Cortijada Los Gazquez - Vida en 1000m. Parque Natural Sierra Maria Los Velez. Andalucia.

Last weeks digital photography course has drawn to an end and we are particularly proud of the results achieved by one of our guests Stephen Drew. Stephen (and I don’t think he would mind me saying this) has previously never taken a photograph with the intention to create art. He arrived last week with a new camera armed with a basic knowledge of how to use it and look at what he has achieved. Thank you Stephen for letting us share your photos…

(Texto en español al final)

Here at Los Gázquez we don’t normally do special offers. However in this instance we wanted to motivate the 15,000 monthly visitors to our blog to come and experience what we have to offer first hand. So to celebrate our loyal readers we are offering a 15% discount on our normal price. You are not obliged to come for the whole of the week but anytime within the period specified. So the price with the discount will differ depending how long you would like to join us.

The course…

‘At either end of days here on the ‘high roads’, the ‘caminos altos’ of the Sierra Maria-Los Velez, there is a landscape drama often sublime, always beautiful. These are the roads built to access pasture for summer grazing, for spring water and the cultivation of almond and olive. On the periphery pomegranate, quince and fig. And in the middle of the day you can take shade in the shadow of these trees in the meadows of wild flowers. Often there are eagles and vultures overhead and ibex on the craggy slopes above.

‘Caminos Altos’ is the opportunity to walk these shepherd’s paths, to be a witness to this landscape and all it’s natural beauty. And we have built in the possibility to capture the elements of this environment that appeal to your creative spirit.

We walk a while then break to draw or paint, the choice of medium is yours, the discussion is composition, perspective and colour. You are free to express yourself accordingly’.

For more information contact Simon at [email protected]

Aquí en Los Gázquez no solemos hacer ofertas especiales. Sin embargo, en esta ocasión queríamos motivar a los 15.000 visitantes mensuales que tiene nuestro blog a venir y experimentar de primera mano lo que ofrecemos. Así que para celebrar que tenemos tantos lectores fieles ofrecemos un 15% de descuento sobre nuestro precio normal. No es necesario que vengas toda la semana, sino que puedes hacerlo en cualquier momento dentro del periodo especificado. De esta forma el precio con el descuento diferirá en función del tiempo que decidas participar. Además, si decides apuntarte, tendrás una excelente oportunidad para practicar y mejorar tu inglés.

Para solicitar más información puedes contactar con Simon escribiendo a [email protected]

The Food of Art is a creative course for those who enjoy creative activities around food such as food presentation, illustration and photography. As an eco-guest house our food is seasonal, fresh and local. Itʼs the food of a well travelled peasant, infused as it is with the colours and the flavours of India and the Mediterranean Basin.

Activities will include visiting the local markets and the jamon and embutidos emporiums to purchase the freshest and best looking products. Back at the kitchen/studio we consider the form and colour of our products. We consider how to cut and display them to maximise the creative potential of their form.

This week we came across a surfeit of Mackerel (caballa en Español) so we have been playing with ideas of what to do with it. This morning experiment is making escabeche with sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, bay leaves, chilli, coriander seeds, black pepper corns, sea salt, parsley stalks, brought to the boil, left to steep and poured over ‘flash fried’ mackerel and sliced onion.

Tonight we will eat the results…

Watercolour basics is a course designed to demystify the commonly held notion that watercolour is a medium which is ‘difficult’ or ‘challenging’. It is in fact a medium that possesses too many virtues to list. The important thing is to ‘take control’ of the medium and make it one’s own. To do this you must first learn a process. Once this is understood watercolour is a free and liberating medium which will allow you to express your creativity unimpeded.

What will you learn

Here at Los Gázquez we teach what we call the ‘ten ways to access creative success with your work’…

For more information look here.

Watercolour basics is a course designed to demystify the commonly held notion that watercolour is a medium which is ‘difficult’ or ‘challenging’. It is in fact a medium that possesses too many virtues to list. The important thing is to ‘take control’ of the medium and make it one’s own. To do this you must first learn a process. Once this is understood watercolour is a free and liberating medium which will allow you to express your creativity unimpeded.

