San Carlos Christmas Bazaar

Last Saturday was the annual Rescate Christmas Bazaar in San Carlos.

Anyone with anything to sell could rent a table and show their wares.  The Liga de Arte in San Carlos had an area and as part of the group I decided to take some paintings there this year for the first time.

The attendance at the Bazaar seemed good, I am not sure how sales were for other people; but sales were down for the Art League, or so someone said.  Not having been there before I have no idea.

I met some new people and chatted with others that I knew and the morning went by fairly quickly.

Day To Day Happenings

Weekend over it was time to begin a new week by heading over to San Carlos to the Monday morning art class.

I will have some of my paintings for sale at a show/sale at El Mar Restaurant in San Carlos this weekend, so if you are from around here stop by have brunch at the restaurant if you are hungry and at the same time have a look at the various artists work that will exhibited.

Art class over, I headed for some groceries and then home and did some baking.  Deep freeze is beginning to fill up I am happy to say.

Tuesday dawned sunny,breezy and chilly. I went downtown to pay some bills and then to Spanish class.  Class finished we headed for an early lunch as some of our friends are headed back to Canada tomorrow.  A tasty lunch of seafood and then home for their pup to have a farewell visit with Roy before they headed back to their house.

I have been having some pain in one of my teeth for a while now and finally yesterday I found I could no longer chew on that side of my mouth without awful pain so made a dentist appt. when I got home.

This morning very windy and cold again, heavy coat weather for sure.  Off to do some more errands and then to the dentist.  He found I had somehow broken one of my upper molars right in half and so it had to be pulled.  Several shots of Novocaine later and some wiggling and the broken tooth was removed.  Cost 500 pesos or about $39.00 CAD, this dentist is perhaps a bit more expensive than some; but we like his work, he is gentle and does not take any longer doing the work than necessary.  This is a definite plus for someone like me who has a distinct aversion to dentists.

Not sure what the rest of the week will bring; but definitely some painting time in there somewhere.

I finally finished the set of 3 Blue Door paintings, here is a poor photo of the 3 of them together.  All 3 are now for sale either separately or together as a set.

Hope your week is going well.

A Funny Story

Yesterday was the opening of the exhibition of paintings from the painting classes at the Casa de la Cultura.

Over time I have been working on a 3 painting series of Blue Doors from photos I had taken over the years.  Two of the doors were from old buildings in Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, the other one was of the door of the building that used to house the museum here in Guaymas.

The new Arts and Culture director for Guaymas opened the exhibition after the classes and various dignitaries were introduced and then snacks were served.

While everyone was chatting my teacher came over to me and asked where the one door I had painted was from, was it in Guaymas?  I said yes, it was and explained to him where it was.  He then told me that the new director had asked him who had painted it as he wanted to meet them.  The teacher took me over to him and introduced us and we began chatting.

It turned out that at some point in the directors life he had removed the air conditioner and re- concreted the wall, on the painting I had put in this detail as it showed as a rectangle of a different texture and colour on the photo.  He had also painted the door blue.

What a coincidence!!  He said that he recognized the building and wanted to meet me and tell me about it.  He was surprised when I knew it had been the museum and had visited it before the flood ruined it.

Really odd the things that happen sometimes, to me that was a one in a million chance that anyone would recognize the building or even know anything about it.  Just shows what a small world it is.

This is the painting of the door.  Oil on canvas.

Size: 12 x 15 x 2 in. or 31 x 38 x 5 cm. ssizei

The Latest Paintings

The picture in pastel that I did first of my friends dog Geordie was not giving me the happy glow of accomplishment and when I sprayed it with fixative it went quite a bit darker and then I was really not happy with it.
I took a different picture of Geordie the last time we saw him and worked on a painting from that picture for a bit, set it aside when frustrated and worked on it again.
I bought a different fixative and sprayed it and then realized that his tongue was not in the right position and so the whole picture looks somewhat off.
By this time I was sick of trying to get Geordie to look right, so set both his pictures aside for a week or so.
Today I got them out and tried to lighten up the first one and then resprayed it. I looked at the second one and decided that there really wasn't much I could do about the bad tongue placement as the white would never cover up the pink that was already fixed in place.
I threw up the white surrender flag and consider them finished. After today no one other than me ever has to see them so I will just chalk them up to experience.

The first attempt.

The second attempt.

I had my sister send me a picture of her dog Zoe who is another one of my favorite animals.  She is, (I think) a Golden Retriever.  I am not too good at my dog breeds.  Anyway Zoe is going to be my next attempt.  Wish me luck.
Here is her picture.  She is such a sweetheart.

