Orchid No. 2

Waiting for Vincent

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream"

Vincent Van Gogh

I finally finished it. It took me a couple of months to paint it (it is pretty big, 30"X40")and almost a year to start it, but I did it. I got the idea of doing a (very humble) homage to Van Gogh at the beginning of last year, after I finished reading his biography. I picked the sunflowers, because they were his favorite flowers (they are one of my favorites, too). The reason they are on the ground dying is obvious (I think): they died waiting for him, but he never came. Van Gogh was one of those rare geniuses whose work speak to generations, like Mozart or Victor Hugo, but he left this world all too soon, and I cannot help but wonder what else more could he have achieved, had he not killed himself so young?.

So, this is my humble homage to him, the master Vincent Van Gogh

Morning Glory

This is the first piece I finish using almost exclusively Acrylic Inks (I used a couple of specs of white pastel here and there, I must confess). I love Morning Glories, and this year we planted them right outside our door. Everyone in my hose is mesmerized by them. So, after taking a dozen pictures and watching them for a month, I decided to give it a try and this is the result!.

Donating my art

I am really excited about this. I received a letter today from a friend who has a Gallery/ Frame shop. It was from an organization called "Whole Children", they have educational, sports and art related programs dedicated to children of all ages and all backgrounds. They want to have a fundraiser (an art raffle) and are looking for artists to donate their art. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and when I got the email today I realized this is the charity I've been waiting for!. So, I will give them a call tomorrow and find out more about the event and what their requirements are. In the meantime, I already know which piece I want to give them (if they'll take it).

The painting above is called "Possibilities", it's an Oil Pastel, I finished it last year. I picked the image of an opening sunflower because I wanted to express an idea that had been lurking in my mind for a while.

We live in a society that's obsessed with "results", "perfection", "conventional", "normal", "expected"... So often we let opportunities go by, because they don't fit this crazy idea of adequacy in our heads!. When we walk past a flower before it opens, we usually think about how pretty the flower will be, we wonder when will it open?, how big?, but how many times do we stop to appreciate the beauty already before our eyes?. Potential can be as beautiful (or more) as the result and finding blessings in improbable places is an ability we should practice everyday. So, I chose to paint this promise of a flower, just to remind myself to look at what I have in front of me, not what I think I should or will have, and to appreciate the blessings I have received this instant, not the ones I think will or should come my way.

To live in the now and enjoy my life as it happens...sounds easy enough, but how I need to keep reminding myself everyday!

About nice pictures, bad ideas and flowers...

Beautiful flower, isn't it?. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers, usually the bigger the more I like them and these red ones just took my breath away!. I've been waiting all year to see them bloom again and paint a couple of them, like I did last year. So, a couple of days ago, I decided for this image, took out the pastels and got started. The problem? its not going well...I don't know if its because the paper is too small (I usually work larger pieces than this one, 10"X10") or that I haven't been able to find the "soul" of the image... probably a mixture of both. Whatever it is, its not working. So, I'm stuck in the studio layering and removing pastels for a couple of hours until my hands are all black and wrinkled and nothing comes out! That's the problem with pretty pictures: it's very easy to get lost in the beauty of the image in front of us and forget to look for what's behind the obvious... I guess I'll keep trying until something happens...

Iris

I finished this on a couple of days ago, I was waiting for the paint to dry a little to take the picture and post it.

This is one of our plants in the front yard, the only irises on my block to bloom twice a year, in spring and fall. I took some pictures last year and had been toying with the idea of painting them (they are so delicate and voluptuous), but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to represent it faithfully. So, a year later, I took a deep breath and went for it!

I don't know why, but I do that a lot... I listen to that little nagging voice in the back of my mind ("you can't do it", "you're not good enough", "you're such a fake, who do you think you're kidding?") and chicken out. It happens when I'm thinking about submitting my work to a juried competition or a gallery, it happened before I decided to start this blog (took me months to make up my mind) and I hate it!!!.So, maybe I'll use this painting as a reminder to ignore that stupid little voice and go for it! In the end, it's just paint...I can always start over.

Ari's Cala

Cala lillies are one fo my husband's favorite flowers. I painted this piece fast year, as an anniversary present for him. I was looking for a way to display the flower in a more unusual view (this piece is much larger than life, about 20"X20") , play with the contrast of lights and shadows and achieve a sense of light emanating from it.

In the end he loved it, which, to me is all that matters (not only because I made it for him, but because he's one of the toughest critics I know!).

Rose

One of the reasons I love painting flowers is how unique the textures and shapes of the petals are. In this particular case, the flower seemed to have its own topography; the delicate petals formed mountains and valleys within the flower, almost a private universe in my yard.