Meeting Señor Merchán

What we thought was going to be a routine museum visit today turned out to be anything but. We’ve been saving the museum for a rainy day, and today certainly fit the bill. We found the old family house that has been turned into the museum, walked in the door, saw the usual interesting things, and then came around a corner to a room where paintings were displayed. A familiar sketch caught my eye, and I called Ned over to look. “It’s the sketch that’s on the church!” The man at the information desk heard my enthusiasm. He quickly came over and greeted us with a long string of very rapid Spanish. We soon realized that he was talking about the paintings. And then it dawned on us: he was the artist! We told him how much we had enjoyed seeing the sketch on the wall of the church, and even showed him our little photo of acting out the scene. He then told us about his favorite places to paint in Andalucia, where the light was good, and where he had other paintings in town. We realized we had seen another of his sketches the day we were by the old mill, and he confirmed that yes, that was another one he had done. He was so kind and generous in responding to our questions that it turned a routine visit into one we will remember for a long time.Read more