Joya: AiR / Romas Tauras / LTU

‘Splendid isolation in the great emptiness of the Altiplano Maria Los Velez in Spain. Painters privilege Northern light for its constancy. There’s everything to be said however for a vast studio window facing East. Every day begins with a sun salutation. Very grateful to Joya: AiR for making this space, and so much nourishment for body, mind and spirit available to me during my residency. All this in the ‘Grande Vacío’ of the Spanish interior. Where there is nothing. And everything.

El Grande Vacio has been designated noplace, a non-place. Socioeconomically it is a blank. People, industry, even agriculture have all flocked to the coasts. There is nothing to see here, and every day feels the same. And yet there is an infinite array of tones in the smallest piece of flint, the wildflowers are tiny dashes of pure saturated colour. And here are Simon and Donna, self-sufficient - thriving in fact - in a climate that conventionally deemed inhospitable. The future is here in La Joya, and they embody it’.

Romas Tauras