty obelisque, at his own home, tops of the buildings barely discerning the tiled roofs. From his home he would have been looking down mostly, and across - tiled rooves were now square blocks, the trees had no trunks, the obelisque was reduced... This different perspective is made all the more 'unworldly' with the vast space in front of you. It isn't just the elevated point of view, it is the sense of spacial awarness makes you wonder more about dimensions, relative distances, the relationship of objects withing their environment. Pablo grew up with this (until he was 10). This is where the seeds of Cubism were sewn into the fertile young mind of a painting genius.

I will try to paint what I am trying to explain. Not a cubist painting, or painting in my own 'sort of style', but, trying to put myself into the young mind before it evolved to what is now recognised as Cubism. Fun. Just one more reason to hang in Malaga for a little longer.

Malaga Old Port.

I have been asked to do this sketch Four times now. It interests me. The way Malaga has changed. It is from an old photograph (I guess the turn of the 19th/20th Century). There is no castle even though the castle was built in the7th Century. Much of the sea has been reclaimed. Malaga port is a very different place today. The castle was rebuilt in the 1960's. Before then, the mound of a hill was all houses built from castle stones.

What the port was back then?

Today, I find the continual "drumdrumdrumdrum" of almighty cruise ship engines in the background of a city  very reassuring. Not sure why? I enjoyed the same noise in Ibiza. Can't recall enjoying it in quite the same way anywhere else.

More portraits.

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Diana. Part of the fabulous team at the Picasso bars in Plaza de la Merced. A local personality rather than an international celebrity like Rihanna below.