Jimena artist to hold exhibition in San Roque

Juan Soler, who lives in Jimena and works all over the place, has been invited to hold an exhibition of his paintings at the Sala Joven Rooms at the Diego Salinas Building in San Roque (right next to the new Town Hall, sightly downhill from the main square). Titled Las pieles del poeta (The Poet's Skins), the exhibition will be inaugurated on Tuesday November 2 and remain open until the 12th. Born in La Línea de la Concepción in 1966, Juan Antonio Soler is a painter, sculptor, writer, graphic designer and photographer, among a lot of other things. Please see more about Juan Soler on JimenArte, one of our partner sites.

Artist Rod Stokes offers a course in Figure and Portrait Drawing

JIMENA Well-known artist and Jimena resident Roderic Stokes announces this year's art course in Figure and Portrait Drawing. Starting in October and running through November and December, the 12-week course is to be held on Saturdays from 10.30 to 12 noon at the Reina Sofía Cultural Centre in Estación (or Los Ángeles). Rod, who has lived in Jimena since 2001, is both painter and sculptor and has worked in a variety of art fields, from fine art to contemporary three-dimensional design. His studio down by the Hozgarganta river is where he has been working since arriving in Jimena after a lifetime of travel and teaching. (See other local artists on our partner site JimenArte.)

Jimena is Miss Universe 2010

Yes, you read that right. This year's Miss Universe is called Jimena Navarrete. She was Miss Mexico, and was crowned on Monday at the 59th edition of the pageant, held this year at the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas. In fact, Jimena is a fairly common name in Mexico, as you can see if you choose to waste time (as we have) by Googling the name... There's a very popular singer by that name, apparently, and a hurricane was called that last year. It is the name of the legendary mother of Bernardo de Carpio (no, not Di Caprio, silly), whoever that was, and Jimena Díaz was the wife of El Cid, of course. King Alfonso VI of Castile (c.1040 – 1109), called The Brave, had a mistress called Jimena Muñoz ... and then there's JimenaPulse, JimenArte, Holidays in Jimena, Jimena Property Listings ... Well, done, Jimena!

Bees are back

(By e-mail, Thank you, Phil) "Attached is something which turned up in our garden for the first time since we have been here.  Blink and you would miss it as it is so small, being only 1cm in diameter. We have identified it as the bumblebee orchid (Ophrys bombyliflora) and it isn´t that common but by no means a rarity. We rescued this one from the lawn mower, but have found a whole colony of them. I suppose they should be known as a "bee´s nest of orchids"....bad eh!" Click on the photo to get the detail. You can see more of Philip Heinzl's work on our partner site JimenArte, a free exhibition space for the arts.