Canary Islands, Spain
Magical Landscape
Three palms against a terraced hillside wall, high above the sea. A drawing about dry stone, patience, and the few things that grow on a volcanic island.
- Medium
- Ink and watercolour on paper
- Place
- Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
- Artist
- Gerald Allen Knowles
- Paper
- Museum-grade matte, pigment inks
Made to order and shipped worldwide. Sizes and framing options are shown at checkout.
About this drawing
The terraces on this hillside were built by hand, stone on stone, to hold soil that the wind keeps trying to remove. Nobody signed them and nobody knows exactly when they were made, which is a fair definition of vernacular architecture.
So the wall is treated as the building in this drawing. It gets the careful line work — course by course, each stone placed — while the hill behind it is handled loosely in a pale green-grey wash.
The three palms give the sheet its verticals and its scale. They are drawn with the fronds cut short by the wind, which is how they actually grow here.
There is almost no sky. The composition stops just above the top terrace, so the eye stays on the ground and the effort that went into it.
Where this print hangs well
Muted greens and stone greys make this an easy print for a kitchen, garden room or study, and a good neighbour to plants and natural materials.
Black frame with a wide white mount sharpens it up; natural oak softens it. Both work.
For sizing, framing and light, see the print buying guide.
