February 26, Saturday

The plane is like a time machine, (capsule). We go back to the past, five hours. The first feeling when leaving the plane is the heat and humidity. Where did I felt the same? In Amsterdam, in the tropical greenhouse from the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. Now I’m in the Caribbean, Curacao.
The first thing I do is to look for associations with the world that I know, what it has in common with Spain, which it has in common with the Netherlands. In essence little. The sound of the birds is different, the light is different, the colors, the people, the houses, the stones are different.

February 27, Sunday

On the beaches are stones, petrified coral. It’s amazing, their color and the color of the sand is almost white. These are stone with organic forms, it is fascinating to see, their structure is so complex, fine, and diverse. It is a pleasure to watch and draw them, they seem made of crochet stitches. I try to imagine how this fossilized coral was when it lived in the sea. The form is filled with stars.

 

 

February 27, Sunday

On the island are many iguanas. If you’re eating on the terrace they come instead of ants. Iguanas 50 cm drop by to eat the crumbs. The skin is full of geometric shapes and complex structures, greenish. I draw them to understand them. While drawing, I see how the body is built, also the form, I imagine how they live and why their skin is so special. They are beautiful and ugly at the same time. Colorful structures of their skin seem to be made with the computer, they have something modern in it.

The island is full of sea turtles. Turtles have the same form on their skin as the iguanas. It is divided into fragments in geometric squares and modern mosaics. They move easily in water and slowly on land.

The island is full of cacti. The lower part of the forest is almost completely covered with cacti, great.

 

 

February 28

The light here is really different, very intense, it seems to penetrate to change in the leaves of palm trees and their colors. Green is here full of yellow. The shadows of the leaves on the sand is fine and moves like a dance. Sometimes the light is so intense that you have your eyes shut.
Over the sea fly big birds, pelicans looking for fish, which can easily be seen in the crystal clear water. The water of the sea is very transparent, I do not know if that’s because of tit’s composition or the light. The light seems to penetrate all things, dilute, makes things glow full color or make them transparent. It is the power of the light, the colors are watery, no gray that makes them darker, the colors are close to white. How will I mix these colors in my palette?

 

 

Text, photos, illustration: Ángeles Nieto