La Ville Rose

For all of you who may have never been there, or even worst, may not have heard of it before, Toulouse  is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is a city in which I spent a lot of time when I was growing up as my brother was studying there, and so I would travel to this great area of France over the holidays, visit my family, and enjoy the city’s many charms and those of the surrounding country side.

It is a beautiful town. It lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km (366 mi) away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With more that 1.1 million inhabitants the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fifth-largest in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille.

Toulouse is one of the bases of the European aerospace industry and its world renowned university is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and the third-largest university campus of France after Paris and Lyon (thank you Wikipedia!).

Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution). It is now the Chef-lieu of the Midi-Pyrénées region, the largest region in metropolitan France. It is also the Chef-lieu of the Haute-Garonne department.

This new painting, which will be shipping soon to Lisbon for my upcoming exhibition at Galeria Colorida during March 2012, is a small but heartfelt tribute to this lovely town often baptized as “la ville rose” because of its many red brick and pink buildings.

This work of mine received a great deal of inspiration as well from a gorgeous song by the great Ahmad Jamal, also entitled “Toulouse”, and which I am including below so you can listen to it while you look at this brand new painting. You may be able to see my painting then in a similar way to how I saw it as it emerged in my music filled mind. Or you can simply enjoy both the painting and the music!

Until next time!

Ignacio