Mexico City

Lena, Victoria and I spent the last three days in Mexico City, (D.F.) and each time we visit, we fall more in love with that amazing city. We are artists and the first thing on our agenda was to see new and exciting art. We attended the opening of Vías alternas, violencia, mujeres + arte ,  violence, women  + art. The show is being held at the museo universitario del chopo, a breath taking building designed abut 130 years ago by Eiffel, constructed in Belgium and then moved to Mexico. It was a powerful group show.

The exhibition that moved me the most was by Eduardo Olbés. He is a sculptor, who along with his assistants spent the last two years creating this show where faces of murdered women are painted on bone and the thousand of "bullets" are made of marble, some pieces resembling mandalas for narcos.

Lena and me, Vick was behind the camera

The next day we spent shopping. I always buy bees wax in D.F., but we all found more irresistible treasures. The restaurants were wonderful and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves so much that we began to think about how we can spend more weeks in this wonderful place.


 Check out the link below for more information on visiting Mexico City.


 http://www.mexicocityexperience.com/emails/1010/101110.html

Whew! This one took a long time.

detail

This painting had many lives. There are countless layers of encaustic paint as I moved from a rather serious painting with an obvious subject - the Mexican Revolution, to one that I think of as happy bubbles. I really can't use that as a title. Can I?

detail

Another big painting

detail

It is difficult to photograph these large pieces. I added a detail shot. These last two are 90 x 120 centimeters. I don't think I can work any larger as I have to rearrange the studio to do these.

Studio time

I finished two mostly red paintings. Unfortunately my camera could not capture the variations in the red. It looks like it is all one color. I didn't bother to post the other one.

Both Jenny and Donna returned to use my studio and materials to continue their adventures in encaustic.
Jenny had to dash off to a meeting and I didn't photograph the wonderful piece she did. She is a fabric designer and is now creating some designs in encaustic. Donna finished the sunset painting that she had begun in the advanced workshop, and added a collage to another piece. Both are beautiful

Time for my own work

It felt good to rearrange my studio so I could work on another big piece. I put two tables together to handle the 36" x 47" board. I move from working around the tables to easel, depending on how I am fusing. I'm reworking a figurative piece that never satisfied me, and there were lots of colorful layers to add to the depth of the new abstract. There is to be a group show November in the Pozos gallery. The theme is,"Now Revolution"

August Advanced workshop

Not only did the five artists in the advanced workshop learn more techniques than was possible to try in 10 hours, they began to feel what was right for them and make encaustic fit into their own style.

We added some male energy to this class with the addition of Judson, a sculptor from Australia who has an exhibit of his work, along with his painter, wife, Cate at a local gallery.

Thursday, Donna invited all of us to her sweet home, still under construction, but already comfortable, for a glass of bubbly and delicious guacamole.

Judith is continuing the friendly connections made in the class by inviting all to dinner at her house next week. I love living in San Miguel and all the opportunities to meet other artists and make new friends.

I'm impressed!

These photos are from the intro workshop, August 16 & 17. Most of these artists are coming back for the advanced techniques class this week. Can they get better than this?