Tom Powell
IT is easily one of the art capitals of Andalucia.
Amid its white washed streets, dozens of international artists have their studios and quietly beaver away, many with considerable global success.
This all becomes apparent during the twice a year Art Gaucin Open Studios weekends. Transforming the town into a living gallery, the event takes visitors on an art route around the pueblo blanco.
Now going for a decade, the event gives visitors a unique opportunity to meet artists in their own studios and to buy work from them directly.
And in addition to the group’s sculptors, painters, printmakers and photographers, the even also showcases a handful of visiting artists.
“People come from all over the place, and we often get other artists visiting,” explained British photographer Vivienne Whiffen, who has lived in Gaucin since 1985. “It is always fun.
She continued: “We are an interesting group that ranges from super professionals exhibiting in major museums to the self taught, I myself am somewhere in the middle.
“But the key point is that we are not just Sunday painters we all make a living from this.
“And we are all Spanish speakers who have lived in the area for many years.”
Artists such as Jim Rattenbury, Paddy Robinson, Victoria Orr-Ewing, Sebastian Fisher and Jennifer Waterhouse have all had successful exhibitions abroad in Switzerland, Germany and the UK.
For more information visit: www.artgaucin.com
