Virtual Mexico

One way to deal with the oppressive winter here in Maine is to "visit" Mexico via painting spots and ideas experienced there during my fall visit. You'd be surprised how refreshing this is. So I offer a couple more paintings I had "backlogged" which I recently finished.

Dio des Muertes
Oil on Canvas 16" X 20"

The Day of the Dead is the most vibrant holidays of the many Mexico, and some other countries,enjoy. Here the living celebrate the lives of the dead--friends, relatives and just about everyone else. The people troop to the cemeteries where they decorate graves and party with food and drink enjoyed by the departed. In the city are elaborate floral altars and people parade around dressed in skeleton costumes and dance to music supplied by bands whose outputs mix with one another in an aural chaos that has to be heard to be believed. The church, which normally has an outlook on death that is pretty grave, gets involved, too. I see this as a time when traditions of all kinds come together whether or not they contradict and to properly show it, the contradictions have to be expressed. Hence this painting with the church lit up like a Cristmas tree, pennants and flags flying overhead, and apparition-like folk wandering about.


Atotonilco Churchyard
Oil on Canvas 18" X 24"

If you follow these blogs you'll remember that when I go to Mexico, I get together with Frank Gardner to paint. This day in October Frank took me to Atotonilco, a small town outside San Miguel. It is noted for this church which is visited by pilgrims from all over the country. Of particular interest to us is the church interior which is completely decorated with paintings done by a priest who devoted his life to the work. Most views of the church and other buildings in the complex are seen from the front. However, I thought this scene of the rear of the buildings and the ancient stone wall with its arches told a different story. It was high noon then, but I pushed the colors which were all over the palette making for a complex picture, for me at least.

"Home" in Mexico

The Road to Celaya
12 X 9 Oil on Masonite

El Rancho
12 X 9 Oil on Masonite

El Rancho Field
12 X 9 Oil on Masonite
First, I apologize from my long absence from this blog. Too much on my plate for too long...

But now we are back in San Miguel, Mexico, so things seem to have returned to “normal” and I have regained my freedom to paint and write. So let me share some of that with you.

This time of year here is the most beautiful, in my opinion. The rainy season has left us with green and lush foliage and vast arrays of flowers that can’t be described in words. And colorful festivals of all kinds. A painter’s dream... I’ve done a dozen or so sketches so far and I plan over the winter back in Maine to use them for larger pieces that I hope inspire us during the grim gray days of January, February and March. I’ve also gotten together with good friend Frank Gardner a couple of times for work in the field. This time of year the greatest challenge is to pick that one scene to concentrate on vs. the many that present themselves to you. So I show you some of the ones resulting from our work together.

“On The Road to Celaya” is a pasture that caught our eyes in the low morning light. One often comes upon these fields that are “down and up” off the road. They fascinate me because of the effect of less-than-normal atmospheric perspective (the result of the high altitude). So the effect of distance and scale is experienced with unusual clarity. In other words, distant objects appear to be closer than they are. Frank handles this really well as we all know. In this picture I used grays to make the far sections recede and to heighten the color contrasts of near and and far.

“El Rancho” is about 5 miles from San Miguel, underneath the mountains that surround the area. Frank knew about it because his daughter takes riding lessons there. It’s a beautiful place, and the owner, Holly, rents a couple of the casitas to visitors. I picked a view of one of them looking to the east into the mountains. The setting lent itself to a nice composition and several interesting plane changes–even if it is still just a house.

“El Rancho Field” is from the same spot as the above with a 90 degree turn to the right, facing south. Such wonderful colors and even more striking planes of light

Frank and I plan to do more together while I’m here, with others joining us, and we will probably return to Holly’s rancho a time or two. I’ll endeavor to keep up with all this on the blog, though finding an internet connection isn’t always easy. So bear with me.

A Life in Mexico

This is the fourth straight day of snow here. More tomorrow...more the next day. So you shouldn’t be surprised that my thoughts turn more and more to warmer climes. I’ve been to many temperate places, but the one I love most is Mexico. We have been there a half dozen times in the past few years, but we blew this year’s travel budget on a trip to central Europe in the late fall. While that was an amazing time (more later), I feel somewhat unfulfilled, especially now in the grim gray cold of winter.

The place we go to is San Miguel de Allende, a small city in the western Sierra Madres. If you were to have a map of Mexico and put your finger smack in the middle of the country, you’d be pretty close to where it is. San Miguel was settled long ago and became developed during the Spanish colonial period. There are many historic buildings there, some dating back to the 1500s. Narrow cobbled streets, hills, gardens, flowers–all the things you can imagine such a place would have. It is heaven for painters–brilliant clear light, rich colors, appealing landscapes, colorful people, wonderful architecture–a lifetime worth of subjects. Not to mention the food!

The people are friendly, mildly tolerant of foreigners, very industrious and wary of politics. Much of the economy is based on bartering–I’ll trade my party tent for a month’s worth of your tortillas. They seem to have many business talents. I know a guy who has an exterminating business, a party and candy store and a pizza place. Everyone is some kind of retailer. There are markets dotted all over town, concessionaires, rolling carts, people selling things from a bag they carry around and fully developed markets each with dozens of merchant booths. Some of the people squat in spots they’ve had for years to sell flowers, toys, balloons, ice cream, newspapers. Painters' subjects everywhere...

I, of course, spend a lot of time there painting or taking photos or making sketches and notes for subjects I can paint when I get home. I’ve become friends with an American who now lives in San Miguel named Frank Gardner. Frank is a wonderful painter—he has a blog here and a website www.frankgardner.com. Take a visit to his site if you want to get a real flavor of this part of Mexico. He also has a gallery in town under his own name. I’ve studied with Frank quite a bit and learned a lot from him.

The painting here is of San Miguel. It is called “Straw Man on Relox.” Relox is a street near the center of town that is usually much busier than shown. One of the “retailers” I mentioned is this hombre who sells straw items. He loads himself with baskets, hats, totes on every arm, hand, fingers–so much so you can hardly tell he’s there–just a mound of straw with feet. The street is typical of the side streets in the downtown area, but I used only a few figures so as not to lose the focus on the Straw Man. During the day the streets are usually crowded with vendors, shoppers and tourists. At the height of the day, the light is very bold and bright and even the shade side of the street gets light reflected from the street and the buildings opposite. I have dozens of paintings of Mexico, but I just want you to get a taste here of the town. Frank has many wonderful landscapes and settings that show the countryside as well as the town.

If San Miguel is beginning to appeal to you, visit www.portalsanmiguel.com. For more info. From the northeast we go through Houston to the city of Leon which is an hour and a half drive from SMA. Most people take the shuttle from the airport to the town. It is a fascinating ride through high desert and grasslands. And San Miguel will not disappoint, I promise you.