Payne's Grey · 2026

“Alhambra, Granada”

The Alhambra seen across the valley — its palaces and watchtowers strung along the ridge above Granada, drawn in ink and washed in Payne's grey, the Sierra dissolving behind.

Details

TitleAlhambra, Granada

PlaceGranada, Spain

Year2026

CategoryPayne's Grey

Dimensions14.8 × 21 cm (A5)

TechniqueInk and Payne's grey watercolour on Clairefontaine paper

Palette of the work

Request information

This piece is part of my collection. Originals will soon be available to buy online — write to me in the meantime.

The subject

The Alhambra above Granada

On a long red hill above Granada stands the Alhambra — fortress, palace and garden city of the Nasrid sultans — one of the great survivals of Moorish Spain.

Its name comes from the Arabic for ’the red one’, after the colour of its walls. Built mainly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it holds the towers of the Alcazaba, the jewel-like Nasrid Palaces and the gardens of the Generalife, all set against the snow of the Sierra Nevada.

I drew the whole silhouette from across the valley — the long line of towers and walls riding the ridge — rather than any single famous courtyard.

Grey turns it into pure profile: the shape of the thing on its hill.

City: Granada, Spain
Means: ’the red one’
Built: 13th–14th c.
Rulers: the Nasrids
Backdrop: Sierra Nevada

The Alhambra riding the ridge above Granada — The Alhambra on its hill above the old city of Granada.Photo: Mgimelfarb — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The towers of the Alhambra on their wooded hill — The Alhambra’s towers and walls — the Nasrids’ palace-fortress.Photo: Jebulon — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Seen from across the valley the Alhambra is one long, low crown on a hill — I drew that, not the detail.

Ink for the ragged line of towers and trees; a grey wash for the mass of the hill and the haze of the Sierra beyond.

It is the Alhambra as you first glimpse it — a whole city asleep along a ridge.

See also · Payne’s Grey Torre de la Vela, Alhambra · Hallstatt sul lago · Pagoda a Kyoto