Digital Photo Art – Cadiz, Spain

There was lots of photographic inspiration in Cadiz, Spain, and I’ve taken advantage of it to create these digital photo art pieces.  They help to better capture the spirit of this lovely place…..

  Peaceful Morn

 

As we walked along the seawall surrounding, there were several small boats anchored close to the beach.  To accent the peaceful feeling of the image of this little dingy, I used some background paper I made (and then scanned into my PC) using CitraSolv and National Geographic magazine pages, and then used some bird brushes to complement the feel of this piece.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Along one part of the seawall, there’s a lovely city park.  It had such a light, airy feel to it, I decided to use a handwriting sampler as the background, and played with the opacity of my image to allow some of the handwriting to show thru.  I then added some flourish brushes to finish off the springtime feel.

The Banyan Tree

At a different part of the same city park, there were some beautiful banyan trees.  I found the curvature of the branches amazing and thought the handwriting of the vintage postcard was a good match for the tree, both because of the flowing nature of the handwriting and branches, and due to the age of both.  Various brushes were used to add more texture to the piece. 

View from Yesterday

There was an old castle along the seawall that looked out onto the cove where the small boats were anchored.  Altho the boats certainly weren’t old, they did sort of feel like they were from a time gone by.  As I stood looking out the window of the castle, I felt like it was a view from yesterday; hence, the name of this piece.  Interestingly, the background I used in this piece was an image of the rock wall of the Coliseum in Rome.

Waiting

The focus of this piece is another of the small boats in the cove.  This one, however, was on shore.  As I was searching for a background for this digital art piece, I came across another CitraSolv background piece I made, this one jumped out at me as being perfect for the piece.  The very faint image of a woman looking out, coupled with the vintage postcard spoke to me of someone waiting for someone to return to her.  He’s written, but she’s lonely, and the boat symbolizes her feelings of emptiness.

Enjoy!

 



Paintings of Cadiz

There were a number of different sights along our explorations that simply begged to be converted to photo paintings, and I just had to oblige…..

Park Along the Sea Wall

In addition to the large Banyan trees in the park, there were lovely walkways just lined with greenery and streetlights, with lovely tiled walkways beneath our feet.

End of Summer Bloom

As I mentioned before, it was the beginning of November, so a lot of the flowers that were in the botanic garden in the park were no longer in bloom.  But this one lovely pink beauty was still showing off!

The Red Boat

Along the beach by the Spa, I spotted this little red boat.  I couldn’t resist capturing an image of it and making a painting of it.  Makes you just want to run down, climb inside and take it out for a row around the bay, doesn’t it?

Little Dingy

This little boat had more of a lonely feel to it, I thought.  Still, it does create a peaceful feel, just floating out in the shallow water close to shore.

La Palma Spa Beach

Here’s the beach scene that I mentioned in a previous blog post.  It really was a very peaceful beach, probably because it was at the end of the season, altho it was still quite warm out.  I imagine the people down at the beach found it easy to forget the city behind them as they gazed out at the sea and sky.

Boats Along the Shore

And, finally, here’s a shot of the boats just outside the walls of Castillo de Santa Catalina.  Peaceful times now, but not in the past.

Enjoy!



Animals Along the Cadiz Sea Wall

Both Jeff and I were surprised by the number of animals that lived alongside all the tourists and residents of Cadiz.  I suppose it probably isn’t all that different from other cities, but somehow, it just entertained me!

Mine!

I can’t remember which animated movie I saw that had seagulls in it (Finding Nemo?), and in the movie, the cry of the seagulls was always “Mine!  Mine! Mine!”.  I couldn’t help but think of this when I saw this one seagull with what looked to be a ball of some sort in his beak. If he could talk, I’m sure he’d be saying “Mine!”.  Of course, if he talked, he’d lose it!

Relaxing Kitty

There was one section of the sea wall that had more cats living between the sea wall and the sea than we could count.  This little guy was close enough for me to capture his image, and smart enough to find some shade to relax in!  Altho it was the beginning of November, it was really summerlike in terms of temperatures – at least, what I think of as summer!

Who Me?

This calico kitty just seemed to like to watch me watching her.  I loved her wide-eyed gaze at me.  I wonder….was I supposed to toss her something to eat?  I doubt it, as I’m sure there was plenty of fish nearby!

Enjoy!

Castillo de Santa Catalina

One of the interim sights along the sea wall walk was the Castillo de Santa Catalina, build in the 13^th century.  It now houses historical exhibits about Cadiz, altho we really just explored around it and enjoyed the views.

Sentry on Duty

Before we even entered the castle, I enjoyed seeing this little sea gull, acting as a bit of a sentry, looking out to sea.

Castillo de Santa Catalina Walkway

At first, we weren’t quite sure that the castle was actually open to the public.  The walkway to enter it felt a bit like crossing a moat!

Chapel Inside the Castillo de Santa Catalina

As we walked thru the arched entryway, we found ourselves in the middle of an open square, facing this wonderfully simply styled chapel.  I could just imagine people gathered in front of it both before and after services.

