The Muse is Back!

I have been home 2 weeks now and until yesterday, every time I walked into my studio, I felt empty and hurried out. I did get a lot done on the computer. It takes time to update my online galleries and I even spent some time studying Spanish.

The dental work continues and there was socializing also; but yesterday, after the meditation service, I was eager to start a new series. Here is what is happening:

Here's where I stopped. The paint was too wet to continue

75 Paintings Made in 2015

 It's been a busy year. Even with suffering for 3 months with shingles, I managed to create a lot of work in 2015. Much of which is figurative., and one commissioned portrait. I thought the Women Who Changed the World series was finished, but I realized a couple of the images of the women I painted, were weak, and need to be destroyed and re-painted and I want to add one more woman.

I am happy with the 50 Faces, some of which I still have up in my home gallery. Sometimes, I look at them and wonder, "How did I do that?" I know that I get in a zone when I am working on a series and it is almost as if it becomes automatic painting.

Then there was The Messenger Series; Woman artists. All of these can be seen on my website, http://www.ezshwan.com

Now it is time to enjoy the holidays. I wish you all a happy and healthy season.

 Below is a link for a short article in an online event magazine for San Miguel.

http://loccal.org/articles/2015/december/ezshwan.php

Hedy Lamarr, A Woman who Changed the World

I finished the first painting of the series of Women Who changed the World. I started with what I thought might be the most challenging, because she is so beautiful. Young, gorgeous women are not as much fun to paint, but I do like challenges.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr

Athough better known for her Silver Screen exploits, Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) also became a pioneer in the field of wireless communications following her emigration to the United States. The international beauty icon, along with co-inventor George Anthiel, developed a "Secret Communications System" to help combat the Nazis in World War II. By manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by enemy personnel.

Lamarr and Anthiel received a patent in 1941, but the enormous significance of their invention was not realized until decades later. It was first implemented on naval ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis and subsequently emerged in numerous military applications. But most importantly, the "spread spectrum" technology that Lamarr helped to invent would galvanize the digital communications boom, forming the technical backbone that makes cellular phones, fax machines and other wireless operations possible.

As is the case with many of the famous women inventors, Lamarr received very little recognition of her innovative talent at the time, but recently she has been showered with praise for her groundbreaking invention. In 1997, she and George Anthiel were honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award. And later in the same year, Lamarr became the first female recipient of the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, a prestigious lifetime accomplishment prize for inventors that is dubbed "The Oscar™ of Inventing."

Proving she was much more than just another pretty face, Lamarr shattered stereotypes and earned a place among the 20th century's most important women inventors. She truly was a visionary whose technological acumen was far ahead of its time.


When I posted this painting on FaceBook, several people thought it was Ava Gardner. That is understandable, since the publicity shots were retouced by hand, long before photo shop, and the flat makeup and strong black eyebrows, heavy false eyelashes and red lips looked pretty much the same. Ava's eyes were brown and Hedy's were green, but the makeup looked similar.

Ava Gardner

It Just Wan't Right!

The re-worked painting that I shared in the last post sat on the floor in my studio for a few days and every time I walked by, it was almost like a blow to my solar plexus. It was too busy; the face was too small; and the red was too bright, so yesterday I scraped most of the surface off and I will start over.

I want to loosen up more. I see fabulous, young artists working figuratively that are working almost magically loose and the results are incredible. First of all, I am thrilled that figurative art is once again in the forefront of the art scene, and that many young artists have the ability to draw. Drawing had been considered almost a crime several years ago. God Forbid that you had meaning and story to your work. I was told by a gallery director that if I wanted to be noticed in Mexico I had to make ANGRY art. That I wouldn't do.

Here I am at this advanced age being inspired by the brilliance of much younger artists. I am passionate about improving my painting in my last years.

after the first scraping...