Painting in Mexico
As many of you enjoy Mrs. T's stories, it gives her pleasure to periodically provide some insights into the happenings at our southern residence. Before we get to the current offering, I will note a few other items.
Today we had home delivery of fresh strawberries. That is, a truck farmer passed by with some fresh-picked fresas. We have numerous visitors with food, wares, and services: shrimp, watermelons, cheese, peanuts, oranges, bananas. The list is extensive. Some, like the peanutman, shrimpman, and pieman, come very regularly. We have also had visits from the knife sharpener, palapa repairman, and amassage person. Sometimes we buy and sometimes we pass.
About once a year we get to see how the really rich folks live when one of their motor yachts visits Vallarta. This year it is the Attessa which R spotted when out for scuba. Here are some pictures, from another source, of this ship which is just under 69m in length. http://www.pbase.com/timrowland/antibes And, yes, that is a helicopter on board.
And we want to draw your attention to a significant celestial event. This Wednesday night there will be a total lunar eclipse that should be visible in North America. Unfortunately in much of Asia it will occur in the daytime beneath the horizon and will generally not be visible in the northern hemisphere in that part of the world. The next total lunar eclipse will be in December 2010.
So, on to Rebecca's story, some of which we referenced in earlier posts.
I am an oil painter, of sorts. I make no claims for my paintings as to worth or meaning. They have to speak for themselves. But they speak to me. If they speak to someone else that makes me glad. Usually when I finish with a painting I love it. After a little time has passed I may be able to see it more objectively. (If I don't love a painting after I have finished with it, it probably is a real stinker but I keep it around a few weeks just to be sure.) My husband is seldom reluctant to point out the lacks of my works and usually he is right. It helps to have someone advise you in this way but it is also annoying. Dan has learned over the years so that he treads cautiously.
In our condo in Mexico my paintings meet with universal approval from our neighbors - from the maids, from the pieman who comes to sell pies at our door. (In fact from everyone but you know who! (Decidedly untrue. dt)) This is very gratifying. It started with the pieman. Last year he was so taken with one of my paintings he wanted to buy it. What to do. In a way I hate to sell my paintings, it is kind of like selling your children but I was very flattered. On the other hand we do not have a lot of room in the condo and eventually the paintings will start piling up. I do not want to belittle my paintings by asking for a pittance. On the other hand how much money could I ask from a man who makes his living selling pies door-to-door?
After some thought I told the pieman I would sell him the painting for two pies. He and I were both satisfied with this agreement. When I initially told Dan he was happy about the deal (he loves pies as much as I do) but on reflection he thought I should have asked for more pies. When we returned this year the pieman reappeared and told me how much the painting made his house beautiful. He indicated that he had several more empty walls. Both Dan and the pieman were eager for me to get to work.
The first large painting I finished was of a beach at sunset. Dan explained to me that the composition was imperfect, and he was right. Sigh! However the pieman liked it a lot and duly traded for two pies. The owner of a nearby restaurant indicated that he might like one of my paintings. Dan urged me to get to work so I did. I was painting a picture of a house in Bucerias with a very large fig tree in front of it. I am very fond of trees and paint them a lot. I had thought I would see if the restaurant owner would trade it for two dinners. But when the pieman saw it he was beside himself with excitement. It seems I was painting a picture of his brother's house. He had to have it too. He stopped by quite regularly to see if it was finished yet.
Usually it takes me about two or three weeks to finish a picture. I have a general idea in my mind and sketch it on the canvas before I start. Sometimes a picture takes off in an unexpected direction when it is halfway done. Painting in Mexico is different I have found. If you look at Mexican paintings you will often see that although they have very rich colors the colors have a velvety softness and not quite so sharp and bright as ones we normally see. I think this is because that is the way it really looks. There is so much dust that everything seems covered in a golden haze. Robert Frost described it like this in "A Peck of Gold":
Dust always blowing about the town,
Except when sea-fog laid it down,
And I was one of the children told
Some of the blowing dust was gold.
All the dust the wind blew high
Appeared like god in the sunset sky,
But I was one of the children told
Some of the dust was really gold.
Such was life in the Golden Gate:
Gold dusted all we drank and ate,
And I was one of the children told,
'We all must eat our peck of gold.'
In fact another artist told me that Mexican oil paints have this same softness in hue. I am not used to painting in this style. In fact when I paint a tree I tend to make a different dab for each leaf, in a Nigglish kind of way (as described by Tolkien). So far I have brought my paints from the US except for some Titanium white that I ran out of. I bought an easel here too. It is a little strange but if you prop a stone against one leg it works fine and does not fall over.
I was not yet finished with the house picture for the pieman when Estella, our maid asked me if I would paint a little picture of a rose for her grandmother. Her grandmother was having a birthday and would be 104! Dan encouraged me and said he was sure I could paint a rose although I had never done so before. I promised Estella I would try. After watching a video on the internet on how to paint a rose, I tried it and by golly after a little practice I did. I was so excited by this new skill that now I am painting a picture of a rosebush.
When I am done with this I have two more pictures in my head, another beach picture and another tree picture. These three projects should keep me busy for the next six weeks until we leave for Ohio. Dan took a picture of the house and tree before I gave it to the pieman. I charged him two pies as usual although one of my neighbors said he thought it was at least a three pie picture. You can judge for yourselves. An interesting note: although I always sign my pictures, the pieman asked me to date this one also so that when I am famous he can tell when it was painted. Dan had previously told me the same thing, about dating them I mean. Isn't that odd?
A few additional pictures are at the usual site, including a couple related to this story.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/
Dan and Rebecca
http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/
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