To Madrid and Back again...

While the days in England are quite warm ( and set to get even better over the week! ) this was not the case over the Easter Weekend. However thankfully I had planned to join some fellow painters in Madrid for that cold and wet weekend! And check out the sun that we had ( ok there were clouds but honestly never really felt them! ).

So for the weekend we ( Chris Octive ) and myself got the chance to hang out with Alfonso "Banshee" Giraldez. And we stayed at his family home for the weekend ( above you can see him sitting on his old student desk in his old room. The animals may or may not belong to him! :) ).

It was quite a trip to see his progression of painting over the many years that he has been at it as he still has a majority of his original pieces from when he first got into competitive painting way way waaaaay back all those years ago! I also have mine but my time goes back barely 2 yrs.. so.. not as impressive :)

Alfonso and his gaggle of friends took us to a nice outdoor mountain space near Madrid to enjoy the weather further. Though I have to state at this point that pretty much everything was done at Madrid speed.. so it was very laid back with our plans, and many beers were consumed throughout the time there. Was a complete opposite feeling to the busy work life happening around me ( and Chris/Alfonso for that matter! ) and we were all able to unwind a bit because of it.

We even had a chance to go and see the Prado Museum on the Saturday! Above is a shot from the outside garden while we waited to get inside. And having Alfonso there with us was like a personalize guide for the place. Except I suspect that he knows more about the artists and their manner of painting than the regular guides that existed there...

Chillin' with Chris outside the Prado while Alfonso ran to put more money into the parking meter..

There was some people joining us that night for drinks at a local bar, but we found that due to it being the Easter Weekend, there were not a lot of places open. Apparently it is very common to leave Madrid during such extended holidays and head to the beach instead! Fine for us really as it meant more space and drinks for us then during our trip! Though also meant it would be a bit more each time we went out to find a place that was open as well :)

But on Sunday our crowd grew quite a bit as we roamed along a typical bar sector of Madrid. Where it is common to go, have a few beers, some tapas, and relax throughout the Sunday afternoon/early evening. Again Madrid time came into play and we all met up around 3 in the afternoon to have some drinks.

Can your recognize some of the artists in this photo? at least 4 greats and myself are here.. ;) With others that I am sure will come up in time soon enough...

It started innocently enough with some chips ( or crisps for those in the UK ) and hot sauces. Followed by a beer. Just a small one...

Followed by a kinda meal of tapas with several more beers ( pitchers were brought in to keep up with the group! )...

Before heading over to the house of Volomir for some deeper discussions ( or rather just chatting about miniatures and the things of life... maybe.. I dunno most of it was in Spanish ;) Just saying.. )..

But some Cider was brought out...

Honestly I thought we were all sharing this drink but apparently not.. it is a typical local Spanish Sidra to which there were many bottles.. but this was mine.. nice drink though :)

But wait.. what? This post is all about relaxing, and drinking it seems.. where are the miniatures????

Well.. to be fair and honest.. it was not my typical trip out to Europe where I would go to a painting class or be taught by great painters.. This was truly an escape from the everyday.. even if there were others on Facebook not understanding it fully!

It was a nice change in pace and scenery for me to go somewhere nice, and especially sunny, and not spend the entire day indoors ( regardless of what Alfonso says about me LOL ).. and it was great to recharge my batteries after the long winter months!

And this short break from miniatures and painting has been good for me to rethink on some priorities and what or where I want to go with it in the future! Hopefully some of it can be realized and we can see it begin to take shape over the coming weeks/months/years perhaps???

In any case.. enjoy this quick, weird article here.. not a lot of photos but hey.. that happens while enjoying life instead!