PUEBLOS BLANCOS Series
The famed “Pueblos Blancos” or White Towns and villages of Andalucía, Spain, are the ancestors of the colonial towns today still found in South America. In these towns, one can see the remnant of the Spanish art and culture and feel its Moorish influence from centuries past. Their whitewashed dwellings are scrupulously devoid of any decoration to mar their blanched perfection other than color window grills, doors and railings. Within the towns the narrow, sharply angled, steeply inclined streets run through banks of white-walled houses whose colonial origins are evident everywhere. The curving white-walled alleys scarcely pretend to be streets and often morph into stairways.
As an artist, what attracts me the most in these Pueblos Blancos is the pure simplicity of lines, the strong contrast between the whiteness of the wide long walls and the dark red tiles, the dark wood or bright colors of doors and windows. I see in them old heritage and rich culture. They give me the feeling of quiet and peace. They give the impression of “time still”. As you walk around, the eyes wonder up and down the steep streets as if expecting for something to happen, waiting for a story to unfold from behind the next corner…
The famed “Pueblos Blancos” or White Towns and villages of Andalucía, Spain, are the ancestors of the colonial towns today still found in South America. In these towns, one can see the remnant of the Spanish art and culture and feel its Moorish influence from centuries past. Their whitewashed dwellings are scrupulously devoid of any decoration to mar their blanched perfection other than color window grills, doors and railings. Within the towns the narrow, sharply angled, steeply inclined streets run through banks of white-walled houses whose colonial origins are evident everywhere. The curving white-walled alleys scarcely pretend to be streets and often morph into stairways.
As an artist, what attracts me the most in these Pueblos Blancos is the pure simplicity of lines, the strong contrast between the whiteness of the wide long walls and the dark red tiles, the dark wood or bright colors of doors and windows. I see in them old heritage and rich culture. They give me the feeling of quiet and peace. They give the impression of “time still”. As you walk around, the eyes wonder up and down the steep streets as if expecting for something to happen, waiting for a story to unfold from behind the next corner…
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