The house. 122x90cm. Acrylic on wood. Ibiza 2008
This painting has an unusual story to it.
I was brought up in a very old traditional Ibizan farmhouse as a child. Back then mostly only foreigners appreciated the bare necessities it covered, minimalistic and beautiful.
As I didn´t have one of these homes in property, when I grew up I could no longer afford to buy one of these(as they became very appreciated), so I adapted and lived elsewhere.
It is hard to explain how magical these buildings are if you don´t know them well.
They are ancient, extremely thick walls, very small windows, made of limestone, live rock and sabina wood rooves. They carry a speciall smell, to me it´s home.
I longed to live in one of these and it seemed almost impossible.
As life takes one in unexpected paths, back in 2007 one of these homes came to me and both my partner and me lived there for a very happy nine years. We lived in what to me was one of the most magical ancient homes in the island. Old architecture had been well respected.
Above all, the house has a very special vibe to it that each and every persona who visited me there told me also.
I had a very special relationship with this house, as if it was a live entity, a sentient being, a live organism in itself I lived in. In a way it is.
Anyway, during the first year I was living there I painted, as you can imagine, various images.
At one point I felt I needed to paint a house where I would reflect the message this place was giving me. I didn´t really know or hadn´t put it in words, I just worked with the subconscious as I do.
I didn´t want to "illustrate" the home as it was, just do a representation that would include the qualities, so I would not get carried away with form.
This painting is the result of this. During it´s process I painted a collage of birds in the wall that to me represented a dormant life that wanted to take off again. All the doors had been closed for many years and the dreams in with them. The house created smoke from the chimney in tha shape of flowers representing the blossom of a new cycle.
The house was happy to be lived in again and share the ancient memories it had with me in the form of love.
Two years later, as I passed one of the houses on the dirt track to this one, a lady was sat on the terrace writing in her laptop. We started talking. She was a french woman who had lived in my other neighbours house back in the 70s , when they were a kind of commune and she had returned for a month this summer to write. When she realised I was the person living in the Old house at the end on the track, she asked me if she could please come over later and visit what she called "the house of the birds" because back in the 70s when they were all camping out on top of the hill they used to use the well water from this abandoned house to shower. I was amazed at the name she gave this house and asked her why. She told me this was the nickname they gave it because the doors were always open and lots of birds nested in the house and were always flying in and out.
She later on that day came over to visit and I showed her this painting, she was so amazed that I had placed a collage of birds in the walls as the carriers of a message from before.
It was one of those magical moments that can´t really be explained but happen when one is in tune with one´s surrounding. If we listen closely, things tell us things.
I include a small photo of what the birds were like under the white glaze of the limestone wall.
I hope you enjoyed reading this.
Best Wishes, Romanie
underpainting of birds.