Visiting Cuba

President Obama's historic trip to Cuba yesterday had me and my travel buddies thinking about our trip there last year and how much we enjoyed visiting the island.  We all hope to go back someday.  I hope things open up enough between the US and Cuba that we can just go there on vacation whenever we want to.  Cuba is a beautiful country.  Though much of it is crumbling, you can still see the beauty of the buildings and the landscape.  I've written a few posts about my painting trip, but I thought you might like to see some of the photos that I have not previously posted.

We spent our first few days in the older part of Havana.  The buildings were beautiful and the old square was a lovely place to paint.

The architecture reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans, but there is a strong European influence as well.

I love book stalls on the street.  We found them when we were searching for the art supply store.

After the first two days in Havana, I spent the rest of my time on the Paseo de Marti, a grand boulevard in the city.  Painting there was so much fun.  People stopped to talk to us all day long, and so many of them were artists.  I got the impression that the art scene was a bit on the DL, but they were still working and doing the best that they could with the limited supplies available.  Everyone that I spoke with was so happy that we were there and seemed particularly happy to have artists coming to visit.  We asked some people what they thought about relations opening up between the US and Cuba and everyone responded positively.  I don't think politics had much to do with it, it was more that they were hoping for money and visitors to be coming into the country.  As a person who lives in New York City and can have just about anything I want, any time I want it, I was shocked at the inability to buy even basic goods in Cuba.  I could see a clear difference in the residents who had relatives in Florida to bring them necessities and the people who did not.  I have no idea how they are surviving, but they do.

There were chess players out every day.  They made chess boards by drawing the squares on pieces of material.

This was my favorite building on the street.  I spent two days painting it.  Even though it is a bit dilapidated, you can still see the beauty in it.

This is getting to be a bit long.  I did not realize how many photos I had.  I will save the rest for another post, but I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Cuba.  I'm having a great time going through my photos and remembering the trip.  If you would like to read my earlier posts, the links are here, here and here.

As always, thanks for reading!

Havana, Cuba: The Malecon

Greetings from snowy New York.  We are having our third blizzard in five days, so that has me thinking about the great weather we had in Cuba. One of my favorite things that I did in Cuba was to paint the sunset along the Malecon drive.  The Malecon is a five mile road and seawall that stretches along the coast of Havana. It is a busy road with very fast moving cars, but the main attraction is the sea wall and the incredible views, especially at sunset.

We drove down the Malecon every day on our way into town and on our second to last night, we decided to try and paint the sunset.  The sunsets there are amazing.  I've never before painted a sunset, but decided to give it a try.

 

The seawall is right along the road.  The waves come splashing up against it and sometimes people get soaked, but that does not stop everyone from walking along the promenade, meeting up with friends, and it seems to be the place for lovers to watch the sunset.

I took these photos at the beginning of the trip.  We asked our cab driver to pull over so we could take some sunset photos and he was kind enough to do it, even though traffic on the road is insane.

We had spent the day painting on the Paseo de Marti, so we grabbed a pedicab and headed over to the Malecon around 6pm.

Our wonderful pedicab driver

The pedicab was a wild ride, but a much more humane option than the horse drawn carriages.  Our driver was great and he even came to pick us up when we were done.

This was the view that I painted.  I set up my easel and paints, then got to work getting the canvas covered.  I knew I did not have much time, so I painted as fast as I could.  If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a very slow painter, so this was definitely a challenge.

School girls walking along the seawall

I painted as fast as I could for about 45 minutes.  I got just enough done to show the basic idea of what the sunset looked like.

I stopped at this point and just watched the incredible scene happening before me.

The little painting will never be finished, but it will always be a lovely reminder of a day spent with a dear friend in an incredible place.

Havana, Cuba: The Classic Cars

Upon returning home from Cuba, the number one question I received was about the cars.  Everyone wanted to know:  what did they look like? Did they really exist? What was their condition?  I'm happy to report that the cars do exist and I even got a ride in one or two.

I spent much of my time painting on the Paseo de Marti, a grand boulevard that reminded all of us of the great streets in Europe.  There is a huge median that divides the street in half.  People walk there, hang out, people watch, play chess and just generally enjoy life in the city.  The cars are everywhere on either side of the median, so I was able to get some great shots.

Paseo de Marti

Many of the cars double as taxis, and one night we got a ride home in a '57 Chevy!

Tuesday seemed to be the day people got married.  After the wedding ceremony, couples would get into a convertible and be driven around and everyone on the street waved to them.  It looked like such a fun way to celebrate.

It was such fun seeing and riding in these cars.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend and stay warm!