The Alhambra Palaces' Nazrid Moorish Baths has been the stimulus for a series of my paintings. These galleried rooms with arched recesses below ground level , which originally contained both hot and cold bathing pools, presented an exciting challenge .Each domed roof has star shaped piercings which cast light and allowed steam to escape. Ritualised bathing was both an essential and intentionally pleasurable part of daily life at the Nazrid Court. These rooms, now stark and eerie, retain an intense sense of their past which I have sought to evoke through colour and play of light in a number of paintings from 2008 to the present.

One of these, ‘ Blue Hammam Baths: Reflections and Stars’ was the inspiration for the piano piece ‘ Blue Secrets'
which forms part of 'Diverse Encounters”, a collaborative project, begun in 2009, which combines musical and visual compositions. This has taken the form of an open, interactive journey with composer and nephew Peter Seabourne in which we have shared our creative responses to the Alhambra.

Our four year 'dialogue’ has cross- pollinated in a variety of ways, constantly challenging and regenerating independent interpretations which, like the Alhambra itself, have become multi- layered in colour, mood and meaning. Neither is a translation of the other, but each is enriched and informed by their shared evolution.

'Diverse Encounters’ now consists of the piano cycle ‘ Arabesques”; an exhibition of studies, prints, paintings and interrelated works, and a planned recital with simultaneous projection of images of related paintings.

Visit Peter Seabourne's website

     In a word, the true aesthetic of Granada is the aesthetic of the diminutive, of tiny
     things, and her true creations are the little chamber, the mirador of lovely, small
     proportions, the small garden or statue.
                 - Federico García Lorca, A Season in Granada