Spanish & Arts

José de Ribera's paintings are undoubtedly one of the best examples of Spanish chiaroscuro. And of realism. In fact, his depictions of martyrs and suffering through wrinkles and old age instead of through the mystical halo so commonly present in this kind of paintings, made him so irreplaceable in Spanish Baroque. Personally, I find that his 'mundane' vision of religion makes the truly divine lie more on men and women than on deities themselves. And that is something absolutely comforting and hopeful. This one, his "San Andrés" is amazing.

Seguimos practicando las preguntas en español. Hoy os traigo algunas preguntas de ejemplo con ¿Quién?/¿De quién?, así que ¿quién quiere empezar? // We keep on practicing Spanish questions. Today I bring you some example questions with Who?/Whose?, so... who wants to start?

November is coming to an end and that means Christmas is around the corner. I'm starting to think about decoration, the menu, and also about ideas for presents. This year as well I'm thinking about you.
I'm thinking about how to thank you for your support being part of this young project for learning Spanish differently. That's why I'm about to send Spanish & Art's suscribers a little gift and exclusive sales I WILL NOT POST PUBLICLY on the blog nor on social media. So if you are not suscribed yet, hurry up! Become a suscriber by clicking this link:

http://eepurl.com/dbgZwH

¿Te gusta hacer senderismo? Do you like hiking? There is a wonderful place in Spain you can't miss. In the Natural Park of Canyon of Rio Lobos (Soria) you can find this magnificent Romanesque-Protogothic shrine (in Spanish, ermita) built in the 12th century. Its mysterious location and its connection to the beauty of nature made this hermitage a perfect place for spiritual retreat. That is one of the reasons why this shrine was for a long time thought to be the church of a templar monastery. Also, the austerity of the construction, typical of Cistercian monks, and the beautiful oriental mark, helped to consider the hermitage of San Bartolomé as a templar place for retreat. However, this origin is not clear.
Anyhow, the vision of this little church at the end (or the beginning) of your route, in front of a natural cave of the Canyon, with enormous vultures in the heights, it's undoubtedly amazing.
And you, do you prefer monuments embeded in the city or monuments which sprinkle nature with little hidden treasures?

¡Ya es viernes! Have you achieved your Spanish practice goals for this week? Here are some more questions of the Ronda de Preguntas. This time, these are some basic questions with "¿cómo?" (how) perfect to begin your Spanish practice with. There are thoooousands of questions you can make with "¿cómo?", so you can try to write down some more with anything that comes to your mind. Example: ¿cómo se hace una tortilla de patata? // ¿cómo es posible?
Just make a list and have fun!

Feel free to write your sentences in the comments to solve doubts or to help others! :)

Did you know that Salvador Dalí designed the dream scenes for Hitchcock's film Spellbound, 1945 (in Spain "Recuerda")?
To practice your listening skills, watch the video twice. The second time, follow the story with the transcription in Spanish. Doubts in the comments!

SPANISH TRANSCRIPTION:

JOHN--Mientras estaba soñando pensaba que todo eso quería decir algo, que había algún otro significado que yo debía descubrir.

DRA. PETERSEN--Lo descubriremos.

JOHN--No sé describir qué sitio era aquél...

Parecía como una casa de juego pero no tenía paredes, solo muchas cortinas llenas de ojos pintados. Un hombre se paseaba con unas enormes tijeras y cortaba las cortinas por la mitad. Luego aparecía una chica muy ligera de ropa y se dedicó a dar vueltas por la habitación besando a todo el mundo. Primero se acercó a mi mesa.

DR. BRULOV--¿Reconoció a esa... muñeca tan cariñosa?

JOHN--Pues... lo siento, pero se parecía un poco a Constance.

DR. BRULOV--Aham. Ésas eran sus ilusiones convertidas en sueños. Siga.

JOHN--Bien. Yo estaba sentado jugando a las cartas con un hombre que llevaba barba. Yo daba, y levanté el 7 de trébol. Y él dijo: "Eso suma 21. Yo gano". Y cuando dio la vuelta a las cartas, estaban en blanco. Entonces apareció el propietario del local y le acusó de hacer trampas. Le gritó: "¡Aquí mando yo, y si vuelvo a cogerle haciendo trampas, le parto la cara!".

Siento mucho lo de la chica ligera de ropa.

DRA. PETERSEN--Menos mal que no soñaste que yo era una batidora como hizo otro de mis enfermos.

JOHN--Y, ¿eso qué significa?

DRA. PETERSEN-- No te preocupes.

JOHN-- ¿Tiene algún sentido para ti lo que soñé?

DRA. PETERSEN-- Aún no. De momento lo único que deduzco es que querías decirte algo a ti mismo.

