Enchanted Blossoms

This piece was jury selected to be exhibited in the upcoming show Art of the Flower which will run from June 13, 2016-July 23, 2016 at the New Mexico Art League. 

Enchanted Blossoms Oil on canvas 24" X 36" $3000

Another that will be professionally photographed and re-posted at a later date, but I wanted to document my recent completions. This was finished yesterday, and I have to say I am pleased. 

When I first began to paint 11 years ago I had an affinity for painting realistic flowers. Then for some years as I began to focus on allowing my own creativity to surface, and to building my art techniques I moved away from that subject. Recently I have felt a pull back to flowers and plants, but now with a twist, applying my new knowledge and skills. 

This particular image came from a photograph of a prickly pear cactus in bloom which I manipulated to add Curvismo, a style developed by my mentor Ricardo Chavez Mendez. 

Many think of the desert as a monotone, static, dry, baron place. Having lived in the high desert for 44 years I see it very differently.

Through the use of color and curved line I captured the dynamic nature of the desert, the ability for beautiful things to thrive in the absence of nourishment. By adding elements of contrast I presented the way in which the desert produces plants that are hard and sharp for their own protection, but amidst all that are soft, colorful, magical blossoms. The flowing lines indicate the way in which life in the desert is dependent on water, temperature and timing, and that it is always changing.

Hebe's Alchemy in Aquarius

Hebe's Alchemy in Aquarius Oil on Canvas 36" X 36" $3500.00

It's a terrible photo, and once I've had it professionally photographed I'll replace this one, but I just felt I needed to post some updates on recently completed works.

HEBE was the goddess of youth and the cup bearer of the gods who served ambrosia at the heavenly feast. She was also the patron goddess of the young bride and an attendant of the goddess Aphrodite. She was the daughter of Hera and Zeus and her male counterpart was the boy Ganymedes, who was carried off to heaven by Zeus to be the god's lover and cup-bearer of the gods. Ganymedes also received a place among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, the sign under which I was born.

In this scene Hebe is pouring the universe from the shell with the Aquarius constellation over her shoulder. The Aquarius zodiac symbol represents water and air, both depicted here. She rides atop hippocampus, a mythological creature typically depicted as having the upper body of a horse with the lower body of a fish. Poseidon, God of horses often drives a sea-chariot drawn by hippocampi. The terms hippocamp and hippocampus now refer to the real animal called a seahorse, and the terms seahorse and sea-horse refer to the mythological creature.