Introduction

During the last weekend, for the first time, I traveled to Ubrique, a village in Cádiz, South Spain. This village is remarkable for its leathercraft above all: infact, even though its on-site production stopped, its tradition is still ongoing and very present in the leather processing and artisanal maroquineries making. 

Moreover, Ubrique is well known as part of the “Ruta de los pueblos blancos”, a root to visit a number of Andalusian villages characterized for being completely white; also, precisely for this reason, as soon as you reach the village, it stands out on the background of the green hills surrounding it. These places usually origin from the Arabic tradition and their geographic position is related to the defense role they used to have the past.

Generally, apart its beauty, Ubrique definitely surprised me with its energy: numerous events, a lot of sport along the streets, vitality and desire to be part of the people life.

Among the activities, I specifically had two opportunities for which I’m grateful to the Association La Casa Azul, the team of professional creatives that supported me, and Remedios Rubiales Domínguez for welcoming us in her land.

Galería Proyecto 5, Art gallery, Ubrique

Dedicatee to Pedro Lobato Hoyos, opening of Ayuna Kanatkalieva’s art exhibition and La Casa Azul live performance

In the first case, on the 1st of September, the art gallery Galería Proyecto 5 opened with a dedicatee to Pedro Lobato Hoyos, one of the reference painters in Ubrique. We remembered him thanks to María Belén Lobato, her daughter, and Remedios, the artist and owner of the gallery. Then, we inaugurated the art exhibition of Ayuna Kanatkalieva, from Russia, with a live performance with La Casa Azul.

On this occasion, I participated as part of the La Casa Azul team, with a face painting improvisation. The painting I realized is completely inspired by Yeska‘s music, while, at the same time, Noé Serrano was improvising a live digital sculpture. For me, in these moments of impro it’s important to work a lot on the contact with the person, and for this, I thank also Elena for letting her go in this experience led by art.

In addition, I find it important to mention our audio-visual technicians such as Backstage Academy, Sarel Visuals, and Pilar Campos, who created the magic of the scenario and documented the event. 

XII Plein Air Rapid Painting Competition of Ubrique

“Pedro Lobato Hoyos”

September 2023 – Sofia Candeo (Syamhope) receives the 17° prize

In the second case, Saturday 2 September, I’ve decided to adventure in the XII Concurso de Pintura Rápida al Aire Libre of Ubrique “Pedro Lobato Hoyos”. This contest is one of the most important pictorical events of Ubrique where a great number of painters from the whole Spain gather together to paint the city outside. 

But… What does it mean “Rapid painting”? And what does the competition consist of?

We talk about rapid painting when, with a limit of time, we have to create an artwork from a usually blank canvas – sometimes it is permitted also to present a monochrome surface. In this specific case, we also had a limit regarding the topic since we must represent Ubrique and its cultural, human, and environmental heritage.

The result was that, among all the participants, we represented a different perspective of the village, even though the common pattern was surely the landscape. Moreover, the techniques applied were different including oil painting, acrylics, and watercolors. Besides this, one of the prized artworks was completely out of the box and was made using a collage of various materials, such as plastic and wood.

There were around 90 painters to present in the competition, and among them, I had the huge honor of seeing my artwork selected for the 17° prize of the XII Plein Air Rapid Painting Competition of Ubrique. If I think about it, it’s nice to me that this prize was sponsored by the transport company Transportes y Excavaciones Rubiales, considering my strong connection with the topic of traveling. Apart from that sponsors like them are an important source to support creation and to realize this kind of event.

To conclude, I think that the best part of it was to share this experience with other artists: it’s something that makes you really understand that exists a community of people who bet on art, even by their own manners, and art is to share. Moreover, getting to know a lot of other considerable authors is also a great source of inspiration and good energy.

“The number 8”, Syamhope

Rapid painting in the General Franco Square in Ubrique, Spain

The Bubble of Indifference (in Italian “La Bolla dell’Indifferenza”) is an oil painting that took part in the XIII Combat Prize Edition.

It describes the contemporary presence of two opposite situations: conflict and peace. It specifically highlights the feeling of living in a world based on appearance and comfort, yet extremely fragile at the same time; as a soap bubble, it could burst suddenly. In this daily routine, it is important to live every moment, war and brutality might be perceived with indifference, as they were happening far away from us, almost not possible.

On the contrary, outside of this comfort zone, there’s also a different reality: a world where people have to face the loss of their certainty and the destruction of their security; where the social and material contest bursts leading to solitude and neglect.

A social artistic project

A way to spread Peace and social integration

Project Development

During July, I took part in the international project paint in colours El Saucejo (Seville, Spain).

We, guys from all over the world, dedicated our time to creating murals for local people.

We worked with the volunteering organizations de Amicitia and Yap (Youth Action for Peace),
in collaboration with the tawn hall of the ciy.

We started working together and exchanged our ideas. Once we had made different sketches, the institutions involved chose and approved some of them.

The result?

1. Kindergarten El Saucejo

Educational Art

We made this painting paying attention to the educative aspect of the art.

The teachers asked us to create something to teach children the basilar forms, shapes, letters, and numbers. We did it with fantasy and a lot of colours.

What came up is a funny way for the children to learn. In this way, it’s easier to memorize and remember the concepts because the associations between the concepts and the images remains longer in the mind, especially when taught by a game.

2. Secondary school Flavio Irnitano

Your attitude decides your path

 

The respect begins from us

Your life is the consequence of your actions

When the guys of the Secondary school saw what we were doing at the kindergarten, they desired their own murals in the class of the Insitute. So we decided to make them a surprise.

We wanted the guys to receive a message of Peace and Integration, therefore we painted the P-sign and a puzzle with hands shape.

We also wanted them to understand that everyone has the enormous power of choice. “Tu actitud decide tu camino” means that you chose who you are by your actions, and you have the responsibility of your own future.

Still curious?

You can find more information here

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Un post condiviso da Syamhope |Uploading creativity (@syamhope) in data: 14 Ago 2019 alle ore 4:40 PDT

3. Antonio Gracia, Navarredonda

Dedicated to Antonio Gracia, artist from Navarredonda (El Saucejo, Spain)

 

Antonio Gracia is a polyvalent artist originally from Navarredonda (Sevilla, Spain) also well known for his pedagogical works as an art professor. He developed his career between the provinces of Córdoba and Sevilla, in Andalusia, as well as in several national and international art exhibitions.

In his artworks, he offers a very personal vision even though he maintains his relationship with the traditional culture. On his website, we can find a definition, especially three are the forms he uses to express himself

• A particular eclecticism that overcomes the mediocre and results in a product completely original.
• An awfully natural spontaneity
• A new baroquism that is hard to explain, but in which the whole specialized critic agrees

(Reference page)

Among his artworks, “Las Meninas” have succeded the most; it’s about an original sculptural collection that we took as inspiration to dedicate a mural to Antonio Gracias, the local artist.

The mural was on the street which I think was the best part of it. In fact, this gave us the chance to get in touch with locals while we were creating.

Looking for more information?

I created this video on YouTube, where you can see how we realized the exterior mural dedicated to Antonio Gracia

Also, you can follow the most recent updates on my social media

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Mad of Colours ? · Project: #paintingincolours #Mural dedicated to #antoniogracia ? spanish painter and sculptor from Navarredonda (Sevilla) · #painting #spain #sevilla #siviglia #navarredonda #deamicitia #workcamp #artistic #project #sculpture #shapes #art #colourful #technique · ?? @yajulee102387

Un post condiviso da Syamhope |Uploading creativity (@syamhope) in data: 27 Lug 2019 alle ore 1:42 PDT

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