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Alternative Ibiza?

Stanley Edwards Just noticed there is a sub-forum on Spotlight for work and stuff. Another avenue to try?

Thanks. Will check it out. Desperately trying to find a shed/lock-up for overnight storage. Big redevelopment work starting on Placa des Parc and Vara de rey, so think I'm changing my pitch to the port (need to clear things with the port authorities) and using my mate Black Joe's boat shed for storage.

All roads are worth exploring. Stopped selling in the street. Accepting commissions only and doubled my prices. New publicity materials are ready. I am looking for just a single big fish to get this proper up and running. There is someone on this island prepared to back me. There has to be!
 
Youre making me want to visit Ibiza, Stan! Minorca still top of my list though, and maybe Formentera haha.

Hope all is still well. Stay out of trouble, eh... ;)
 
Wet. Looking this way for a couple of days. Using time to promote myself more and reach for that big fish - just a single rich bod to advance buy a single painting. I am totally going for this. The cat is well and truly out of the bag!

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John Haydn Colley has worked fulltime as a travelling artist and writer since leaving his formal career in 2006. During this time he has visited around 50 countries on Three continents often travelling very slowly by foot and funding every adventure with income from art alone. Today he has returned to Ibiza where he intends to remain for a year whilst completing a series of 20 large format oil paintings to be exhibited in London, Vienna and Los Angeles during 2018/19. “Ibiza gave me the initial inspiration and seemed the natural place to finish the project”.

About the Project
The idea for Evolution of a Goddess came from my own travel experiences. I like to travel slowly – walking along ancient paths, or trying to retrace forgotten trade and pilgrimage routes. Exploring the history of these trails revealed that many were actually ancient routes followed by human migrants from all corners of the World. Consequently faiths and customs travelled with the people. Religious beliefs evolved, adapted and combined. Mythical deities moved from one faith to the next changing in name only. The fundamental values represented remained the same.

The picture featured (Suza and Milo V5 – 2.5 Meters x 2.5 Meters) is a practice painting for an exhibition piece. It is a mural in a large public plaza in Granada, Spain, but is undoubtedly all about Ibiza! The Goddess is Maya – Goddess of the Earth in Peruvian, Inca beliefs. However, more than that, it is a very real person from my own memory of a very tangible experience. A beautiful morning spent picking small oranges with a friend in San Carlos a few years ago. Every painting represents a Goddess, but also depicts my own memories of time spent with very real people.

Un Artista sin Estudio
There are many reasons why I prefer to work outdoors. Most importantly, I enjoy the freedom. I rarely maintain studio space, but do need secure overnight storage for large works. All of my paintings are imaginative. However, having the buildings, plants and people of Ibiza town as a ready resource for reference is very useful. Working in public places also offers many opportunities to meet people who may become clients, or offer help and support.

Previous visits to this “island of many contrasts” have proved to be appreciated by locals and tourists. Business people have been especially helpful giving work and general advice. I am always happy to consider any work offers to help fund my personal projects. Murals, sign-writing, menu designs, publicity material etc are examples of this. With this in mind, I aim to find advance buyers for paintings ahead of the exhibitions whilst undertaking other work.


About the Artist
Birmingham, United Kingdom – 1900 + some

Currently based in Granada, Spain.

Education.
Photography and Media Studies - 1986
Interactive Multimedia BA (Hons) – 1996

Before choosing to pursue work as a travelling artist and writer I worked as a freelance within the advertising industry specialising in digital communication of established media in design, marketing and brand development for agencies and corporate clients in London, New York and Berlin.

My current art client and publishing list is almost as extensive as my ‘old’ professional client list. As well as working for highly respected agencies on product brands such as Dove soap and beauty products, Magnum ice-creams, Lynx/Axe deodorants, I also worked directly for companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever on their consumer product branding and development.

Art clients include:
Time Warner
The Spanish Royal Opera
BBC
Several private collections around the World from Alaska to Tasmania and Hollywood to Moscow. Ibiza clients include Cotton Beach Club, Hotel Es Vive and Sunset Café.

Work has also been featured in several magazines – national and international.
British Journal of Photography. Professional Photographer. Boston Magazine and various weekend newspaper supplements (in Spain; El Pais, El Mundo, Ideal). This will be my first exhibition of paintings outside of Spain..


