"Even if you look at the same thing from the same perspective, something new always happens."
The words of artist Nils Burwitz, who has spent more than half his life in Valldemossa; he moved there in 1976. For 45 years, he has been capturing landscapes, and he has now compiled 100 watercolours in a book entitled Los bancales de Marina (bancales = terraces). Accompanied by texts in an exclusive English and German version, there is a print run of just 500. A Spanish and Catalan version will follow of a book that has "not been produced for the market, nor for me, but for my late wife".
The book was presented at the Llibres Ramon Llull on Thursday. Nils spoke about various compositions and his life, his interest in art having been piqued in a post-war bookshop in Germany; it had a "more interesting shop window than others that were too military". At secondhand markets he was to collect works by Da Vinci and also Robert Graves' I, Claudius. As a young man, he admired Graves. Some years later, Nils used to look after Graves' post from time to time.
Through painting, writing and poetry, he has also had "a desire to be among books". He says that he "grew up in a bookshop", and that this is what has led him to publish the book in which he connects, through his paintings and words, childhood memories of the Baltic Sea to Valldemossa and reveals that, through artistic expression, "art and life are one".
The book can be purchased at the Llibres Ramon Llull bookshop or via his website. He will also be mounting an exhibition at the Coll Bardolet Foundation in Valldemossa, which will run until August 22.
This will be a retrospective of his career and reflect times in Germany, South Africa and Valldemossa. It will trace his artistic interests, those which have led him to produce stained glass windows in several churches on the island, including the Valldemossa Charterhouse.
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