The tower that took a hundred years

I've been sitting with this one for a while, because it isn't really about a building. It's about Antoni Gaudí, who at thirty years old took over a half-built church in Barcelona and never really put it down again. He worked on it for over forty years, right up until 1926, when he was hit by a tram on his way to evening mass. He was dressed so plainly that nobody realised who he was, and by the time anyone did, it was too late.

He left behind towers that weren't even close to finished. And yet, somehow, work carried on for another hundred years. This June, on the exact centenary of his death, the last of the central towers was completed, and the Sagrada Família became the tallest church in the world.

I painted this one in watercolour and ink, trying to get some of that patience into the brushstrokes. There's a poster and a postcard, both with a letter home if you'd like one, because some stories are worth writing down properly.