Garafian peasant, oil on canvas, by Manuel González Méndez Santa Cruz de la Palma isn’t exactly the centre of the art world, but we do pretty well for such a small town. The Island Museum currently holding an exhibition to celebrate the centenary of a local artist. Manuel González Méndez was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma in 1843, in Calle Virgen la Luz. By the time he died…
Of course there’s more than one exhibition space in La Palma – there are at least four in Santa Cruz alone. But the Island Council runs a very nice one on the main street, just south of the Plaza España. The exhibitions there usually run for two weeks each. At the moment, it’s an artist from Puntallana called Rosa Vidal, who makes her own paper. Rosa’s exhibition is open from…
Rosa Vidal is an artist from Puntallana, in the north of La Palma. She makes her own paper from leaves, roots, flowers and fibres which she collects herself from the surrounding countryside. Most of the paper is made into notebooks, diaries and photograph albums, with hand-sewn bindings. She also paints pictures on her own paper, and make lamp-shades (shown above) and mobiles (shown below). Rosa will have an exhibition in…
Traditional embroidery, Casa Lujan, Puntallana, La Palma There’s a shop of crafts from La Palma beside the museum at Casa Lujan in Puntallana. It sells things like traditional embroidery and ceramics. In the centre of the room, there’s a traditional loom, although they didn’t have any rugs for sale when I was there. (Palmeran rugs are made with a linen warp, and rag weft. If you order one, you generally…
Abstract garden sculpture, by Peter Hermans Peter Hermans is a Dutch artist and sculptor currently living in Puntagorda. After studying at the Stads Academie Maastricht, in the Netherlands, and then at the Toronto College of Art, in Canada, he sold several of his sculptures to the governments of Holland, Canada, and the USA. Wall plaque, by Peter Hermans Then in 2006, while he was in Italy, disaster struck. Peter had…
Sunrise over La Palma by Helen Bennett La Palma has a talented new digital artist called Helen Bennett. She left her high-stress job in London and moved to Franceses, in Garafía, with her partner. They bought a fixer-upper and set about fixing it up. Of course this wasn’t always smooth going – you can read their adventures at http://casa-estrellas.blogspot.com Helen also did the layout for several issues of Ruido. For…