Fuente de las Granadas

I felt such a sense of achievement finishing this watercolour painting of Granada's Fuente de las Granadas. It was already one of my favourite monuments, and taking the time to paint it has helped me appreciate its details even more.

The bronze fountain was created by Ramiro Megías, a local sculptor who worked on it for two years before it's unveiling in March 2007. At its base stand three figures representing the "accidentes geográficos" or geographical accidents that help make Granada such a beautiful place to live:

• the Sierra Nevada mountains, represented by a woman wearing la flor de las nieves or eidelweiss in her hair;
• the Vega plain, Granada's food bowl, depicted as a woman carrying an ear of wheat; and
• the Darro and Genil rivers, where gold has been panned since Roman times, represented by a man with a gold pan at his feet. (Granada actually has a third river, the Monachil, which is my personal favourite to wander along. I'm not sure why it didn't get a look-in on the allegorical stage – that said, it is a part-time river that disappears during the hottest months.)

Each of the figures faces the geographical feature that it symbolises.

The Berber peoples brought the pomegranate or granada to Spain, so it makes sense that the middle layer of the fountain features giant versions of the fruit that gave the city its name in the tenth century. The fountain's also crowned with a woman holding a pomegranate in her hand to represent the city.

Granada seems a fitting name for a city that has survived so many different rulers over time. Even with the region's happy accidents of geography, the city's climate is difficult for most plants to grow in – it's not unusual for the temperature to fluctuate 20 degrees Celsius in a day. Despite that, pomegranates thrive here.

My favourite granado is the tree that grows in the intersection outside the central post office, Correos. The runner up is a bushier version that hangs out on the side of the road near my house. The council hacks it back at the end of summer and it comes back stronger in the spring. We're also growing a dwarf pomegranate tree in a pot at home. It's shed its leaves for the winter, a reminder that even the strongest plants don't aim for constant growth.

How did your city get its name? Does it fit?

Sketches from Granada celebrates every-day moments of connection with strangers, friends and ourselves. I know how easy it is not to be present in your own life, and I hope these sketches inspire you to seek out those moments that are worth savouring. 

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