EOI Carabanchel writing awards:"A Particular Paintbrush"

Dearest student Ana Stella Martínez Rodriguez, sharing 1st prize for NA, is the author of this very particular short story. Enjoy it!

“A particular paintbrush “

December 1500.
A wooden table, plenty of tools, was in the middle of the Piero’s workshop. It was there where I was born. I remember that cold and misty morning. After some days of work, my creator had finished his task: A delicate paintbrush whose thin bristles were splendid.
He put me in a little red can with the others members of my family: My grandparents (they were experts in colour mixtures), my parents (they were the best landscape drawers) and my sister (she was a portrait painter like me).
What was my name? It was Francesco and I was ready for anything. However, I had been waiting for a buyer three boring and long months. Finally I left the workshop in spring. This marvellous season gave me back all my dreams.
I heard Piero’s voice saying goodbye. A few minutes later I had crossed the Vecchio Bridge. For a short period of time I felt the humidity of the Arno River. Some children shouted on the street. Suddenly, I was placed on my owner’s table... A hand unwrapped the parcel carefully and I saw my new home.
It was a spacious workroom with two huge windows. On the left side there were dozen of canvases to put them in order. On the right side there was a cupboard. Inside it, an amount of oil paints, varnish and charcoals drawings were waiting patiently. I gazed an easel close to the windows. It held on an immaculate canvas. I thought it could be my first role as a paintbrush. Unfortunately, it wasn´t.
The beginning was extremely hard. Day after day there was nothing to do except to observe but the activity in the workroom was continuous. Aristocrats, clergymen and rich merchants arrived there to order or to buy paintings. I was learning step by step and one day I was face to face with my first challenge: The portrait of Ginevra Benci. The experience was fantastic. I was plunged into several different oil paints. Immediately I started to outline her eyes, her mouth, and her curly hair. What a pleasure! The result was surprising.
Sometimes I took a rest because my owner used to spend his time doing physical experiments and doing research. Actually, he was a genius. My next portraits were interesting, great and really well done but I can assure my favourite is a small woman portrait. It was painted from 1503 to 1506.
The painting shows two things: A landscape and a woman. The landscape represents the Earth before the human being presence. It is like a deserted nature, like a wild and harmful nature. The tiny bridge symbolizes the pas, the present and the future. The young woman is the most mysterious and suspicious woman in the world. His pale face without eyelashes, without eyebrows but with a strange smile produces lots of different feelings and interpretations. At this moment, all of you could guess the painter’s and the woman’s name.
Before the end, I am going to confess you my secret. Five centuries after my creation, I am still alive! When Leonardo da Vinci sold the Gioconda’s portrait to the king of France, he hid me between the canvas and the frame. What a brilliant idea! I am very proud of myself because I have had the honour to paint this masterpiece and we will stay together forever. Thank you Leonardo!.

Short Story Writing Contest

Dear students,
we are happy to publish and proudly announce our winners for the Short Story Writing Contest! Please welcome our dear writers:
-Intermediate awards:
Eva Miranda Scarpa for "A New Life" ( first prize)
Pablo Fernández Castro for "Under the Sky" (second prize)
Héctor Nicolás Gómez for " The Tale of the Parrot and the Canary" (third prize )
- Advanced awards:
Ana Stella Martínez Rodriguez and Andrés Puente Matesanz both sharing award for "A Particular Paintbrush" and "The Other Side" respectively.
Click on the posts above to read the winning essays and enjoy your reading. Congratulations, everybody, for sharing your excellent work with the EOI community and helping to create an interest in literature while you practise your English.
And of course, you are very welcome to post your comments and praise the winners here.

Ana's advanced 2 students

Dear Advanced 2 students,
welcome to our readingclub and I hope you enjoy practising your English!
Before we go on commenting our new short story "Goodbye Mother" by British writer Hanif Kureishi, I am attaching here an interview from the BBC (Open2.net) where the author talks about the writer's task in Contemporary literature, his writing methodology and routine, reading preferences, using real people as fictional characters and lots of other interesting stuff. Feel free to comment whatever and do not worry about your mistakes, practice makes the mastery of a language. Have a very nice weekend!
http://www.open2.net/writing/hanifkureshi.html

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Dear intermediate students,

first things first, I would like to wish a veeeery Happy New Year! Have you made up your mind about New Year's Resolutions? Quit smoking? Put some money aside? Get organized? Tame the bulge? Exercise? Listen to English at least five minutes a day? Stop thinking about stupid New Year's Resolutions?

I also would like to remind you that you must have finished the book by now and that's why I will be posting some questions here so that you can develop your writing skills. To start with, and as we will be dealing with descriptions in short, please have a quick look at your reading, think about your favourite character in the book and say why you find him or her attractive.

Remember that practice makes the mastery of a language: the more you write, the better you are!

For those who chose to read the short stories by Oscar Wilde, choose one and let the rest of us know what you liked best and why you'd recommend it to others.

Happy New Year and have a good comeback!!

For those who are reading or are going to read "Amsterdam" by McEwan, let us consider these ideas:
1st: The title of the book: why is it called so? It is obvious that the city plays an important part in the end of the story but is there a further meaning to this name? Is it the symbol for something else that runs through the story?
2nd: Could the woman who died and who represents the axis of the story be a real person or is it only a fictional character?

Happy New Year and I hope I'll see you Friday 9 January.

Those of you who have read "The Age of Iron" by Coetzee, will you please think of a couple of ideas from the book?
1st: The homeless man that settles down with the starring character plays an important role in the story. Why do you think she lets him stay around?
2nd: Why does she get so involved in the story of her servant's child when he's killed? She even goes to the village where they live and is at risk of getting hurt. Why do you think she does that? Do you consider her a brave woman?

Any comment trying to answer these questions is very welcome. We will talk about more aspects of the book later on.

Welcome back and Happy New Year!!!