I was once an alpha snake…

About 2 years I moved from Albir, on the Costa Blanca  of Spain, to Turre, Costa Almeria, about 300 kilometres southerly. I have put my house for sale there, well, the worst moment ever as due to the economical crisis, houses in Spain were no more wanted, people having troubles enough to keep their home in their own country.. Needless to say they have no money for a holiday house! 2 years later the situation has not changed much, unfortunately, my house is still unsold!

It has the huge advantage that I can take much time to empty the house, an unpleasant task generally. Always when I go there, i throw away a little bit, or take things with me. Last time, I took with me all the folders containing old paintings and sketches, in the intention to go through and throw away what was not worthy to be kept.

From time to time now,  I am going through these old paintings. I don’t like to do it,it is not always easy to make a choice what to keep or what not, and perhaps the best would be to throw everything away without having a look. But Kevin forbids it…

Anyway, the other day I found a drawing from a very long time ago: 1989! Perhaps even 1987, I am not sure what my eyes read there. It must be one of the rare works from that time still existing, or at least still in my possession.I wonder if I will find some more in these foldings… According to my character, I always left everything behind when I move from a place to another, and I moved often in these last 23 years…

So here it is, a Rarity! I call it “Sorrow”.. and indeed it was for me a sorrow time

Sorrow - by Miki

Sketching of an old man in Spain…

Most interesting is the signature, at the bottom left hand side.

Alpha Signature - by Miki

These times I was not called “Miki”, neither as a person nor as an artist. My nickname was “Momo”,  my artist name was “Alpha”. Alpha like in Alpha and Omega. Like The Beginning and The End. I was married with an artist,  “Omega” was his artist name… I put the Greek letter symbol for Alpha, and even drew it in form of a cobra snake. My God, I hate snakes! And I don’t think anything in my character is snaky! What a strange idea it was! Although I must admit that the signature is quite beautiful!  :-)

And as usual, this painting is available  as Giclee print, in different sizes and different formats, in my FAA Gallery:



Photography Prints

My Weapons

I was just messing around in my bathroom-atelier, fighting against my inner enemies with my brushes and knives. As I finally lost the war, full of rage against myself I threw my weapons into the sink. A little bit later, when I had calmed down and wanted to wash them for the next fight, I was struck by the beauty of what I saw in the sink. I swear, I did not touch or add anything, it was exactly like that!

I guess I have more chance now to sell this photo than the paintings I did!

PS: as you see, the blood I lost in this war today was yellow, and not red!

The Enchanted Art is attacking the Market…

Here they are, eventually, my leaflets and visit cards for the new gallery.

The advertising campaign about my Enchanted Art can start now.

I know, calling my Art “Enchanted” might sound a little bit presumptuous, but one calls it aggressive marketing. No chance to avoid it, considering the enormous artistic competition nowadays, if one wants to succeed   :-)

The Doors are Open!

So, it’s done, we have officially launched my new gallery, inaugurating it with the visit of Jackie, a nice English lady living round the corner. She had noticed big activity in the last 2 weeks and wanted to see the gallery before she flew back to England, today.

Kevin hung the last few paintings, swept the floor and put out some cool Vino Rosado (the favourite English tipple in Spain)

She had a great look all around, even admiring my bullfight paintings although she does not like the bullfight itself, and was not scared to face with a big smile a herd of wild bulls running towards her…

Jackie stood a long time with us, We had an interesting conversation about my art and many other themes.

We found that in fact it was the best way to present this new gallery to the public, making personal invitations and spending one-on-one time to get to know each other. We all really appreciate the time spent together yesterday.

Jackie was especially attracted to my Fantascapes and Eroscapes, and kept going back to them. Finally she even decided to buy one, and we sealed the sale with an happy “Cheers!”.

I will tell you in my next post which Eroscape she bought as I have a touching story to tell you about it.

The Party is Over…

Well, not totally, but at least the inauguration of my exhibition in the Culture Centre of Mojacar (Almeria, Spain) is done and I can breathe again… and perhaps even paint!

My dear Kevin who was charged with making the photos while I was trying to entertain the visitors, was apparently too busy by the great buffet which the wonderful people from “Rolys too!” (the place where I have the other exhibition, Las Bougainvillas, Vera)) had arranged for us. So the only photos we had after the show was some of the food, and some of the local culture boss taking photos of me! But perhaps you will enjoy to see that food too, in fact you have seen here so many of my paintings already that you don’t need to see them again, do you?

Please visit my new website:

T O R O : Bull and Bullfightart

Paintings the Pinks…

You won’t believe it, but this is what I saw today, looking through exactly the same window as yesterday!

Just in another mood… still resting from fighting the bulls, but no nostalgia today, the present is pink, and the future even pinker! By the way: pink means happiness for me!

And using some strange paper and new tubes of acrylics which I bought today by accident, in fact while I was searching for telescopic feet…

Just to show you how differently I can I see nature around me… or at least, how my hand (or my brush) does!

Hello Sunshine, oh yeah!

Another sketch from Sarrion,…

And another wonderful day today in the Costa Blanca of Spain!

And sorry, no time for more words, today, I have an urgent portrait commission to do…

Yellow Rain, yellow rain…

… I only want to see you

laughing in this yellow rain… !

I want to dedicate this sunny watercolour travel sketch from my last trip back from Spain to France 10 days ago to all my blog visitors who have bad weather at home, grey sky and rain (I heard there are many amongst you!) and to wish them, and to all the other ones too, and to Prince who made that wonderful song “Purple Rain”, a wonderful weekend, full of laughter and of this yellow rain called sunshine!

Read and see photos from our trip in Cafe Crem:

In Camera in Absentis, Part 1

In Camera in Absentis, Part 2

In Camera in Absentis, Part 3

In Camera in Absentis, Part 4

Oh God, so unfaithful to nature!

I am sorry, but I don’t remember where this was… could it be the village Sarrion from my last post? The tree seems to be the same, although its colour is quite different and the quantity and position of its branches is not the same. The church is similar too, although the dome is round instead of triangular… and the roofs are red instead of blue… but all lines still dancing though and this is the most important thing!

But well, I am not such a faithful soul to nature -although I love it!- and my fantasy always gets wings when I sit outside and paint. After a while I forget where I am sitting and what is around and who I am myself and I just leave my brush doing its own business. My brush knows anyway much better than me how to paint!

Crosses everywhere, like bad herbs

This is another sketch from the lovely village of Gatova, you remember, the one with a curve for each day of the year?

What is striking in Spain, is the quantity of crosses you see everywhere. It is almost as if they were growing naturally from the ground… like bad herbs, I would say, if I were not scared of the Inquisition…

Crosses everywhere:

on top of the churches, from which there are, in Spain, as many as souls, it seems to me…

on top of hills, of roofs, of bars, of nuns.., and even crosses on top of crosses!

in the depths of canyons, of glasses of Rioja, of bad consciences…

on the sides of the roads, where people have had accidents, and these are so many, I don’t know why, perhaps because people here don’t mind driving drunk…

and in the middle of some gardens, like here in Gatova… I saw this cross, and I have no idea where it really took its roots, and in fact it does not matter, it is just a part of the natural order of things!

Read more about our trip in Cafe Crem:

In Camera in Absentis, Part 1

In Camera in Absentis, Part 2

In Camera in Absentis, Part 3

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