The inspiration of Salvador Dali

The Spanish artist, Salvador Dali, found his inspiration here at the Cap de Creus Natural Park as a child… including for his work ‘The Great Masturbator’

Written by Michael Turtle

Michael Turtle is the founder of Time Travel Turtle. A journalist for more than 20 years, he's been travelling the world since 2011.

Michael Turtle is the founder of Time Travel Turtle and has been travelling full time for a decade.

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Cap de Creus Natural Park, Spain

Sometimes there are minds you can’t even imagine comprehending, imaginations seemingly too warped to understand, things that seem to be but exist only when you’re imagining them.

Imagination – it comes from somewhere. Perhaps it comes from inspiration. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

There needs to be a spark and what is inspiration if the not the ignition of an idea?

Just like fire needs heat to exist, all the best creativity needs a stimulus.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

Salvador Dali, the great twentieth century painter, found inspiration here on the coast of Spain.

In the Cap de Creus Natural Park in the country’s Costa Brava region, he found the shapes that would form in his mind and be realised on the canvas.

Rocks like animals, trees like people, perhaps even clouds like melting clocks?

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

Dali grew up in this region and as a child he would spend time along the coast. Impressions as a child led him not to become an impressionist but a surrealist.

Surreal impressions? More likely surreal interpretations of these natural surroundings.

So inspiration becomes imagination which becomes interpretation.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration
cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

It doesn’t take an artistic genius to see the beauty in the landscapes in the Cap de Creus Natural Park.

Waves magically turning blue into white as they crash upon cliff faces…

Rocks jutting out in a constant distortion of shapes…

Trees cracking the sky into a thousand pieces…

Bays sheltering the sun caught on the water.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration
cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

The Great Masturbator, Salvador Dali

But it’s how you interpret it all that is the mark of a real artist. Salvador Dali saw the rock in the photo below and it became the base for his work ‘The Great Masturbator’.

A random shape to any other could become a fellating female in his mind.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

The walking tracks through the park are well-maintained and take visitors past the most important parts. This is particularly so in the area called ‘El Paratge de Tudela’.

It’s here that people have their imagination lightly influenced with suggestions as to what particular rocks might look like.

An eagle? Now that you say so, of course it is.

How about that one? Could it be a bull, or a horse? I’m not sure… I’ll interpret it how I want.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

This whole area was once a Club Med. It’s hard to imagine but for the scattering of rusted metal skeletons that has been incorporated into the pathway designs.

These days it is a protected region. The Spanish and Catalan authorities say it is because of the natural beauties but there’s more to it than that, I expect.

cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration
cap de creus, natural park, catalonia, spain, salvador dali inspiration

Anywhere that can inspire the work of one of the country’s best artists has a special quality. You can’t bottle it but you can protect it for the generations to come who will interpret it through their own minds.

Time Travel Turtle was a guest of the Costa Brava Pirineu de Girona tourism board but the opinions, over-written descriptions and bad jokes are his own.

22 thoughts on “The inspiration of Salvador Dali”

  1. Love the photos! I am a fan of Salvador Dali’s works. I actually registered for TBEX Spain, but circumstances deprived me from doing so 🙁 The photos reminds me of Kapurpurawan Rock Formation here in the Philippines hehe

    Reply
    • Oh, what a pity you missed out. The landscapes along the Costa Brava coast are beautiful.
      And it sounds like I’m going to have to get to the Philippines soon… you’re not the first person to mention them recently…

      Reply
  2. Thanks for the tour of the park through your great photos. As a Dali fan, I also appreciate the insights about his inspiration. I took a boat ride along the coast past Cap de Creus NP and could see how he was influenced from that perspective, too. Would love to take some trails in the park sometime.

    Reply
  3. What a fantastic part of Spain that I had no idea existed. We visited El Tocal NP in Spain last year – a place of fantastic rock forms but I know of no painters of Dali’s stature that have use that place as a backdrop.

    Reply
    • It sounds like I’ll have to check out El Tocal at some point as well… the NPs are so beautiful in that part of the world. If only I had even an artistic bone in my body, I’m sure I could find some inspiration myself in these places.

      Reply
  4. Your blog is fantastic (finally getting around to checking out all the cool peeps I met at the conferences). Love this post and had no idea this place existed let alone was the inspiration behind some of Dali’s work. Didn’t do any pre or post press trips but hit up the Dali Museum in Figueres and walked around Cadaqués a bit. Costa Brava is definitely a region fans of Salvador Dali should visit…

    Reply
    • Thanks, Larissa! I was really impressed with all the Dali sites around Costa Brava. If you were a fan, you could spend a good few days seeing everything for yourself and learning a bit more about the man.

      Reply

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