I got home from Arizona last night. It was much easier having a direct flight to Mexico City. I then took a bus to Queretaro and then a taxi home.

I got an email from a man in Oregon who has a painting I did in 2000. It is oil on paper. He wanted information on the piece. I hadn't remembered it, so he sent an image. Here it is.

I am in Scottsdale Arizona for the Christmas holidays spending time with family. 2 of my grandsons are here. It is cold, but sunny. I came prepared with plenty of sweaters.

I was disappointed in the Scottsdale gallery scene. I had remembered it more exciting. If you just want Western art, this is the place. I am hoping to get to the contemporary museum before I leave on Saturday.

I didn't bring my computer so I can't download any images. Next week, I will share some images.

Now this is more like San Miguel de Allende

The sun came out and dried up the streets, put smiles on people's faces and certainly warmed up my old bones.

Rare day in San Miguel

We are half way through the second day of an introduction to encasutic and in all the years I have taught encaustic here, I have never experienced such nasty weather. For those of you who do not live here, I have posted a link to the live web camera in the Jardin. Maybe we need a cold, gray, wet day to appreciate all the bright sunny days we usually have.

http://www.sanmiguelrealestate.com/live-webcam-san-miguel-de-allende.php

I am properly chagrined.

The sale has been canceled and I understand why. Even though I thought the second painting was better than the first, it was not the same as the one on the on-line gallery. I would have done the same thing. I am embarrassed and feel chagrined. I have been in this business too long. I knew better.

 I unpacked the painting during a workshop I was giving and one of the participants in the class asked the price and all admired it. So it will sell, but not as originally planned.

Also during the class, two men tracked me down after seeing my work in the galley at the Fabrica. One of the men already owns one of my paintings and he wants to buy another - not encaustic, one of the few remaining paintings I did in oil. Here is the image of it.

It has been an interesting afternoon with one person believing that I am a scam artist and others raving about my talent. I am humbled by both opinions.

sold the same painting twice -Oops!

First one

The first painting pictured here sold at my open house. I marked it sold on my web site, but forgot to remove it on an on-line gallery and was surprised to be notified that it had been sold from that site. What to do? I tried to re-create the image. What do you think? Of course it is not exactly the same, but it is as close as I could get.

second painting

Another dance painting

I finished this painting today. It is 32" x 40". Time for a break.

I re-photographed the painting I posted yesterday. It looks better and I am not so discouraged. That do you think?

Where is my muse?

This week has been a creative struggle. I was so pleased how the painting with the masked dancer turned out, I thought I could keep painting with that ease and spontaneity. I worked 3 days on another encaustic Hungarian dancer painting - a much bigger one, but it never clicked. Ignoring my tightening solar plexes, I kept telling myself, "I can fix this" After too many hours, countless layers of encaustic - it was really getting heavy, I looked at the painting after the third full day of struggle and said, "This is crap" and put it back in the stacks with the other failures.

I finished this one today, but the excitement is gone and I find it without passion.  I will take a break from the studio until my muse shows up again.


















Tomorrow is the life drawing session. At least, I can keep drawing. Here are some sketches that I have done. We start with 30 second drawings and end the 2 hours with 15 minutes sketches. I do enjoy this and the time flies.

How to paint figuratively in encaustic

I just published a new YouTube video on how I made my last painting. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Process of figurative encaustic painting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbtcgM2wNFk

crazy carrots

I took a break from the studio today to work in the garden. It was lovely to see the winter vegetables poking through the dark, composted earth. I pulled some carrots for a carrot and sage pasta dinner and they are some crazy shaped and colorful vegetables.
They were delicious.

Hungarian Dance paintings

Both of my parents were born in Hungary and I grew up hearing the music of that country and my mother's stories of the traditions.

Years ago, I saw the Hungarian ballet in Budapest. At that time is was the only color I found in that city. There were still very much under the communist rule. A few months later the same group came to Scottsdale AZ, where we were living.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Hungarian Dance Company came to San Miguel.
I was so impressed with the passion and action of the company's performance that I chose to start a new series based on those dancers.

24" x 24"

12" x 12"

!2" x 12"

Here are the first three paintings.

I love San Miguel and Day of the Dead

A partial wall in the newly re-done children's play ground in Parque Jurez.

 Yesterday was the second of the "Day" of the Dead. This year it is a 4 day celebration. This is my 8th year experiencing this colorful celebration and it far surpasses anything I have seen before.

I strolled around town pretending that I was seeing San Miguel for the first time. I was thrilled by everything I saw and grateful that this really is my adopted home.

After dark I went back to the center to hear the earth harp. http://earthharp.wordpress.com/
It was new to me and very impressive. There were many of hundreds of people in the audience, including dozens of Katrinas in full makeup and fabulous costumes. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with with me.

I couldn't resist taking this shot of the most photographed street in San Miguel

Giant skulls decorated by local artists are placed around the city.

This is really creative

multidimensional installation

In town

color and music everywhere

Sound check in the park

In front of the main altar in the center

school children's addition

Every child was given a box and they filled it with something personal