Notes from Spain: Ben Curtis on Travel, Life, Culture, Spain » art

Los Gazquez – Notes from Spain Podcast 77

Ben Curtis — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:49:30 +0000

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This past week we headed to Almería to polish up my art skills, and talk to Simon at the Cortijada Los Gazquez, an incredible restored country house in a wild Natural Park in Almeria.

The house is totally off-grid, has some amazing eco-enhancements making it almost entirely energy and resource-independent, and tremendous art projects on the go, including creative art courses and artist residencies.

Listen to the podcast above, see some more images from our stay below, and do consider a trip to check out the amazing Los Gazquez experience: www.losgazquez.com

If I were an artist wanting to spend time in Spain…

Ben Curtis — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:17:24 +0000

I’d sign up for a residency spot at Cortijada Los Gázquez’s Joya program:

“The studio at Los Gazquez is beautiful. The atmosphere changes with the weather. Sitting in the space, viewing the low clouds floating through the mountains, or birds of prey circling high over-head, is an absorbing experience.” – Rebecca Fortnum, who was there in June.

Cortijada Los Gázquez: High on my list of places to get to soon…

Edit: I just said in an email to Simon, that what they are doing in Los Gázquez corresponds to a long-standing dream of mine, to run a creative retreat in Spain. That’s why I keep recommending them even though I’ve never been there or met these guys – you can just tell that they are doing it right, and with the right spirit and energies, and I can’t wait to get there one day to enjoy the reality myself.

Ramirez and the Spanish Classical Guitar – NFS Podcast 68

Ben Curtis — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:43:48 +0000

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The Ramirez family has been making classical and flamenco guitars in Madrid for over 125 years. We visited their workshops in Madrid, spoke to Amalia Ramirez (pictured at work below), and heard a professional musician play one of these world-famous instruments in their shop, near Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.

Listen to the podcast, check out all the photos on Flickr (try the slideshow!), and read on below for more information on everything mentioned in the podcast.

More information:

Wikipedia has great information on the Classical guitar, Andres Segovia, and Paco de Lucia: see these two at work below…

Andres de Segovia:

What Paco de Lucia does on Stage:

For more information on Ramirez guitars you can visit their website.

Once again we would like to thank Mike for suggesting the Ramirez podcast. If there are any aspects of Spanish culture that you would like us to cover in future podcasts, please do comment below or write in and let us know. We really appreciate any suggestions.

A painting by my grandmother

Ben Curtis — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:48:06 +0000

I was looking through more of the pictures by Multum in Parvo (this months NFS flickr group winner), when I came across this one, of more abandoned greenhouses in Fuertaventura:

Seeing this made be spin around in my chair to look at a painting by my grandmother that hangs on our living room wall.

The painting is of fishermen’s nets hanging out to dry near Pasajes, a small fishing village on the Basque coast near San Sebastian. I have no idea when it was painted, but I would guess that it was sometime in the 1950′s, when my grandfather used to come to Spain on business for his engineering firm. One of his Spanish partners, Gaspar, still takes me out to lunch whenever he is in Madrid. How nice it would be to walk amongst the shadows of those nets.