What I Need

· Storage space: secure night storage (a garage, or lock-up) within walking distance of Placa des Parc, Ibiza town.

· Investors/purchasers and any work!

· Feedback and advice.


Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Tlf: 689 744 929
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OK. Time to go knocking on doors. First knock will be my client/mate Stella whos Grandfather was a World famous opera singer - Pavarotti of his day. Stella has taken on a huge space which was probably Ibiza's first cinema. Eventually it will be an opera themed vegetarian resto. Currently it is lots of empty rooms and one huge auditorium being restored. I will be exhibiting and working there in the future. In the meantime I may be able to use the empty space for storage and Stella's mother may well be very interested in what I am doing. Stella is also a fashion designer. Obviously from a very well connected family.

Many reasons why I have chosen Ibiza to make this dream a reality. Connections is just a small part of the plan. It is a huge mission, but anyone who doubts I'm not going to give it 100% should think again ;)
 
Now is not the time for an off-season break in Ibiza town. Three HUGE redevelopment projects going on through the winter. Extra noisy and dusty. I am trying to find a new pitch to work. The port. Placa Bob Marley (shit and no tourists). Placa de Paz (nice, but no tourists. Or, I am thinking about having large canvases located in villages all around the island and travelling a weekly circuit, or just moving to the next painting as and when. Pretty sure storage is no problem in the pueblos out of season. This could be proper 'alternative Ibiza'. Camping out with my paintings in el campo!
 
Going quiet here for the time being unless something extraordinary happens and is worth posting. I am on a total mission to save €500 for paints, brushes, canvas etc to start painting number 1. Everything else is now in place, just in time for winter. How quiet is Ibiza town in November? Even McDonalds closes down for the winter. The winter work I had lined up is now on hold due to all the building work going on. The town center is a maze of green fences. Even the locals are getting lost. Many bars have decided to just wait until Spring and see what emerges - nobody seems to have any idea of what the town planners have planned.

Sketching every hour of daylight. Urban camping to save cash. Total mission to get the cash I need. Being a very selfish bastard ATM :)
 
Unless something extraordinary happens...

This is Ibiza! Yesterday, as I was sketching on a large canvas, an extraordinarily beautiful woman watched me and read my blurb. "How much will this sketch cost?" she asked. I explained that it was a commission and I couldn't sell it, but if she wanted one by Sunday evening it would only be €80. Then I noticed her shoes. Never seen shoes like that before - very, very expensive shoes. Then I noticed the huge guy she was with. He gave me €20! Then I spoke more with the very beautiful woman. She gave me €100 and said her driver would collect the sketch on Sunday. "Can I take a number?" I asked. She told me her driver would give me his number. I turned around to look for the driver and saw not 1, not 2, but 3 black Mercedes limo's with about 12 security guys standing around. I talked a little more with the very beautiful woman. She was incredibly amicable, lovely even. She liked what I was doing. She then gave me her own personal number, I gave her mine and off she went with her men and cars. 10 minutes later she called me. "I will see you Sunday evening and give you more money. I think we can work together".

Got my BIG FISH :) Got my own beautiful Arabian princess patron :) Looks like she is going to fund the entire project :) I will know for sure on Sunday. At the very least I will have the cash to start painting number 1. Everything will be easy (in financial terms) from there on.

:cool: as fuck!!!

My own beautiful Arabian princess :)
 
What could possibly go wrong! careful now, Stan...

That sort of money is well scary. I could fall in love and get dumped from a helicopter into the middle of the Arabian sea.

Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
Best behaviour Stan!
 
my personal inner satan would be saying

how can i fuck this up
how can i fuck this up
how can i fuck this up
how can i fuck this up
how can i fuck this up
how can i fuck this up
etc

dont fuck it up stan
 
Called her last night. She said she was spending the day with her daughter, so she would send a driver. Happiest taxi driver in Ibiza turned up - totally made his very quiet Sunday evening; pay the artist, bring us food and keep the change. BIG CHANGE.

I'm happily cashed up and waiting for further instructions. She definitely wants more work. Me? I sort of like her lots. More than a rich client thing. She is actually a very real, down to earth person despite the incredible mega-bucks.

