Spiral Woman

 I am working on a self portrait using some collage elements. I found an old mask of a "Goyesca" and decided to use it in the painting. I have painted around the mask in oils and it is coming out nice. Having a bit of a problem with the mask transition to the painting but i hope to work it out with alkyd medium.
I am calling it Spiral Woman because of my recent obsession with spirals. It is not finished yet but could not wait to post it...

Collages

The good thing about Thanksgiving is that in most cases you get a long weekend which allows one to spend time with family but also spend some time on your own if you get lucky. In my case, I got a little time this Saturday and used it to play and experiment with collages and mixed media. 

I created four little paintings using acrylic, acrylic mediums and paper. 

I have been wanting to learn about ways of creating textures. In this four pieces, I used some acrylic gesso to start with and using stencils and other techniques i was able to create various interesting backgrounds for the four images I found. 

This last one is just glued paper on paper. I was just playing with shapes, colors and composition.

Mixed Media and Encaustic Art

I love/I hate diptic. Encaustic. 2011

This year, I want to focus on my personal art. I want to learn new techniques and keep exploring all that is out there. Lately, I have been feeling more and more interested in collages, encaustic and mixed media and want to learn and have fun playing and experimenting with these new techniques and styles.

Mixed media brings a full new range of possibilities and I feel it is perfect for me as I truly enjoy patterns, and creating fantastic creatures and landscapes using a variety of media.

Last summer, I tried to create some encaustic work but had no idea what to use or how to do it. I watched a couple of videos in You Tube and bought some Beeswax and created the four little pieces below. Obviously I had no idea what I was doing so the paper starting peeling a while after, as I only used Beeswax and iron the paper over it without no glue or anything. Later on, I learned acrylic is not a good absorbent so it is better to use oils, paper or something else for backing the painting.

I realized I needed to learn more and soon.

Around the same time, I heard of a a local encaustic workshop given by internationally acclaimed painter/photographer/film maker Susan Friedman and learned some cool basic encaustic techniques. I loved it and I got set to learning more of it. I am showing below the few pieces I created in her workshop and which I recently showed in a group art show.

Happy Birthday to you..Encaustic. 2011

All about Me I. Encaustic. 2011

All about Me II. Encaustic. 2011

Personal Art Work: Surrealist Period 2008-2009

A Village called Fantasia, 2008

At the end of 2008, I felt ready to start painting my own subject matter using my own style.
I have always been fascinated by Surrealism and felt I had enough sketches made in the last ten years that could become interesting paintings. I was confident with my compositions, brush strokes and use of color and I was ready to the next level, to have a set of paintings that would better define me as an artist.

Lady in Red, 2008

Suddenly Natalie, 2009

What I am showing in this post are the paintings that I produced during that period using prior sketches, or just painting from scratch with no prior planning.

Bottles and Things II

Most people can see in this set of painting how much my artistic sensibilities are influenced by my Spanish cultural background. As my bio page describes, I love shapes and colors, and have always been interested in surrealism and magic realism. I enjoy creating fantastic relationships between tri-dimensional and two-dimensional space. I like the way shapes can often interchange and relate as multiple elements that combine to form a variety of images or concepts depending on the viewer’s perspective. I think I have achieved some of that in some of this paintings.

Free as the Wind in Russian Hill, 2009

I must say that while the majority of people that have seen both my prior (mainly student) work and this new more abstract and personal work, prefer the more representational work, I feel this set of paintings are more successful and interesting that the prior ones. What do you think?

Marriage, 2009

Abstract Still Life, 1999

Fertility, 2009

Bird House, 2009

Untitled. 2009

Figurative Art Work 2008

Nude 1

I wanted to explore a bit more the human figure, therefore, in Winter 2008, I registered for a Figure Painting Class at Canada College.

I must say I did not get into it as much as I thought I would. The models were beautiful and graceful but the class was focused on boring long poses vs. quick, fun, short poses so most of the paintings I did are overdone in my opinion.

I was done with my painting in one session but we were forced to paint the same pose for 3-4 sessions which took out the spontaneity of painting in my opinion. I ended up doing different paintings for the same pose and some came better than others. I guess that was the whole point.

Nude 2

Nude 3

All and all, I did not learned much, the teacher did not do many demos and his critique was very vague. I actually learned more just from paying attention to what other people were painting and how they were doing it. Anyway, somehow this class made me decided that I did not love the human figure as much as I thought I did. Perhaps it was just a bad class. I was not happy with most of the paintings I did so I ended up giving them away, instead of holding them for another show. I think the more successful ones are Nude 3 and the Belly Dancer. I also did one imitating Diebenkorn style that some people like very much, though I think need to fix a bit.

Male Nude Study

Study Figure Drawing

Nude Seated alla Dieberkorn

                  

Representational Art Work 2006-07

Still Life with Bottles. 2007 (Sold)

In 2007, I got into the full swing of painting thanks to a painting art class I took from Paddy Moran in CSM. Since I had not painted for a while, I decided I needed to relearn how to paint so I registered to a Beginning Oil Painting Class. After I finished with the beginner portion, I took her intermediate class and I started feeling more and more confident with my brush, colors and general style.

We had moved back to La Honda in Summer 2006 and both kids were enrolled in the local school, so in Fall 2007 I was able to work part-time, volunteer at school and and also have a little time for myself. Those were productive years in regards to art work. I still produced mainly student class assignments but I think I matured a lot as an artist and you could start seeing a bit of my own style in the paintings.

Berkeley Door, 2007 (Sold)

In summer 2008 I felt I had enough material for a show and signed up to participate in a group show in a popular local fair in Pescadero. I sold 2 paintings  on the reception eve. I was delighted!

New York Ladies. 2007 (Sold)

I am including below samples of  the work I did during that period.  Five pieces of that period have been sold so far.

I now realized how successful those paintings were. I think it has to do because even though the subject is still pretty much representational, the style is not completely realistic and the colors are vivid and bold.

Some of the paintings (the later ones) such as Still Life with Bottles, Reflections and Ramifications are starting to show a more abstract style with a more interesting use of colors and shapes.

Reflections. 2007 (Sold)

Ramifications, 2007

                                         

Hunt and Pray. 2007

Interior, 2007

Still Life with Birds. 2007 (Sold)

Our Redwood Nest. 2007

Figures and Potraits Drawings Spring 2006

In 2000, my husband and I moved to Amsterdam and stayed there for five years.  During that period, I gave birth to two beautiful boys and my life changed in many ways. I had little time for myself or my art. I drew and painted a bit here and there, but besides taking a Dutch and theater class and participating in a small theater show, did little else but work and being a mom.


In 2005, we decided to come back to the Bay Area and I decided to take a bit of a break and just work part-time for a while so I could be a better mom.

This also allowed me to start taking art classes again. 

I took a figure drawing and portraiture class from Jude Pittman in CSM and loved it. I loved especially doing portraits and just getting back to doing art again.

I am including below some pictures of various portaits and self portraits as well as nude figures I worked on during that semester.


When looking at this portraits again, I realized how much more interested I was in playing with colors and lines than in getting a realistic picture of the person.

The below 3 are three self portraits, one with just pencil and carbon pencil, one with carbon pencil and pastels and a quick sketch in pencil.

Being a Mom, Collage with Acrylic Painting