Black Clay

One more from my Ethnic Series.
There is a village in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, which is famous for the production of black pottery. Its name is San Bartolo Coyotepéc. Contrary to what people might believe, the clay is no different from any other, it is the process which produces the black color: The pieces are fired very slowly and at low temperatures, in a kiln which is completely devoid of oxygen. After firing, the surface of each object is burnished - rubbed with a quartz stone until shiny. Most of the pots have rounded bottoms, and are to be displayed on a wreath of wicker. They look very attractive, but you can´t use them with water because the firing at low temperature does not make them impermeable.

Ethnic Series 2

Another painting in the ethnic series.
Women carry more than their fair share of the burden in Mexico and many other developing countries of the world. I don´t want to jump on the feminist band wagon here, but it is worth mentioning. Mexico´s culture is still a male dominated one, especially noticeable in rural areas.
Women who have many children, few modern inventions to make life easier, and little in the way of income, necessarily have a hard life in a place where it is seen as weakness for a man to help at home.
This young woman is preparing tortillas. She has the corn dough or "masa" sitting in front of her on the "metate", a volcanic stone. Next to her is the hot "comal", on which she bakes the tortillas, turning them twice in the process while the man in her life stands in the background, hands in his pockets.

Ethnic Series

I am working on a series of ethnic Mexican scenes for a possible exhibition in my native Austria a year from now. Europeans seem to be very interested in the folklore of this country.
Due to its diversity in indigenous cultures, Mexico is extremely rich in native crafts and folk art: textiles, pottery, basket weaving, masks, jewelery, embroidery, wood carvings, rugs, hand painted decorative items, hammocks, toys, mouth blown glass - you name it, they have it.
This woman is a Huichol Indian. The Huicholes traditionally live in the Sierra Madre Occidental, where the States of Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit and Jalisco meet. They were the only indigenous tribes that were not defeated by the Spaniards during the conquest and they continued to live in relative isolation until very recently. In the last ten years, more and more Huichol people have come to the cities to offer their beautiful and very popular yarn paintings, jewelery and other decorative items, which they cover with intricate designs in colorful beads. Their work has been shown in museums in the United States and other countries and they are now internationally famous.

Resisting Kitsch - Or Not

I have stayed away from sunsets for the first twenty years as a painter, in order to avoid kitsch.
This one is my second ever and the first one I like. I think it works, probably because I simplified a lot, which is always a good idea. Or maybe it is because I just finished it!
I had been painting the whole day today, first blocking in a portrait for a commission I have been putting off, then finishing a seascape, also commissioned and finally, even though I was tired, I felt like doing something fast and fresh before quitting. I had a lot of color on my palette and a previously stretched 15"x15" linen ready to go. A couple of years ago I had painted at this location but resisted the sunset. Now the photograph of it was exactly what I was looking for.

Rodin on Portrait Painting

My husband keeps telling me, I should paint more portraits, he feels they are my best work. I don´t know if they are, what I do know is, that I feel happier painting outdoor scenes.
Portraits are a triple challenge because, besides getting the features exactly in the right place (likeness), and having to penetrate deeply into the consciousness of others (character), you have to please the subject of your painting.
I love what Rodin said, and I quote again from the book I mentioned a few posts ago:
"But the greatest difficulties for the artist who models a bust or who paints a portrait do not come from the work which he executes. They come from the client for whom he works."
A few lines below he continues:
"It is very seldom that a man sees himself as he is, and even if he knows himself, he does not wish the artist to present him as he is."
To that I might add another aspect: People know their faces mostly from their mirror image, not the way others see them. Since no one´s face is totally symmetrical, their real appearance looks a little wrong to them.
I have done portraits of married couples and it did not surprise me that he liked hers very much and she was very pleased with his. Their own likenesses, they thought, were a bit off.
I am glad that, in the case of Teresa´s portrait, both husband and wife were happy.

Plein Air painting

I made this little PA painting from one of the terraces at the Villa Amor resort in Sayulita, Mexico.
It was a particularly sparkling day, the sun was hot and high, and after years of visiting that beach, I knew the light was special and I had to capture it quickly before it changed.
I have a series of 8x10 s of Sayulita beaches hanging at home, painted in all kinds of light and weather. Makes me want to go back!

Skin

Painting skin is fascinating.
I was lucky enough to have my eyes opened by the great Spanish painter and teacher Sebastian Capella, who carried forward the legacy of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. Sorolla brought skin alive through the use of color.
Like any other surface, skin can have many colors, depending on the quality of the primary light source (warm sun, cool stage light, etc.) and whether there is any reflected light bouncing off nearby colorful objects.
We are used to seeing color in everything, but when asked to reproduce what we see, the left side of our brain tells us a different story: Certain things are supposed to be a certain color. Skies are blue and skin is skin color, for example. Not for me, thank goodness.