Chani's Creative Space

The project "A Paper / A Day" has almost reached its end, but I have felt in love with drawing small sketches outside and I suppose I will go on with that. During the last weeks, I have been reflecting a lot about painting, drawing, figurative and abstract art.  I like creating abstract works because I feel totally free and it is the natural way of expressing myself. Not having to look for a good spot and trying to represent as good as I can a building, a tree, a scene,... that is already there, but putting what I feel as a visual artist on canvas or paper . Nevertheless, looking for a nice spot and finding it has its charm too! Working outside reserves you surprises that you would never live in the privacy of your studio.  Another positive side effect of my participation in this project is that I got to know the refreshing work of Natacha Dimovska and the organization Urban Sketchers . Most of all, I am absolutely grateful to my translator colleague Valerij Tomarenko ...

Despite of the wind, drawing outside is fun and has become almost a habit. ;-)  Castillo de Santa Clara (Torremolinos, Spain) Casa de los Navajas (Torremolinos, Spain) Bodegon Alyca (Torremolinos, Spain) Crocodile Park (Torremolinos, Spain) La Cizaña (Torremolinos, Spain) Cacti in the Parque de la Paloma (Benalmádena, Spain) Torre Bermeja (Benalmádena, Spain) Playa El Saltillo (Torremolinos, Spain) Playa Carvajal (Benalmádena, Spain) Capitanía Puerto Marina (Benalmádena, Spain) Castillo Bil Bil (Benalmádena, Spain)

Nature is my teacher and it will always be.  I discovered this beautiful pattern last weekend... looking at a pond on the Peninsula de los Toruños ...  near the town of El Puerto de Santa María (province of Cadiz, Andalusia, Spain).  It was sunny, but very windy . And some water channels were dark blue, almost purple .

I know what I am good at, which does not mean that I do not like to try something new, sometimes.  I was invited to participate to the project "A Paper / a Day" organized by Kunstwerkt  in Gent (Belgium), and after hesitating a bit (I do not know anybody there), I bought a little sketchbook and went for it. After all, it could be the occasion to meet people on the web and to prove that I also can draw ;-) The idea was to create one small drawing every day - like a diary, they said, max. 10x15 cm - from February 15 until April 1 and to send it to them every day (yes, it is still running). I did not feel like drawing a diary. In my case, inspiration for abstract works comes like waves, not on command. But why not drawing spots of my  town (Torremolinos) and surroundings (Benalmádena, Málaga, Mijas)?  I knew I would find some spots, even if this town has nothing special except of its location on a sunny coast:  originally a fishing village that became a pioneer...