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Cabanas del Castillo is a small village tucked away in the Sierra de las Villuercas in the eastern part of the Caceres Province in Spain. Lichens adorn the cliff faces and the rocks around the village, and this, plus the metallic oxides that colour them, creates images that are serenely beautiful that have been the inspiration for these pictures.
You can read more about Cabaňas del Castillo by going to the Writings section of this website »
Click on any image below to see the details and enlargements.
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 This picture was taken in 2006 during the week of my first visit to Cabanas del Castillo when I became almost mesmerised by the stunning beauty of the cliff faces and rocks that rose above the tiny village hidden away in the south western corner of Extremadura. Not too far away was the town of Guadalupe and during a visit to it my wife and I passed through hillsides that had suffered terrible destruction from fire, leaving meadows and woodland scorched black from horizon to horizon. Every now and then there were pockets of trees not completely scorched leaving some green and orange foliage set against the black of the burnt areas. The colours in this print reminded me of those colours. |
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 I think of this picture as a kind of ordered chaos. Not the chaos where anything goes and nothing is structured but just beyond where things have just begun to have a sense of purpose, the first steps of evolution. The image reminds me of glowing embers that could ignite into fire and also be seen as an analogy for the creative process, either at a molecular or cosmic level, or as an idea that begins the artistic process.
‘Chaos as an antithesis is not complete and utter chaos , but a locally determined concept of the cosmos. Utter chaos can never be put on a scale, but will remain forever unweighable and unmeasurable. It can Nothing or a dormant Something, death or birth, according to the dominance of will, of willing or not willing’.
Paul Klee, The Thinking Eye. |
 This image seems to be alive with energy, such as static electricity, and this creates motion by either attracting elements or repelling them in such a way that if one is repelled by a second it is attracted to a third. The recipients of this energy are the black circular shapes that are being drawn together to form groups of increased energy thus beginning a process of evolution of form. |
 Although this picture was probably taken around midday its title might suggest otherwise. This is because when the image is worked on in the computer there is no reference back to its origins, it begins its own evolution generating its own naturalness. When first opened in Photoshop the colour had a slight reddish cast to it and so I opened the colour range a little by adding some cyan when it seemed to gain the freshness of early morning light. |
 Just after emerging on the far side of the ridge behind the village there is an extensive area of lime green lichens on the cliff face where I have taken many pictures. This photograph reminded me of some images in a book of aerial photographs over Iceland, which are visually stunning. |
 Just above the village at Cabaňas del Castillo the church is set back above it with just a narrow passage behind it and the rock face, and very little sunlight reaches many areas behind the church. Sage green lichens grow in places ranging in tone from very pale to a much deeper shade. These are beautifully set against dry sandy coloured rocks and seemed to me to be like an oasis in a desert. |
 This image is from a rock that stood alone at the bottom of the cliff face and the side facing away from the cliff was quite flat. I was drawn to it by the unusual colour combination of the steel greys, emerging crimson and deep brick red and pale shades through to white. When I had completed the print it felt as if the reds were trying to emerge through a monochrome surface and the forming horizontal lines, in bas relief, was the beginning of a structure that would hold it together. |
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