Anyway...

Happy days :)
 
Called her last night. She said she was spending the day with her daughter, so she would send a driver. Happiest taxi driver in Ibiza turned up - totally made his very quiet Sunday evening; pay the artist, bring us food and keep the change. BIG CHANGE.

I'm happily cashed up and waiting for further instructions. She definitely wants more work. Me? I sort of like her lots. More than a rich client thing. She is actually a very real, down to earth person despite the incredible mega-bucks.

Anyway...

Happy days :)

Maybe she's the one?
 
Any progress on the princess front?

She has left for Dubai, but promises she will get in touch with a work proposal. I'm sort of treating it as a 'got your number- don't call me' sort of situation. Half hopeful. Good few days mind. Now I am back to sketching the same old Dalt Vila sketch everyday. Fair money. No way I should complain, but FUCK ME - BORED with this shit. Want to paint.

Now things are quieter I am getting time with the movers and makers and meeting a fair few chancers also. Something good will happen very soon. I want to finish the first painting by December 20th to turn into prints for the Navidad season. May spunk what is left of my cash on paints and canvas Monday and just get on with it. Want new laptop also. Need some luck. It will come :)
 
Fuck it.

Alternative Ibiza is presently wet.

That is all I am going to say for the time being. I am not happy. Surrounded by theiving drug addicts and fascist rich cunts.

It is just one of those days.

Ciao!
 
Urban camping.

It is a beautiful, beautiful night. Exceptionally mild (about 18 degrees C) and very peaceful. So beautiful I don't really want to sleep.

I have made a den with the permission of the manager. It is fine with her, but if her boss says no, then... for the time being it is perfect. I am in a veranda surrounded by a 'garden wall' of white painted wooden tubs with cacti. The tables and chairs are stacked in a way that means nobody can see me. I have WiFi. Jazz piano drifts past my ears. Mosquitoes and midges spoil the fun. The street lights are broken - I can see the clouds in the sky. I cannot see my keyboard.

silhouetted gypsy figures pass with recycled furniture. Bicycle thieves walk slowly and cautiously, or whizz past fast as fuck. Lone souls walk past with their faces illuminated by Samsung.

Here comes my mate Artorro asking if I would like to share a joint.

Beautiful night. Doubt I will sleep. If I do the pneumatic drills will wake me at 7.30am exactly.
 
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It's all gone a bit day to day. Too quiet! Late November and early December are always quiet. Ibiza isn't really working well enough for me, so something has to change. I do have a few small commissions and a design to do for a fucking rich hippy yoga skirt, or summat. A sketch of the Ibiza town skyline and streets to be repeat printed all over some sort of leotard :confused:

Placa de Parc is closed until Spring.
Vara de Rey is closed until Spring.
The port police have suddenly decided they don't like me.

I have nowhere to work in Ibiza for the time being, so I am heading to Mallorca and extending Alternative Ibiza (and my painting project) to cover the entire Balearics - Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca and some Pitiusas (little islands like Formentera).


I am totally fucked off with AirBNB. All affordable accommodation is no longer available to the likes of me on a reasonable monthly rate. Every fucker is holding out for riches for a weeks stay from the internet. It is becomming a problem for travelling, seasonal workers. Search AirBNB and they even advertise "Live the city" long stays. If you want to live the city, you fucking well work it at the rate all the workers here get paid and then try to fucking 'live the city' on holiday budget. It is a big problem for many.

Anyway, nice affordable hostals and pensions available in Mallorca.
 
If I haven't mentioned it already, you might like Formentera. Great artistic history and a rugged beauty to it. Seek out Senor Firefox if he's still with us. I think he used to display his stuff in San Francesc.
 
Hope Mallorca works out for you! Can't imagine it'll be much livelier than Ibiza during winter, but I guess it helps if it's cheaper for a bed.
 
Hope Mallorca works out for you! Can't imagine it'll be much livelier than Ibiza during winter, but I guess it helps if it's cheaper for a bed.

