For daily magic from the universe ✨

Tag: seaside

  • La Chica con Suerte has been painting!

    After a three and a half week trip to Mallorca in April/May which I will tell you about soon, I returned to an unexpected heatwave in London. It took about a week to decompress from the all the events of the Mallorca trip, but once the heatwave was over and I no longer had to clutch a large bottle of frozen water to stay cool (this works well by the way) and could actually think clearly again, I resumed writing my poems. I don´t think I have told you about my poems actually, so that will have to be another post…Anyway, after about a week of all that, I suddenly felt it was time to find all my paints and brushes and start painting again. I usually feel like painting from around Spring and find myself putting away my paints in Autumn each year and this has been the case now for the past ten years or so.

    I started with a small landscape of the Yorkshire Dales that I had sketched and started painting about two years ago, but had never finished. I think the thing I like the most about it, is that it´s the first time I have ever put a horse into one of my paintings. It is a tiny little horse, but a horse nonetheless! It´s also the first time I have added little poppies to the field. You can also see the painting on my youtube channel, @LaChicaconSuerte-1111.

    ´Muker, Yorkshire Dales´- acrylics on stretched canvas

    Once the painting was completed, I thought of offering it for sale on Etsy. I had started a shop on there a few years ago and did have one sale of a replica of a painting I made, which was also of the Yorkshire Dales, though larger than this one (see below), which gave me a bit of confidence to continue. However, life intervened, and so I inactivated the shop for a couple years. However, two weeks ago, I decided to reactivate it!

    Ofcourse, as usual, just as I did the last finishing touches to the little painting (above), I suddenly became attached to it and wanted to keep it! In fact, my mother liked it very much and since while painting it, I had already decided to gift it to her, that´s what I did. She then told me she had just been about to offer to buy it from me! Ofcourse I would not let her pay for it, but it´s nice when your own family likes what you do, isn´t it 🙂

    My original Yorkshire Dales painting, ´Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales´-

    acrylics on stretched canvas

    So then I thought, okay, if I am keeping it, then what shall we do? I recalled that I had purchased some very high quality prints of paintings from an artist on Etsy for my niece and nephew a few years ago and that they had been very happy with them. In fact, they still display them in their respective bedrooms. I wondered if I could do the same with my paintings and I discovered that indeed I could! And so…I am now offering prints of my paintings and of my favourite photographs taken mainly in Mallorca and the UK, in my Etsy shop! It´s been quite fun painting daily since then and setting up the shop. Please do let me know which images you like best 🙂

    In the past two weeks, after completing the small Yorkshire Dales landscape painting, I´ve also completed another painting that is more of a spiritual nature, incorporating many of the signs I see. In fact, I drew the sketch back in the time of the pandemic, but had only painted the yellow pyramid and had kept the rest unpainted for years. Suddenly, it felt like the right time to complete it and so over the next few days, that´s what I did. You can see this painting , ´Seeing the Signs´ a bit closer up, on my youtube channel.

    ´Seeing the Signs´– acrylics on stretched canvas

    I next picked up a painting I had done called ´Breakfast in Fethiye´of a Turkish breakfast laid out on a table at a home overlooking the blue-green sea. with a view of the mountains across the way. I always felt that I had painted it a bit too lightly and that it need a bit more vivid colour and so I worked on it for a few days and here is the result! Please do let me know what you think. You can also see this painting a little more upclose on youtube.

    ´Breakfast in Fethiye´– acrylics on stretched canvas

    After that, with that feeling of summer approaching, I decided to do a painting of a summer holiday scene at the beach. It´s the first time I have done this type of shimmery waves and was quite happy with the effect. You can see the shimmer much better in the video I have posted on my youtube channel. It was really a bit of experimentation. Actually, all my paintings are experimentations, as I was never trained in art or painting and it´s all a bit of trial and error. Do you draw or paint or do something else creative? I find creating art to be like working and being on holiday at the same time!

    ´Summer Holiday´– acrylics on stretched canvas

    Since then, I have painted three abstracts. They are my first ever abstract paintings. I had never really been into abstract painting before, but I must say…it´s been very interesting! Here are the three paintings. I´m just calling them Abstract #1, Abstract #2, and Abstract #3 for now….please tell me what you see when you look at them. It´s funny…I see different things in them and get a different feeling each time I look at them.

    I think with each of them, they can be viewed from any orientation. The first one, I painted in portrait, but flipped on its side, it suddenly looked a lot like a pyramid. I´ll post it here in both and you can let me know which you prefer!

    Abstract #1 (portrait)- acrylics on stretched canvas

    Abstract #1 (landscape)

    Here´s the second abstract I painted. It´s actually the largest canvas I have ever painted on so far (40 x 50 cm). I found I had to lay it flat on a table and actually stand up to paint it, to be able to get it right.

    Abstract #2 – acrylics on canvas

    My third abstract painting, I actually completed yesterday. I came together in quite a surprising way. I started by drawing a few lines and shapes, and then decided to divide the canvas, and was painting it in portrait, but as I turned it to paint, I realized that I could see a form appearing when I viewed it in landscape and it became something else entirely. What do you see when you look at it?

    Abstract #3 -acrylics on stretched canvas

    So that´s the round up! Please let me know your thoughts about these paintings and whether you paint or create in some way too and what you like most about doing what you do.

    I´m currently working on a new little painting involving burgundy, cacti, and a dark, desert highway…Hope to show it to you soon. Til then, enjoy your day and if you like this post and my blog, please like, share, comment and subscribe!

