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From: sim Category: Art Date: 17 July 2008 Time: 06:12 PM Review: Flying back from Valencia tomorrow. Have that strange feeling of returning to the familiar but not missing the pushing and shuffling of city life. Perhaps Iīme tending to see the Mediterranean life through rose tinted glasses. But I know Iīll be met by gloomy customs staff, rain, soggy food and high prices. At least thereīs JJīs paintings. It is quite addictive being in shorts, the weather and the crowds of people, including children late at night. I havenīt seen fighting, drunkenness and all the other social ills Britain is blessed with. The Spanish do have a kind of Machismo but it never seems to amount to much, in less your a bull that is. Wish I had got drunk here (typical Brit). Thereīs something liberating about being drunk. The language and all the other stresses disappear and magically your understood (or imagine you are). I feel like Iīm in a Picasso Rose Period painting. The colours of the landscape is really beautiful I think. The rose colours, dusky pinks and ochre. I keep thinking these colours are somehow in the artistic soul of the Spanish. You seem to see them used again and again in logos and other places. It would be amazing to paint here or make your art and live exactly as you do in London but without the weather, the high prices and general anxiety of city life. But I guess the grass is greener. The only downside is the Spanish disregard for where their dogs shit. My god you canīt look up and nobody seems to mind. Also the graffiti. The kids will spray anywhere. The police, when you see them donīt seem bothered. Anyway better get some sleep. And hopefully no fucker mosquitoes. My poor legs...you could join the dots.