Art review

Benaoján-based painter Christine Ellingham’s summer exhibition opened on Saturday, 4 June at the Tourist Information Centre in Grazalema (Cádiz). A large number of visitors, tourists and locals alike, turned up around mid-day for the formal opening at which drinks and pancakes were served, the latter made by local chef Nene using stone ground wholemeal flour produced on the premises. The pancakes were sumptuous ... and so were Christine’s paintings.

Christine’s exhibition is entitled Grazalema Viva and features brand-new paintings of the area using the medium of acrylic on canvas.

Grazalema is a particularly beautiful pueblo blanco, set high in the mountains and graced with an abundance of natural beauty. The climate is distinctive – it’s the wettest place in Spain, in fact - and Grazalema’s setting, with a backdrop of mountains and a foreground of plains and undulations, works as an appealing composition which ever way you look at it.

In addition, in the heart of the village, the houses are dazzlingly white and flower bedecked with pleasing shapes formed by angles and shadows. “For a painter, it doesn't get much better!” says Christine.

If you couldn’t make it on Saturday, don’t worry, as the exhibition runs for another six weeks, until 21 July, alongside another exhibition of paintings by the Seville-born artist Mayte izquierdo.

© Paul Whitelock

For more information click below:
www.grazalemaguide.com ( English)
www.centrodeinformaciongrazalema.info (Español)

Tags:  art review, Benaoján, Christine Ellingham, exhibition, Grazalema, Mayte Izquierdo, Tourist Information Centre, grazalemaguide, Grazalema Viva, pueblo blanco, centrodeinformaciongrazalema, paul whitelock, www.a1-solutions-spain.com