Jay Murphy
Carrying the car to paint a castle!
By Lynda Cookson
Picture the scene. One calm, cool, Irish artist and entourage, bumping along a remote and dusty Spanish road, in a loudly complaining car, in hot pursuit of Rosie the eccentric. Rosie is seated in the saddle of an ex-circus horse, cool summer clothes flowing behind her as she follows the track to a ruined Moorish castle, which she can only find if she is riding a horse! There are occasional pauses while all hands on deck in the car, are roped in to lift the vehicle over severe bumps in the road. They finally find the castle settled in a grove of old almond trees. Weather and time have burnt the trunks and branches of the almond trees to the colour of coal, starkly bringing out the rusty reds of the remaining castle walls. The hot and bright Spanish sunlight never lets the ruin rest for too long.