Looking out of the Castillo

As we walked around the outer wall of the castle, we could look out and see small boats in the bay right outside the wall.  I imagine back in the day, there were cannons or other weapons that filled these openings.

Inside the Castillo

It was like a little village inside the walls of the castle, with various buildings that I imagine were homes to the people who lived there.  Was all the greenery and flowers there back then?  I’d like to think so….

Enjoy!



Roman Theater

After we walked around the sea wall, on our way back to the ship, we did manage to figure out where to find this Roman Theater.  It is believed this theater was built in the 1^st century BC, and it is believed to have been one of the largest in the Roman Empire.  Unfortunately, much of it is still not excavated, so we were only able to see a relatively small portion of it.

Part of the Roman Theater

When we first came across it, this is what we saw.  It was interesting in that we had to walk around a block or two, around some recent buildings, and down a narrow street that seemed more the size of an alleyway to get to the entrance. 

New Build on Top of the Old

This is why so little of this theater can be seen.  What would happen in ancient times is that when one army conquered a city, they would tear down the buildings of the conquered people and build their own buildings on top of the foundations.  Here you can see that the Roman Theater runs right under what is a newer building.  The white portion is the newer building.

Seats in the Theater

Here you can see some of the seats that surrounded the arena portion of the theater, and what seems to be an entrance from the outer hall to the seating area.

Stadium Seating

This is actually a better view of a seating area.  It’s quite a bit rougher than other ruins we had seen on our trip, but this theater is still in the process of being excavated.  In fact, we were behind a barrier and couldn’t walk among these ruins like we had been allowed to for other ruins.

How it Fits

I know this seems like an odd image, but to me, this really told me a lot about what it means to work on an excavation.  The two white pieces are actual pieces of the column top that have been excavated.  The outlined area is what the archeologists have determined (guessed?) the column top looked like, and how the found pieces fit into the overall design. 

Enjoy!

Cadiz, Spain – A Walk Along the Sea Wall – Part 2

Toward the end of the walk along the sea wall, there were a few more interesting sights to see.  I’ll cover the “in between” sights in the next couple of posts, but for now…..

La Palma Spa

When one has a “spa day” in Cadiz, it’s really something special!  We didn’t go inside, but the low white buildings, the walkway out toward the water, and the round domed building at the end all seem to be part of the spa.  The area below it is a popular beach that you’ll get a better view of in another post.

Cadiz Cathedral

Altho we didn’t have time to explore the inside of this cathedral, it houses a museum inside containing jewels from the New World.

Moorish Influence

Here’s a closer view of some of the towers of the Cathedral, with the Moorish influence evident.  It is possible to climb up to the top, altho we were warned NOT to time any such climb so that we’d reach the top at noon…..for obvious reasons, as the bells still toll!

Cool Architecture

I just loved the look of the dark streetlights and the white of the cathedral tower, against that fabulous blue sky!  We were very lucky in that most every day (except one), the weather cooperated wonderfully with us!

Bell Tower and Colorful Roof

I had to share this very cool bell tower with you!  I just loved the pattern and colors of the roof of the tower!  It almost seemed whimsical when compared to the formality of the cathedral it was next to!

Enjoy!



 

Cadiz, Spain – A Walk Along the Sea Wall (Part 1)

Our last port of call on the cruise was the city of Cadiz, Spain, a lovely seaside city that dates back to approximately 1104 BC.  This was the one port that we did not schedule any excursion.  Instead, we thought we’d just explore it on our own.  This was a great choice, as the city was right there at the bottom of the gangway off the ship.  It was a lovely day for a leisurely walk around the sea wall that practically surrounded the oldest city in Europe…..

Early Morning “Mountains”

As we entered the port in the early morning hours, we were both struck by the silhouette of the suspension cables that held up a bridge that crossed part of the waters almost surrounding Cadiz.  They looked rather like mountains.

Center of Cadiz

When we exited the ship, we walked a block or two into the city to see the Plaza de Espana where this monument was dedicated to the signing of the first Constitution of Spain in 1812.  I loved the look of the white stone against the blue, blue sky.

Streetlights on the Sea Wall

As we walked along the sea wall, these streetlights lined much of the way.  I loved the intricate design of them – it was quite a nice contrast to how casually elegant this part of the city was.

Massive Tree

There were several of these trees (banyan trees) along our walk.  One of the things that was particularly lovely was how the sea was on our right as we walked, while on our left was a lovely park-like setting, with tiled walkways and seats under these enormous trees.

Banyan Tree

One of the reasons I was so fascinated with these trees was that they appeared to be several smaller trees sort of wound around each other to form one big tree.  Maybe that’s what they really were – I don’t know!  What I do know is that they provided some fabulously detailed images and great shade!

Cadiz Bell Tower

This was our last city to visit in Europe and this was the one of the last bell towers that I would see on the trip, so of course, I had to  capture the white and copper gold of it against that wonderfully blue sky.

Interesting Use for Old Cannons

I’ll end the first part of our walk with this interesting use for old cannons.  They are no longer needed along the sea wall to protect the city, so some of them are used as sort of decorative pieces along the corners and flanking the entryway to this building.

Enjoy!