Sispony in the Lilac Light
Place of creation: Sispony, Andorra
Date: 2006
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 73 × 60 cm (framed)
Painted en plein air over several evenings during the Christmas holidays, in freezing temperatures. Each painting session lasted just sixteen minutes, centred on a fleeting phase of lilac illumination within the changing evening light. The first, longer phase was a delicate, translucent pink reminiscent of tourmaline, during which the artist approached the site and prepared her easel and canvas. As the light shifted towards the rich, transparent lilac of topaz, she worked swiftly to capture this brief chromatic state. It then gave way to an intense blue with the opalescent depth and subtle internal play of colour of Australian blue opal — no longer transparent in the manner of the preceding light. At this point, the artist put down her brushes, packed away her equipment and walked home, returning on subsequent evenings to continue the painting under the same fleeting conditions.
Painted en plein air from precisely the same vantage point in different seasons, Sispony in the Lilac Light (Sispony a la llum lila) captures the fleeting lilac illumination of winter, while Sispony in the Golden Light (Sispony a la llum daurada) records the golden light of late April, as spring slowly awakens in the mountains. The subsequent expansion and urbanisation of Andorra have gradually transformed this landscape, with new residential developments occupying former meadows and obstructing long-established views of the historic bordes. Together, the two paintings preserve the changing seasonal character of a village landscape whose original appearance can no longer be seen from that vantage point.