BCN.UK.2013: Wed 17- Part 1 Casa Mila

August 27, 2013 | Leave your thoughts

I am only halfway through my July trip sketches (that means I have just started scanning Sketchbook No. 3!)… I have to keep the pace up so here is just the first part of the next day. An hour or so at Casa Mila….

I used to be a huge Gaudi fan as a first-year architecture student. One of the first architecture books I bought for myself was a Taschen “gaudi’ book published in 1990 …must have been 2nd year architecture! Anyway it was published before Casa Mila was cleaned up and it looked a grimy mess of a building and I didn’t understand why anyone could like it (curiously I think I prefer Casa Batlo before it was cleaned – have more texture). Of course that all changed in 2003 when I first visited BCN and this building… the roof top is so crazy… so it was a must-see, must sketch thing to do. Was joined this morning by the two Chris’s, Jessie and Jason,

I started doing any overall view (from a vantage point of shade!) trying to capture the overall effect of this incredible place. (BTW I just record random bits of the conversation… I have no idea what the context was of Jason telling me that I have to try Justin’s peanut butter cups… but it must have been part of our discussion while we sketched!)

As fun as this view was, what I really wanted to do was to go crazy with the chimneys…

Can’t quite put into words the fun I had doing these… or the degree of uncertainty as to what the end result would be… I just started to play with my water colour pencils and paints and respond instinctively to those amazing creations of Gaudi.

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