JOHN-- Aún faltan muchas cosas.

DR. BRULOV-- Siga intentando recordar los detalles. Cuanto más raros, mejor (desde el punto de vista científico).

JOHN-- Había alguien sobre el tejado inclinado de un edificio. Era el hombre de la barba. Le grité que tuviera cuidado. Entonces empezó a caerse muy despacio con los pies en el aire. Luego volví a ver al propietario. Estaba escondido detrás de una chimenea y tenía una rueda en la mano. Le vi arrojar la rueda al tejado. No sé por qué yo corría. Algo daba golpes sobre mi cabeza, un gran par de alas que me persiguieron y casi me alcanzaron cuando llegué a la falda de la montaña. Supongo que escapé. Ya no me acuerdo. Y eso fue todo, cuando me desperté vi al doctor Brulov.

Fragmento del sueño de 'Recuerda' (Spellbound ) Alfred Hitchcock y Salvador Dalí Colaboración de Dalí con Alfred Hitchcock en el diseño de la secuencia en la que John (Gregory Peck) describe su sueño para que pueda ser psicoanalizado por ...

¡Buenos días! Here is some music for today with a Spanish-related story behind. Did you know the song or its story?

Montreal, 1949. A young man enters a second hand bookstore and grabs a book. There is a Spanish name on it. He opens it, he reads some lines, and immediately feels captivated by its verses, enchanted by its magic, by the symbolism and the Andalusian roots.
Long after that first encounter, Leonard Cohen honored that wonderful poet, Federico García Lorca, adapting his "Pequeño vals vienés" from Poeta en Nueva York to make this song.

New York, 1929. Lorca was profoundly depressed when he visited New York right before the Great Crash. The atmosphere of the city just enhanced his aversion towards dehumanization and injustice, and his feeling of solitude was getting deeper and deeper. Poems from "Poeta en Nueva York" are pesimistic and full of references of frustration because of his sexual condition and his tragic vision of society. He couldn't help filling these poems with deep longings for sentimental freedom.

You can read the poem by Lorca here: http://www.poesi.as/fglpny32.htm

Leonard Cohen - Take this waltz Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry There's a lobby with nine hundred windows There's a tree where the doves g...

¡Ya somos 100! Gracias por elegir Spanish & Arts para aprender español.
Sigamos creciendo. Sigamos aprendiendo // Thanks for choosing Spanish&Arts to learn Spanish. Let's keep growing. Let's keep learning! :)

¿Qué tal si empezamos el lunes con algunas preguntas básicas en español? // How about starting monday with some basic questions in Spanish? These are some of the most basic questions with "¿qué?" that you may need to use in Spanish conversations with some sample answers.

There will be more of Ronda de Preguntas so keep your eyes peeled!

I love collecting brochures (in Spanish, folleto or tríptico) from all museums and exhibitions I've visited. Sometimes I even take some in other languages (I took one in Gaelic from Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin --I find comparing languages especially fun). I also love archaeology of memories so... I've been digging at home and I've found this one, from my university times, of an exhibition at a few years ago that I really really loved.
I tell you this because it is a nice example of how you can add your Spanish language learning to your leisure time. You can learn new words, new structures by just taking and exploring the "folleto bilingüe".

Does your brain freeze when you try to speak about yourself in Spanish? Keep this in mind! As you can see some expressions behave the same in English as in Spanish, so you just have to focus on the small differences.

(Intermediate level) Hoy, ¡lectura en español! Today, let's practice some Spanish reading with this article from Culturamas about Picasso's friend Carlos Casagemas, whose su***de marked the start of the artist's Blue Period. Any grammar doubts? Feel free to ask in the comments!

Carles Casagemas: el amigo de Picasso Por Silvia Pato () Era el hermano pequeño de la compositora Luisa Casagemas, aunque su figura terminara ensombreciendo la de esta, pues la trágica historia del pintor y poeta Carles Casage…

A few days ago I shared a post of a painting by Santiago Rusiñol from Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid). It was an extraordinarily beautiful depiction made by Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol of the gardens of Aranjuez's Royal Palace (Madrid) in 1907. I lived for a long time there, I walked through these gardens several times (they are gorgeous), and maybe it is because I love Rusiñol's universe so much, but I'd rather stay in the paintings, I'd rather smell nature through his canvases or I'd hear sounds through them... Rusiñol died in Aranjuez in 1931, and there is a nice café right in front of the house he lived in. From there you can see a plaque on the wall reminding you his huge crush on the gardens and that he was there, painting about it.
A few years later, a Spanish composer, Joaquín Rodrigo, had another crush on these gardens and wrote one of the most beautiful pieces of music for guitar ever, where this instrument faced a whole orchestra and led it. It was Rodrigo's attempt to reflect the smells and the sounds of those gardens, too. He wrote it from Paris, right before the end of the Civil War in Spain, and right before the beginning of WWII in 1939. It was played for first time a year later in Barcelona, and in Madrid in 1941.