It is bit more of a city than Ibiza. I will do very well. The majority of my work doesn't come from tourists. Ibiza is dead dead due to all the redevelopment work. People have closed shop and left until Spring. Not just redeveloping the plazas, but also laying gas pipes throughout Dalt Vila and the old town. It is just one huge building site. Very dusty. Very noisy.
 
Whilst still in Ibiza...

This evening sees Formentera entertain Seville in Copa del Rey. I watched the Seville team catching the ferry at 11am this morning. To put this into some sort of perspective; it is a bit like the Isle of Man hosting Liverpool FC. Yet, no fucker here seems to be interested. Spanish football revolves around Real and Barca with an occasional interruption from Valencia, or Atletico. It really isn't football.

Up the Formenteras!!!
 
Halftime. 1 - 4.

My guess is the stadium capacity is a little under 2,000. If you weren't familiar with football pitch markings it would be difficult to define which lines are which on the pitch.

Up the Formenteras!!!

It can only get better :D
 
1 - 5.

Absolutely no shame in that, and the guys have the second leg to look forwards to. Playing in a real La Liga stadium with a real football pitch and real churros and chocolate.

Nowhere near full stadium this evening :(
 
I sit on a bench in a quiet street with my legs wrapped in a sleeping blanket. All sense of style has long gone. This is winter.

My backpack is now full of laptop, camera, brushes, work tools and a collection of very expensive oil paints. I am just €200 away from buying a huge canvas and getting on with what I came here to do. Hopefully, by Wednesday I will be there. In the meantime I am camping out at risk. Many, many heroin users here. Most know me and respect me. Some are just too desperate to give a shit.

So... I empty my backpack at night and hide everything under planters around the pizzeria terrace I am sleeping in. Dry, relatively secure, WiFi, leccy - it is OK and free. If anyone wakes me (they do occasionally) they can take my backpack containing nothing more than dirty clothes. When random crazies wake you in the early hours you have to wake quickly and gauge reactions. Rise slowly. If they back off all is good. If they don't - stay lying down and talk.

Mallorca Wednesday, or HUGE canvas and start of stage 2 :)

Just about still on schedule time wise. Financially, it is tough.
 
Laptop away briefly.

Joined by my mate 'C' (also wrapped in sleeping bag whilst reading a crime novel). We are approached by a known wrongun. "Do you have any food?". No - sorry, we don't. He then dived into our bags which my mate reacted a bit to. You really wouldn't want to mess! The guy backed off and then returned with stones and bricks. I stepped in. Fairly average evening here. Harmless really if you know how to deal with it. The guy is totally brain fucked and just hungry. He has no way of knowing how to ask politely. He knows me as Tony Montana :D Many here know me as Tony Montana. I doubt anybody reading here believes that. In over 10 years of travelling I have never had to throw a single punch. The right words at the right time just happen.

I still have beer and spilff. I enjoy these nights. Seriously.
 
Bit boring here. Don't have any interesting pics to post. However, just to keep myself updated on how quickly the time is passing...

MJ hotel could well be a goer.
I am currently working for a sailing school and playing on all their computer simulation stuff (they won't let me near a real boat yet). I am only doing this so that I can ask Chazegee some serious questions about his adventures. Some reading here will know what I am on about.

Last night a big storm hit the island. The best attempts to save trees by redevelopers of Placa des Parc failed to save 50% of them :( With pavement up and all top soil removed they just fell like matchsticks. I have previously posted pics somewhere on U75 of Placa des Parc as my second most favourite park bench in the World. Gone - total devastation this morning. Pretty much just the robust palms left standing.

I should post pics.

I might another time.

Off to Mallorca next weekend.
 
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Do you sleep on the streets or do you stay in hostels and cheap accommodation, Stan?

Streets mostly ATM. Boats. Hostels once a week for a shower. Fellow Brummie offers washing machine, but second hand is easier. Currently sleeping on the terrace of a pizzeria full of cool guys. Dry, safe, WiFi, leccy, just the occasional tree flying past your head. My mate sleeps next door in front of one of the most exclusive restos in town. We normally get turfed out at about 11am, very politely, often with breakfast. We are liked.
 
FookinHell.

More mega storms. Looks like it is going to be this way for another week :(

Ibiza winter 2016/17 will be remembered by most for being fucked up.
 
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