Collioure Post No 1 (Charles Rennie Mackintosh Residency 2013)
Well acrophobia, actually.
ACROPHOBIA (from the Greek, akron meaning “peak, summit, edge” and phobos meaning “fear”) is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort. Acrophobia sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely. Between 2% and 5% of the general population suffer from acrophobia, with twice as many women affected as men. Source: Wikipedia.
Best laid plans and all that. Before heading off to Collioure, I sought advice from some of the previous incumbents of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh residency. Go prepared, they said! Have a plan, they said! So I devised a very cunning plan. A friend had lent me Pamela Robertson’s excellent book on Mackintosh’s watercolours from the area. Some of the more remote hill towns looked amazing. Why not attempt to paint from the very same locations as Mackintosh?
Collioure, Day 1. I arrive at our meeting point at Le Boulou, about 15 miles from Collioure, to find the hills and mountains disturbingly covered with patches of snow. It’s 25 April and it’s cold with a light drizzle. It is also warmer back in Scotland. There is what can only be described as a vast mountain structure to my right, called Le Canigou. It takes another two weeks to reveal itself in all its glory from underneath the almost permanent cloud cover. At just under 10,000 feet it is simply enormous (well to anyone, that is, who lives in the UK). Undeterred by the ruggedness of the landscape and the inclement weather, I continue to develop my cunning plan, poring over maps and Pamela Robertson’s book late into the night.
Collioure, Day 2. Robin Crichton, president of L’association de Charles Rennie Mackintosh en Roussillon and his wife, Flora, take me to lunch in Port Vendres. After a delicious meal, I take up Robin’s generous offer to drive me to some locations in the vicinity which he believes might be of interest to me. All is going well as we chat about this and that in the car, me in the front passenger seat and Flora in the back. Le Racou, Argeles-sur-Mer, Fort Elme, Paulilles all fly by; some locations more interesting than others. Robin points to a dinky white chapel in the distance and manoeuvres the car in the direction of a vineyard track. The chapel, which is inland and surrounded by vineyards, cannot be more than 300 feet above sea level. By the time we get to the chapel, I am in a total sweat, rigid with fear, unable to move and my right hand has left a permanent indent on the interior handle of the passenger door. Sadly I can’t tell you anything about the chapel or in fact anything about the journey back down through the vineyards as I was in such a state of acrophobia.
Collioure, Day 3. I have 3 weeks, 4 days left and my plan is in tatters! I have no plan B, or plan Z for that matter….
Watch this space!
(http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Rennie-Mackintosh-France-Watercolors/dp/1903278716)
Well acrophobia, actually.
ACROPHOBIA (from the Greek, akron meaning “peak, summit, edge” and phobos meaning “fear”) is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort. Acrophobia sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely. Between 2% and 5% of the general population suffer from acrophobia, with twice as many women affected as men. Source: Wikipedia.
Best laid plans and all that. Before heading off to Collioure, I sought advice from some of the previous incumbents of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh residency. Go prepared, they said! Have a plan, they said! So I devised a very cunning plan. A friend had lent me Pamela Robertson’s excellent book on Mackintosh’s watercolours from the area. Some of the more remote hill towns looked amazing. Why not attempt to paint from the very same locations as Mackintosh?
Collioure, Day 1. I arrive at our meeting point at Le Boulou, about 15 miles from Collioure, to find the hills and mountains disturbingly covered with patches of snow. It’s 25 April and it’s cold with a light drizzle. It is also warmer back in Scotland. There is what can only be described as a vast mountain structure to my right, called Le Canigou. It takes another two weeks to reveal itself in all its glory from underneath the almost permanent cloud cover. At just under 10,000 feet it is simply enormous (well to anyone, that is, who lives in the UK). Undeterred by the ruggedness of the landscape and the inclement weather, I continue to develop my cunning plan, poring over maps and Pamela Robertson’s book late into the night.
Collioure, Day 2. Robin Crichton, president of L’association de Charles Rennie Mackintosh en Roussillon and his wife, Flora, take me to lunch in Port Vendres. After a delicious meal, I take up Robin’s generous offer to drive me to some locations in the vicinity which he believes might be of interest to me. All is going well as we chat about this and that in the car, me in the front passenger seat and Flora in the back. Le Racou, Argeles-sur-Mer, Fort Elme, Paulilles all fly by; some locations more interesting than others. Robin points to a dinky white chapel in the distance and manoeuvres the car in the direction of a vineyard track. The chapel, which is inland and surrounded by vineyards, cannot be more than 300 feet above sea level. By the time we get to the chapel, I am in a total sweat, rigid with fear, unable to move and my right hand has left a permanent indent on the interior handle of the passenger door. Sadly I can’t tell you anything about the chapel or in fact anything about the journey back down through the vineyards as I was in such a state of acrophobia.
Collioure, Day 3. I have 3 weeks, 4 days left and my plan is in tatters! I have no plan B, or plan Z for that matter….
Watch this space!
(http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Rennie-Mackintosh-France-Watercolors/dp/1903278716)