This is part of the amazing Concierto de Aranjuez, where guitar is played by Paco de Lucía. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9RS4biqyAc

Paco de Lucía Concierto Aranjuez - Adagio Concierto de Aranjuez - Adagio. Composición para guitarra y orquesta del compositor español Joaquín Rodrigo.

In English we use only 'here' and 'there' as references to place objects in distance, and this/these or that/those as demonstratives. In Spanish this is different; we add a middle distance reference (ahí) and consequently, there are 3 different demonstratives (este, este and aquel).
I have added some examples to explain the use of the Adjetivos Demostrativos in Spanish. So, imagine you are in front of your DVDs or book shelves and some books/movies are closer to you and others are further. That's how you would talk about them in Spanish. Try to make more sentesces with other things at home. You can write them here as a comment!

Not many people know, but in some places in Spain people gather around a fire to roast castañas (chestnuts), paint their faces with charcoal and have a good time with friends and family on 1st November. This also has to do with celebrating the end of the harvest season, just like Samhain, the origins of Halloween. I'm Spanish but I'm still amazed with the mix of traditions!
So, my hometown is one of those places and although times have changed this tradition a little, I'm going home for a few days to pick and eat some of these!!!
Y a ti, ¿te gustan las castañas? // Do you like chestnuts?

What I love about trial lessons is that I can meet you, the future student (some will continue and some won't, there's no strings attached). I can talk to you about your interests to break the ice, about what you expect from the lessons, what are your goals... We both learn a few things from this brief session and it is really useful to assure you will be taking the perfect lessons for you.

And, of course... It's for free!! Do you want to try?

Trial lesson - Spanish and Arts TRIAL LESSON Great! This is your first step to start learning Spanish. You are about to book your trial lesson FOR FREE HOW THE TRIAL LESSON WORKS Complete the form below You will be sent a confirmation email with the date and time of your trial class That’s it! See you on Skype. Be ready! WHAT THE…

¡Feliz lunes a todos! Let's have some purpose and reason practice with POR and PARA.

Let me show you how possessive adjectives and pronouns work in Spanish. Practice their use making as many sentences as possible to see how they behave in feminine, masculine, singular and plural. Examples:

Adjective: "Mi camiseta es blanca".
Pronoun: "Esa camiseta es tuya".
Could you add some more?

Yo me voy a disfrazar de...

I was organising the shelves when I found this among my books. I like stories which take place throughout several generations and have that charm, that awareness of having a wonderful story before you. Let's say that if you liked 'The curious case of Benjamin Button' you are going to like this. 'Sabor a chocolate' was written by José Carlos Carmona, professor at the University of Sevilla, musician and author, and I think it's a good choice for those of you who are starting to read in Spanish because most of its sentences are short but also powerful and easy to understand. Give it a try, it is really a very nice reading.

Present tense of regular verbs in Spanish follows a common patern depending on -ar, -er and -ir endings. Practice these with complete sentences instead of trying to memorise them as individual words, and they will stay in your brain!! Yo hablo español, ¿tú hablas español?

Fall has finally showed up in Madrid, so I want to bring you today an artist I love to revisit this time of the year (yes, I'm that freak).
Remedios Varo lived part of her life in exile, in Mexico, after na**sm surprised her in Paris in 1941. This Spanish surrealist artist (1908-1963) painted inspired by her most profound interests: psychoanalysis, mysticism and alchemy. And her paintings are exactly that; a dark and fantastic atmosphere filled with creatures rooted in paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Her architectures, however, remind of Renaissance style maybe through Giorgio De Chirico's vision of surrealism. Google her, she was amazing.

I think it's a good idea to learn the parts of the head in Spanish with the most famous Spanish head of all. Whose head could I use to explain what a "bigote" is instead??

As I told you, the post on how and why learning with movies helped me to improve my language skills is already available in the blog...and it also comes with free downloadable content to practice your Spanish with movies!

www.spanishandarts.com/blog

Let's learn some Spanish vocabulary about Family and Relationships. I'm working on a free activity on everything you need to know to talk confidently in Spanish about family bonds, and it is based on a very famous Spanish artist!

Follow Spanish&Arts on Facebook and don't miss a thing!

Present tense of the verbs Ser y Estar. The beginning of a beautiful friendship ;)

Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid) shared this beautiful painting included in its collection. Did you know about this wonderful Spanish artist, Santiago Rusiñol?

¿Conoces las pinturas de inspiradas en los que forman parte de nuestra ?