    Artwork & Prints:

    If you´re interested in purchasing prints of my artwork or photographs, please visit: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LaChicaconSuerte

  • Mandelieu-la-Napoule (9th to 16th September, 2024)

    I hadn´t been to France for many, many years. I had been to Nice once for a few days, during which I did a day trip to Monaco by TGV. However, on that trip, I did not get a chance to see other smaller places along the coast. Therefore, I was very curious to see what Mandelieu was like. Leaving the train station, I found myself with two options, one to go up some stairs that led to some shops and cafes or two, to go up a small street right next to the stairs that led to…well, I had no idea where. I took the street ofcourse, given the big suitcase. I walked down past a few quaint houses. The road veered to the left and I found myself in an idyllic little square with a fountain. Indeed, it turned out that the name of the square was Place de la Fontaine, and it had a lovely sculpture of two boys sailing toy sailboats in the fountain.

    image credit: https://www.atelierjoelvergne.fr/

    The owner of the apartment I had booked had kindly offered to drive me to the apartment. This turned out to be a very good thing because as I discovered later, it´s not very easy getting taxis in the south of France AND they are very expensive! Taxis are basically considered to be a luxury round these parts. I´ll tell you more about the whole taxi situation later…Anyway, the thing is that the owner was in Cannes and needed a bit of time to get to Mandelieu, so as it was around 2pm and I hadn´t eaten, I thought I would have lunch at one of the pizza restaurants in the square. The waitress ignored me while serving already seated customers and then finally told me that they were closing. It transpired that in fact all of the restaurants were closing and would not be opening again until 7pm! I decided to investigate the street leading out of the square and towards the port and after a few minutes, found myself at a little boulangerie called Au Pain Gourmand, which thankfully, was open! I had a tasty, pre-prepared, mild chicken korma with rice from the fridge, which the friendly lady working there heated up for me, along with a Pago pineapple juice. I took a seat at a table outside, but an elderly, deeply tanned, blonde lady sitting at the table next to me was chain-smoking and unfortunately, all the smoke was drifting towards me. Luckily, I was able to find another table that had plugpoint near it, so I was able to charge my phone. Oh why do iphone batteries drain so quickly!

    View from the apartment in Mandelieu

    The owner of the apartment was a young man who drove a minivan. That was convenient as there was plenty of space for my suitcase. As he drove along further and further away from the port, I started to get a bit concerned about just how far away the apartment might be from the train station, as I had originally planned to go to different places along the coast by train from Mandelieu (an idea that I soon scrapped).

    When we arrived at the apartment complex, I got a bit stressed, realizing that it was a bit far from well….everything! At least by walking that is. After checking in, the owner kindly dropped me off at the shopping center, Centre Commercial Minelle, so that I could go to the Auchan supermarket there to stock up. I later discovered that it was about a 20-25 min walk back from the supermarket to the apartment and about 25-30 minutes to walk to Chateau Napoule and the port, which are both close to the train station. Surprisingly, what I liked most about the shopping center, was that a short walk across the carpark from it, there is a spacious and very clean and new-looking McDonald´s, where they have a children´s play area outside and even offer table service!

    The next few days, I was absolutely exhausted and did not go out at all. After about four days in the apartment, which had a lovely view of mountains and little houses (see above) and of jets taking off from the private airport in Cannes, I ventured out into the warm sunshine. After getting directions from some friendly residents outside the apartment complex, I walked down some backstreets lined with cute houses and then continued along the picturesque river Siagne. There is a very pretty path you can take to walk along the river or you can carry on along the road. You will even find places along the river from which you can hire an electric boat without a license!

    Cute house in a street behind the apartment complex in Mandelieu

    Along the river Siagne

    Boating on the serene river Siagne

    I kept walking and found myself at a very green and clean park called Parc Familial de Robinson where there was a family event going on with lots of food and music. There, a teenage girl having a picnic with her family, kindly gave me directions to Plage Robinson, where I had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. Plage Robinson is a bit windy, but then that is ideal for the paragliders who were making the most of the perfect weather conditions.

    Parc Familiale de Robinson

    Elegant peacock sculptures on the way to Plage Robinson

    At Plage Robinson

    My linguine vongole at Cala Mia, Plage Robinson

    The slightly windy, but very pretty and peaceful Plage Robinson

    The beautiful Chateau de la Napoule

    On my last day in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, my friend from Grasse came to pick me up and we went for lunch at the port and then a walk along the path that winds around the beautiful Chateau de la Napoule and small, but smooth and sandy beach in front of it called, Plage du Chateau. It really was perfect weather. Unfortunately, my iphone would not let me take a single photo due to its constant ´storage is full´issue, but my friend took some really great photos on her phone, which she shared with me, so I will share some of them with you here:) You can actually go inside the Chateau, which is a museum, by buying a ticket, though I did not as we didn´t have much time and also preferred to be outside.

    Path going round Chateau de la Napoule looking out onto the sea

    Plage du Chateau

    I´m sure that you will agree that Mandelieu is absolutely beautiful. It´s also very clean and peaceful, so I highly recommend going there if you are looking for a calm place to chill, though you might want to rent an apartment and cook at home or try some boulangeries and smaller cafes. The cost of dining at a restaurant anywhere along the Cote d´Azur is simply extortionate.

    We next drove to Cannes, where my friend dropped me off at an apartment I had booked there. I´ll tell you all about my 48 hours in Cannes in my next post!