The Sorolla Museum

Other than the beautiful weather we've had in Madrid and Alcala lately, this past week has been great. Since we've realized that we only have a limited number of days left in Madrid because of our next couple of intense weekend trips, we've taken more excursions into Madrid to get our Madrid Walks activities done. This week and weekend was jam-packed with museums galore since we had a free weekend to do with what we wanted. Our group decided to stay home since we're going to Lisbon, Portugal at the end of March and most of us need to save money for our after-program trips. Although it wasn't as exciting as going to a far off land, it was the best weekend we could have decided to stay in Madrid because of the intense amount of sun and all of the things we got done.
One of the museums we went to earlier in the week was the House of Sorolla in Madrid. Sorolla was a Spanish Impressionist painter that I fell in love with when I saw his works in the Prado, so naturally his house was mecca. His house is showcased as a museum, housing a ton of his art in several different rooms. Below are pictures of his house and the outside gardens that he designed, as well as some of my favorite portraits:

The awesome ceiling art he painted in his dining room

After we finished viewing the museum, Becca and I went outside to the beautiful gardens so that she could draw, and I, contemplate (yes, it happens). As I was laying on a bench Becca decided to draw me, though not in a "normal" way. Becca likes to do blind contour drawings, which is where she stares down her subject, never taking her eyes off of you and draws what she sees without looking at what she's drawing. I've seen her do this before but have never been privileged to her gaze of intensity, so I squirmed, and laughed, so much so that I've been honored with the title of "worst model ever".

Here she is staring me down,

and this is the portrait of me--I'd say it's spot on.