What will you learn…

http://www.losgazquez.com/blog/?page_id=6689

For more information contact Simon [email protected]

Meandering across this alpine desert, cutting pathways through the mountains, are beautiful and geographically dramatic fluvial systems called ‘Rambla’.

These are dry ephemeral streams whose morphological changes are caused by very infrequent high energy events when a rain threshold is exceeded and the dry river flows again.

Such environments in an arid landscape are inevitably teaming with life forms and geological formations. Bee Eaters, Golden Oriole, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Shrikes, Hoopoes and many more. Plant life is abundant too and the nature of the water course’s character creates dramatic and beautiful geological form.

It is a place to spend a day or more, to creatively drink from this ‘invisible’ river.

This is a weeks multi media course formatted to explore this environment in whatever manner you choose. It’s an opportunity to research, catalogue and celebrate the abundance and quiet drama of one of Andalucia’s special places.

Creative Courses start at €314 (245 GBP/385USD) contact [email protected] for further details.

Simultaneously here at Cortijada Los Gázquez our residency Joya: arte + ecología is hosting artists Judy and Mark Macklin who have a ‘rambla’ project…

Visual Narratives of Deep Time in Las Ramblas

‘The aim of this interdisciplinary project is to explore the notion of ‘deep time’, particularly human- environment interactions in the context of Las Ramblas – the iconic ephemeral rivers of southeast Spain.  We will use traditional geological techniques within a novel graphic and text-based framework to produce a rich visual dialogue that documents the physical, biological and cultural evolution of river forms and landscapes.

Judy and Mark’s recent collaborations include land-art interventions related to the Neolithic and Europe’s first farmers in Romania, and ‘a sense of place’ in the peatland rivers of Ireland and the Netherlands.  This project will explore the seemingly counterintuitive notion of ‘dryland rivers’, and the role of water and water (mis)management in creating a palimpsest of landforms.  Issues considered will be: Ice Age legacies, prehistoric and historical land-use, rapid climate change and the impacts of anthropogenic global warming’.

Judy is a practising Artist and Educator based at the School of Art, and School of Education and Lifelong Learning, Aberystwyth University.  She is a printmaker specialising in wood and linocuts.  Mark is Professor of Physical Geography and Director of the Centre for Catchment and Coastal Research, Aberystwyth University. He is an authority on river systems and environmental change.

‘I went to Cortijada Los Gázquez for a week long Joya: arte + ecología group residency. There was a great atmosphere that we were moving forward in our lives. We ate around a dinner table every night home cooked food from the local market. All ages were there. We talked and made work. We were a part of sustainability in practice. Simon told us the names of the plants and bugs, and the underlying systems in the land. Bon Iver and Manu Chau drifted through the beautiful house. Maxine the dog let us pet her lots on the last day. It was an experience similar to that which we should demand as a constant within our lives, always. Thank you for having me’.
Martin Torley

I love Martins description of being here and feeling ‘a great atmosphere that they were moving forward with their lives’. To be conscious of living sustainably is to create a future to move forward into. Thank you Martin.

It’s great when guests really get a handle on what we are all about. This is from a Texan architect turned teacher after a weeks course with us. You can read more comments in our guest book here…

This is an ‘applied arts’ programme where one can explore the nature of form and pattern occurring in the natural world. One then has the opportunity to consider and develop a practice of manipulating these forms in preparation for ‘applied or ‘decorative’ arts, be it for wallpaper, ceramics, furniture, graphic design, textiles, etc. The choice is yours.

Plant life, geology, climate, light, insects and more are all the traditional haunt of artists in their search for design. Consider the capital of a Corinthian column whose form is dictated by the folding leaves of the acanthus. The filleted fish bones pressed by Picasso into wet clay for a plate. The symmetry and organic form in the prints of Ernst Haeckel and his observations in nature.

Here at Los Gázquez we have an abundance of pristine nature to explore. From atop the forested or craggy slopes of the sierras down to the barrancas and ramblas in the valleys below, the gentle but fascinating study of life and physical form is a place you can draw inspiration and exercise your creative mind.

Take advantage of our ‘early bird’ discounts.