Holiday Sketches in Pollenca, Spain

More photos of my sketch book during our Spain cycling holiday with 3 other couples. Some days it was just notes or writing and other days it was more art than writing.

This sketch is across 2 pages of the house that we rented. It was perfect for the 8 of us.

I left this matted water colour ink & water colour painting as a thank you to the owners with a card everyone signed.

Holiday Sketches - Palma de Mallorca, Spain (1)

We flew from Gatwick Airport to Palma de Mallorca Spain to meet up with our friends to begin a pedal biking holiday. We met up with Shelly and Art and walked over the town enjoying a supper of tapas and great beer at an outdoor restaurant. The next day we walked all over and ran into Laurianne and Chris before heading to meet Christine and Bruce at the bus depot to head to our rented house in Port de Pollenca, a beautiful 4 bedroom home (Casa Vieja) for the 8 of us.

I kept a travel diary with sketches of things that I enjoyed or was intrigued with as a reminder of the trip when I get home. I also kept a small journal with me to record any live people sketches on my travels.

Memorable Spanish Lunch Stop

This painting is based on a very memorable day biking in Spain. We biked away after a wonderful lunch complete with a JUG of Sangria. The day was serene until the moment hours later when we realized we had left a backpack on one of the chairs at the outdoor restaurant. The backpack had nothing of value except one passport and we were flying home the next day!

After returning our rental bikes, breaking the handle on the suitcase trying to get to the train station on time (to go back to the town with the backpack), missing the train then having to take a cab over an hour away, the backpack was retrieved and we got back on the train to get to Barcelona to start the journey home to Canada. Needless to say, neither of us has enjoyed Sangria since then.

Memorable Spanish Lunch Stop

16" x 20" Oil on canvas

#20026118

Spanish Cycle

"Spanish Cycle"

Water colour 15" x 20 1/2" double matted to fit 23" x 31" frame
click on painting for a larger view

This water colour painting is of an old bike/motorcycle (cycle) that we came across in Spain. I loved everything about it from the rusting paint, old seat and turned handlebars. This was a very peaceful painting and kept me thinking about our wonderful biking holiday in Spain.

This painting can be found for sale on my website: KarenOliversFineArt.com

From Spain to Sicamous

I had set this blog with paintings to post while I was away, but something did not work so I will keep posting the work I had set up. I will not have new painting work for awhile, but will continue posting my flower painting series!

This is a picture of Costa Brava in Spain. We were basking in warm weather, with a great group of people at a B & B trying to deal with the rapidly rising water in Sicamous, B.C. on Mara Lake as our cabin was starting to flood. We went from this view of Costa Brava Spain:

To this:

My husband Gord and I had finally gone on a long awaited celebratory holiday in Spain. The water levels were in the normal range for Sicamous so everything was a go. What we did not bank on was extreme rain and therefore Mara Lake rose to flooding levels in record time. Gord's Mom (Noreen) and Tom were here for a couple weeks of holiday time only to be stressed by the very quickly rising lake level. The normal procedure and protective aquadam was not put in quick enough or properly by the company hired to do this and Noreen and Tom suffered the stress of not being able to keep back the rising water.

We were up for 26 hours, arrived home in Calgary (from Barcelona) at 1 a.m., went straight to bed to wake up to the phone ringing at 5 a.m. to tell us the water had come in. We put our suitcases back in the car and headed to Sicamous. We were about 45 minutes away from Sicamous to find out the rain had created a mudslide and the highway was closed. We were rerouted, had to take 2 ferries and the normal 5 1/2 hour trip took 19 hours!

Thankfully we had the help of my brother Ken, his wife Marg, Carl, Leslie (Gord's sister), my sister Shannon and Jim to hold the water at bay awaiting our arrival.

We arrived completely exhausted to find the basement filling up with water and a work team had hooked up sump pumps, hoses, wet vacuums etc and were battling the water. The lake peaked 2 days ago and we are now seeing some of the lawn on the side of the house etc. We are so grateful to Noreen, Tom, Len, Gladys, Ken, Marg, Leslie, Carl, Shannon, Jim, Claire, Steve, Colleen, Brian, Jack, and Lynn and for their support and help!!!!

And today's view:

This is a picture of our yard from the road (under water). We are finally seeing some grass and side yard again. The big worry is boats going by and the wake moving our Aquadam. The weather is overcast today and all the boat launches in town are flooded so it should be okay.