Painting a Pilgrimage: The Romeria Series

In May of 2018, Michael Alford traveled to Andalusia to draw inspiration from Spain’s largest religious festival, the Romería del Rocío.This famous pilgrimage sees thousands of Spaniards accompanying statues of the Virgin on an annual journey to the shrine of El Rocío traveling exclusively on foot, on horseback or in colorful mule- and ox-drawn wagons.

In this blog, Michael Alford writes about what it was like to travel with the pilgrims and how that experience led to a new suite of paintings, The Romería Series.

Michael Alford: ‘I wanted these paintings to communicate what it felt like to be part of this immersive experience…to capture some of the authenticity and liveliness of the scenes: the horses, the oxen and mules, the riders on horseback, the deeply non-mechanized nature of the pilgrimage, the rugged landscapes…’   Read more of Michael’s Blog