Jun 13, 20203 min read

Featuring Dog | 151-14

One of the reasons why we visited Madrid was the Prado, at least it was for me. Often the art is not the only thing there is to see at a museum, the building itself is also part of the whole experience. The other reason was the city's atmosphere, architecture and people.

This picture is taken in October 2019 on a very sunny day. The museum was renovating and scaffoldings were surrounding the building, decorated with a huge print of art. After visiting the museum and enjoying Hieronymus Bosch, Velázquez, Goya, we wanted to go to the park to chill and came across a guy with his dog, sitting just outside the museum, enjoying the large painting on the exterieur, or the sun and this animal friend. I watched them for a while and took some pictures. They were lovely.

We did finally go to the park and did even some walking after that. We visited the Forum as well, how about that for a warm day.

Location Prado Madrid, Spain

Detail you can find in the picture

Man with dog, probably his best friend, it was like they were having a deep conversation about life. The dog seemed to listen carefully, and thought about how to add to the discussion best as he could. This was not the first time that they sat there. It looked like it was their favourite spot in whole Madrid, close to the park, close to the city center. They chose to sit in the burning sunlight or have they forgotten about time. The noise from the busy street doesn't seem to bother them either. The soothing painting must absorb all the negative element around them.

Over the years I found myself often interested in scaffolding for some reason. But this time not in the same way as usual. This time it was the print, the tree and our subjects. I actually only noticed it later on that it was a large print over the scaffolds and it only shows in the right top corner of the picture. What I love about them is the net over the construction, in this case the canvas, and the blurriness it gives the picture. There are quite a few pictures of these construction in my portfolio which I have to upload soon. The one online is taken in New York.

The print on the scaffolding was enormous.

I could not recognise the painting quickly enough before my eye was caught by my subject. Later on, while processing the picture I fell for the rough background and the delicate tree on the foreground a wonderful contrast and matching the subject. The background feels like a separate world, like it has been added to the picture on a later stage.

This tree adds a certain delicacy to the scene, especially this the rough background of the giant blow up painting which covers up the scaffolding. The tree functions as some sort of protection for the two friends sitting on the bench close to him. The bright leaves pop out of the picture, contrasting with the black background. The trunk of the tree looks just like the lamp post next to it, as if they are starting to relate to each other after all these years. The dark grey pops out nicely from the dark painting.

The rails around the grass form an elegant repetition in the picture, they bring you from left to right and from light to dark. They are quite playful and decorative. It contrasts nicely with the modern blow up painting and the man on the bench, with his baseball cap, bag strap and sunglasses. The playfulness is a recurring topic but also contracting as the dog, is not playing at all, he listens intently to his friend.