Art life routine in Malaga, Spain
An artist living in Spain
It’s been nearly 5 months since I arrived from Ireland and started working in my art studio here in Malaga. I’ve settled in to a great routine in Spain, which you can read about in this blog post.
The first thing I had to get used to when I arrived in Malaga was the different working hours in Spain as compared to Ireland. I’ve adapted now and we changed our whole lifestyle to encompass the different working hours. Back home in Ireland we tended to eat dinner about 7ish but now here in Spain we eat about 9pm or so.
So my routine is now working out as follows>
Morning Art Life
We start every day with some self directed Spanish language learning on the internet - we do a combination of Duolingo, Spanish Dict Interactive Classes and Dr Danny Evans (The Language Tutor) on Youtube.
We then have breakfast about 11 or maybe a little later and either take Bones the dog for a walk before or after breakfast.
Afternoon - the Business end of Art
Art Website and Blogs etc
In the afternoon, both my wife and I look after the business end of my art work. Enid updates my website, I answer emails and then update social media along with doing other items as they arise.One big project that I worked on was bringing my art archive fully up to date - this took a bit of time but is done now and so I only have to tip away at it now. Over the past while, I also had an online solo exhibition with Designyard in Dublin and a group art exhibition with La Casa Amarilla here in Malaga, There was both administrative and physical work (paintings to be framed, etc.) to be done for these art shows, so this all kept me extremely busy in recent times. I find Artmoi very useful for my art inventory.
Other art business includes the marketing and promotion of my art which is a huge area - but luckily Enid has a diploma in Digital Marketing along with having lots of experience in this from her time working in public libraries.
Evening - the Art of Art
And then it is down to the real business of art: studio art work. I head to the studio about 3pm every day and stay there til about 8/8.30pm. Sometimes I leave a little earlier if I have chores to do like packages that need to be sent in the post. The Post Office is open until 8.30pm and I find that it is quietest after 7.30pm so I like to go then. I discovered the quiet time after queuing for over 30 mins outside the Post Office a few mornings! But no more queuing when I go later in the evening.
Enid tends to meet me when I am finished work (particularly now the Christmas lights are up on Larios) and we have a little walk around the city before we go home for dinner. When we arrive home we have a drink while making dinner on the bbq (which we have used every single day since we got it about a month after arriving in Spain). The bbq I chose is an electric Weber and I find it brilliant - very easy to use and makes perfect food….or maybe it is the chef that makes the perfect food!!
And then there are the other things that we get up to that also have to be fitted in on different days
Padel Tennis in Malaga
I play padel in the Atico Padel Club which is on the roof of the O2 gym near the city centre (just across the river). It’s a great club with a relaxed atmosphere. Along with playing some good games of Padel, I also get to practise my Spanish and mix with lots of people. It seems like Padel is popular in lots of countries and I have met lots of people with different Nationalities in this club. They all speak Spanish a lot better than me!!
Spanish Lessons (Online and in person)
Speaking of Spanish, we do two Spanish lessons with a teacher per week. One of the classes is currently being ran online due to Covid restrictions. Hopefully we will resume meeting in the Hotel Anihita in the new year for a face to face lesson on Tuesdays. Then on Wednesday we do a face to face lesson in No Piqui Cafe in a group of 5 learners with teacher Clara of Speak and Learn. An hour long class passes quickly and while is very inspiring and helps me a lot, it also highlights how little Spanish I know and how my progress with the leaning is slow. But I’ll get there - poco a poco!
Enid’s volunteering job - Cudeca
On Saturdays from 10am until 2pm, Enid volunteers in a local charity shop which is ran by Cudeca. This gives me a bit of free time on a Saturday morning so I tend to have a relaxed time which involves a slow saunter with the dog and maybe stop off in a local cafe for a coffee. On the way home from the walk I buy some bread in the panederia and then I go home and browse the internet over breakfast and catch up with what is going on in the world!
Sundays in Malaga
For us everyday is a work day so we tend to follow a similar routine on Sundays too, except that we fit in a visit to a museum or attraction on this day. You can see some of the museums we visited in past blog posts that I have written.
And so that’s my general routine here in Malaga but I also get up to different ad hoc things that come up like what we did last night !! Read below for more!
Lights on Calle Larios
As mentioned the Christmas lights are now up on Calle Larios and in other parts of the city. They are absolutely spectacular and as I said we like to make it a thing to walk on Larios every evening and enjoy the lights. It’s very much a family activilty here in Spain for families to get out in the evening and enjoy the lights and music. The weather is mild and given the Covid situation it feels very safe to do this as everyone is keeping their distance and wearing masks. In past years, Calle Larios has been very busy at this time but the light and music shows have been toned down this year. There is also a large police presence to crowd control if it got overly busy.
Last night we got up to something fun on Calle Larios. My wife’s sister in the USA is working on a facebook project called “Me and my Tree” where she is compiling a collection of people dressed up in their party best (even though most are not going out and some are even in places that are on lockdown) posing with a drink beside their Christmas tree. Even though we aren’t putting a tree up this year, my wife Enid definitely wanted to partake in this fun Christmas project so she put on a party dress and I took some pics of her beside the tree at the top of Calle Larios on Constitution Plaza.
“Me and my Tree”, a global Facebook project created by Amy
Enid’s twin sister, Amy, came across some vintage 1960’s pictures of glamorous ladies in sparkly dresses posing beside their festive trees. She thought it would make a great activity for her friends to do in 2020 and so put the word out on Facebook that she was looking for people to join in and send her their pics of themselves with their tree. She has created a collection of pics on facebook.
If Amy decides to share the photos from the collection on her blog I will put a link to them all. But for the moment, please do enjoy the pic of Amy beside her vintage looking white Christmas tree covered in colored baubles.
And below arethe pics of my wife Enid with the beautifully lit Christmas tree on Calle Larios that Amy has included in the facebook album of her “Me and my Tree” collection of photos for 2020.