Zoe.

The registration is on for the next set of classes at the Casa de la Cultura so I went the other day and signed up for the class I want.  Class starts on February 1 st and I am ready.  I have my photo chosen for the view I want to paint and I have purchased the size of canvas that I want.  My stuff is ready to pack in my bag and be off back to school.  Can you tell that I am raring to go?

The first FAOT concert is on here tomorrow night, it is a "pocket" opera.  I am not sure if I am going or not, Roy doesn't want to go, so I will see.

This And That

Last week when I was at Spanish class the teacher told me that her daughter had been to Mexico City and had brought her back some Yucatan style dresses.  She hadn't unpacked them yet, so I told her that this week I would bring my camera and take some pictures of them.
I actually remembered to take my camera with me and she brought out the dresses.  Lots of lovely hand embroidery.  She had on a lovely fuchsia colored top which she said was machine embroidered; but that photo didn't turn out well.
Here are some photos of the dresses.  They are certainly very pretty and I am sure that she will get lots of wear out of them this summer as they are cotton and should be cooler.
It is hard to see the embroidery as the dresses kind of hang together when not on a person; but it gives an idea of the work that has gone into them.


























I loved this black one, it has lots of work on it.  I thought it was machine embroidered; but she says it is hand done.













It is worthwhile to enlarge this picture to see the detail on the dress.  Lovely.

I have been doing some painting a few times a week and tried to do some Plumeria flowers with dew drops or rain drops on them.  The drops turned out not bad, the rest of it, not so good.  Practice, practice, practice  I don't think I have tried any flowers before in oils.  I did do some years ago in acrylics in the "one stroke" type painting style that was a fad for awhile or maybe still is??  I don't know.  I tried another beach scene and another wave scene and am going to try a waterfall next.  After that who knows.  I am having fun anyway and that is what counts I guess.

Object Of My Frustration

Yesterday I had just spent an hour or so working on some mountains in a painting when suddenly the part of the easel that holds the bottom of the painting slid right down to the floor.  Naturally the painting went flying and just as naturally (Murphys Law) it landed face down.  I should mention that I was painting out on the patio where the floor is concrete, not tile and collects all the dust, etc. that happens to blow around.  There was a large amount of vocabulary used that is very unladylike and Roy came out to see what was going on.
I explained and he examined the parts to find that some screws had come loose and another had come right out.  Screws that had just been tightened maybe a month ago!
He repaired it for me and also did some preventative repairs on some things that were just put together with small air gun nails (useless things).  While doing this he jokingly mentioned that mountains are supposed to have sand and rocks on them.  Hmmm, sorry hon, not funny right now; although later it was.  I managed to brush off most of the grit with a clean, dry brush without smudging the mountain colour into the sky colour and continued on with my mess.
We had bought this easel in about 2007 when we were both taking "lessons" at the Casa de la Cultura.  Roy didn't go for long; but I continued with it twice a week from about September to June that year.  There was an instructor and she was there to help you if you got stuck but there were no actual lessons.  It was more like a place for people to come and paint.  I enjoyed the interaction with others with the same interest and it was probably good for my Spanish too; but I needed and still need actual lessons.  I have never had any type of art lessons even in school and definitely need more than the YouTube videos that I am watching/learning from right now.  I need someone to tell and show me where I am going wrong and how to do things properly.

This is the object of my frustration.  It is a poor design, never buy one like it.

Anyway after the easel was repaired I did my first ever ocean wave with a curl and foam.  I pretty much messed up the end of the wave (right hand side); but I left it to dry and maybe I will paint over it or try and repair it later.  The majority of my paintings get painted over as they are not good and not worthwhile saving to take up space.  I am after all just practicing and trying to learn.  I also finished my first attempt at a beach picture, again not happy with it.
I guess what I need is an honest critic, Roy is too nice and yesterday 2 of the neighbors were watching me paint as they took a break from their building work.  They were also very nice, which is fine; but what I need is someone to be honest with me and tell me where I am going wrong or maybe just tell me to put down the brushes and step away from the easel permanently, lol.  Anyway, I do enjoy mucking about with it even if I am not happy with the results.
Gloria keeps asking to see some of the results of my messing about so I have decided to be brave (read idiotic here), and post a couple of them.  Remember, these are first attempts at waves and beach sand, so be prepared to see a train wreck lol.

This And That

My friends plant is still alive, thank goodness.

Desert Rose is absolutely loaded with blooms.

It is one of my favorite plants.

Rose blooms are about 1/2 the size that they were before it got hot.