Art & Cuba
I met an elderly painter whose store is a Bohista (Bishop St) in Havana. He claimed that he was previously trained by Picasso and De Goya (the Cuban art museum has a lot of Goya's paintings), and he said that his grandfather also had taught Picasso. He showed me some old newspaper clippings that chronicled this. His paintings were city street life sort of impressionist to me. All of there paintings were $60.00 US and this money was then donated to a charity in Cuba (with a full receipt). I had planned on returning there when I had more money (it is difficult to estimate how much you need since some items are very cheap or very expensive). I strongly recommend that anyone interested look for this artist. His gallery was about 3-4 blocks on the south side of the street with a yellow front. But even if you aren t looking for a big name there are lots of amateur artsts and on Sundays they sell their works in Havana . At other times there is an Arts and crafts fair every day.