Menorca Millenials versus 30×30 Direct Watercolor

[by Marion Rivolier in Minorca]

Sometimes two events intersect, take place at the same time. At the beginning of June, it was the case. A new challenge “30×30 direct watercolor” proposed by Marc, Liz, Suhita, Ulma and Anne Laure: to paint 30 watercolors in 30 days, but especially to paint directly with a brush, without preliminary sketch. What luck, it is my specialty. The challenge will not be for me, the way but rather to take the time to paint a watercolor a day! Nice coincidence, I planned a short trip to the island of Minorca, United Nations Biosphere Reserve. I do not know yet the island and I have no specific purpose. Just, walk, discover, explore. And also to bathe. I am accompanying my friend for a conference, Menorca Millennials, the first Stat-Up decelerator that is dedicated this year to sustainable development: “a place to slow-down, connect with nature, deepen on essential values and objectives, make nurturing networking and feel supported, so getting charged with positive inputs just before taking off.”

The first day, I go in tracking. The weather is mixed, beautiful clouds are forming and the colors of the rocks and the sea are splendid. I am sure that I will have some problems with the rain. Without delay, I try to capture by large brushstrokes this rock cut by the waves. It’s beautiful, I have not seen anywhere like it.

The second one is like a sculpture, a real installation of rocks and water. I feel like painting musical scales. This reminds me of some works by the painter František Kupka whose Grand Palais in Paris offers a retrospective at this time.
I am interrupted by the rain, I have to go back …

Later in the day, I paint sheltered, it rains hard and it is cold. The lights are grayer, the greens a little off but we feel the dune that unfolds.

A few hours later, the sun is back. After a long walk to Castel, I go back to the beach. I enjoy catching bathers and lazy tanners. Apparently this year the fashion is very low bathing briefs that let see the buttocks bouncy!

I closed the day with a watercolor of the Happy Hour offered by Send Grid, a sponsor of MM. I am starting to recognize some of the Menorca Millennials participants: staff, start-ups, experience makers and alumni. Fortunately, some are wearing blue T-shirts with logo. I can play with vigorous turquoise brushstrokes everywhere in my watercolor. Some recognize themselves in my drawing and seem delighted to have been captured as well.