Floral Still-life

Floral Still’life – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

This week, I decided to paint an interior space with a lovely flower arrangement my good friend brought for me to a lunch gathering we had out on my back porch. It was beautiful and brought me joy for over two weeks while I was down in the kitchen.

I worked on Floral Still-life for almost two weeks, playing with all the details. The view is from our kitchen into the dining room with the back doors opening to our sceened porch. One of the best things we did after buying our house as a fixer upper was to put in the double doors along with adding a screened porch. It’s especially wonderful during the warm weather; our cats hang out there daily.

I enjoy painting interior spaces, it makes for dramatic compositions and here I also used high contrast between the lights and darks. In the painting above the dining table, you can see a small framed painting of our kitty lounging on the porch. The flowers were a challange, getting the whites to work took time. I’m fairly pleased.

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Solar Eclipse is a new painting for my Celestail Bodies series. The idea for this painting came to me for two reasons. First, after painting last week’s Sun Moon and Planets, I felt the strong composition of the large sun in the center worked well and wanted to try that again. The second reason was because of the recent spring equinox of equal day and night led me to think of doing another painting with the balance of light and dark similar to my crow with dove paintings. I then thought, why not do a new painting as a compliment to the first using a large sun darkened by the moon due to an eclipse?

The upcoming total solar eclipse is traveling across North America on April 8th 2024. In this painting I put in the planets as they will appear from earth’s view. They are bundled in one area in the sky, I added asteriods, stars and also the green devil comet which may be able to be seen during the eclipse. It was challenging to get the space dark but not too dark around the eclipsed sun, while also making sure the planets were light enough. I think it works pretty well.

There is lots of buzz here about it here in the US, which is probably another reason it came to mind to paint. It will be exciting for those who live or visit under the path of totality of this solar eclipse.

Sun, Moon and Planets

Sun, Moon and Planets – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve just completed a new painting for my space series which I’ve titled Sun, Moon and Planets. It’s done on the larger sized watercolor paper. I’m enjoying working in this larger format and spent most of the week on it. I started with a large sun centered on the page and then added the spheres and then balanced the painting playing with warm and cool colors.

The forcast here in Atlanta is calling for rain all weeknd, so I’ll probably stay in and start a new painting. I’ve been thinking of possibly doing a portrait. I like the mix of doing a freeing abstract painting and then the challenge of doing something more realistic.

Fox Couple

Fox Couple -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here’s a new painting for my wildlife series. Years ago, when I began my Heni’s Happy Paintings Etsy store I did a series for young children that included one of a bunny, the original of which I gave to my oldest niece’s first baby, then I did one of lambs on a meadow and then finally a fox. The fox print was the best seller. The fox brought another niece to mind as her favorite Disney film was the Fox and the Hound and I gave her a small framed print. Sometime later she met a guy who soon became her boyfriend who also happened to like foxes and in fact got a striking fox tattoo on his arm. After they had been together for a while, I did another painting of a fox in a moonlight scene and gave the print to him for his birthday. Now it’s years later and these two foxes are engaged and planning to marry before the year’s end.

With that in mind I thought it would be fun to do a new painting of a fox couple. It was challanging, I spent a lot of time working on their expressions and also getting the colors to work. I think it’s turned out pretty well and hopefully they will like it. I could see it going into the nursury of their first baby. We’ll see. I plan to get back to doing some larger abstract paintings this weekend.

Whale in Space

Whale in Space – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’m back to my daily painting and have just completed Whale in Space, which depicts a large blue whale spinning out in space. I follow a whale page on Instagram which shows videos of whales as they spin up out of the ocean and then crash down on the water, it’s breathtaking. These images inspired me to add a whale to my space series. My husband tells me whales spin as they rise from the deep to create a vortex of bubbles that traps fish for them to eat.

Whales are magestic, large and other worldly; I can see why the space whale has become popular in various science fiction shows. Here is what google said about the meaning of the Space Whale: It represents the grandest of dreams. It represents a world in balance, one in which humankind has learned to walk with all of the life on this planet.

White Dove Flying

White Dove Flying acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I am back to painting; White Dove Flying is the first painting of 2024. I actually sketched the bird out months ago for the crow but then decided to use a larger size paper for that painting. I had been looking at the sketch in my studio and soon decided to turn the crow into a dove. It seems to me we need more peace in our world with the wars being fought now. I wanted to focus on creating a lovely white dove to symbolize peace. It was fun to layer all the colors around the dove to see what unfolded. I’m fairly pleased.

On twitter tthe other day I saw a quote by the Buddist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, He says, If we want peace we have to be peace, peace is a practice not a hope. That struck a cord in me, it makes sense, I had some challenging issues come up in these past few months and was in a somewhat negative frame of mine. This quote helped me get more perspective. I’ve made it one of my goals for the year to practice peace. If more of us practiced being peaceful, maybe we can add more peace to the world. 

Night Crow

Night Crow – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve painted many crows over the years; in recent times, I had done three paintings of a crow together with a dove for the yearly International Peace Day. To me these two together symbolize balance that is much needed for our polarized world.

One of my first blog posts on this site back in 2012 was on Into the Sun, a crow painting in which I wrote about how crows remind me of my Dad. I thought of him recently as his birthday was October 1st and I then decided to do a new crow painting titled Night Crow. This painting is fanciful showing the crow’s large wingspan flying over head with colorful light streaking across the sky and the vivid sunset behind the trees.

Down the street from where I live there are large tulip poplars and pine trees along a creek. The crows’ nests there and this time of year you can hear them cawing. I also love seeing them flying above, you can tell they are intelligent. Fall is here, the days are getting shorter, we’ve had some chilly weather, and the leaves are starting to turn. Halloween yard decorations are going up, getting more elaborate and creative each year which is all part of the fun.

A Mighty Oak

A Mighty Oak – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is a new painting of mine. We are fortunate to have many large shade trees, including oaks, here in the neighborhood. Through the late summer, I have enjoyed morning walks with the long shadows of the trees that keep the air cooler. I love looking at the light sparkling through the leaves and lighting up the branches with views of the sky behind. Last week the idea came to me to do a painting focusing on one majestic tree, and A Mighty Oak is the result. I wanted to show the oak at the height of late summer with its massive trunk and showing the roots which go down deep into the soil.

I’m in awe that these trees live in one spot through all types of weather conditions throughout their long lifespan. Oak trees can live for over 200 years and grow to over 100 feet and are an ecosystem for birds, animals, and insects; providing them with food and shelter. Throughout time oaks have symbolized strength, wisdom and healing.

Two Soaring Doves

Two Soaring Doves – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Two Soaring Doves is my most recent painting. I started painting an abstract in August and then sat with it for awhile. Once September arrived I thought to add a white dove in honor of the International Day of Peace.  I had done several white dove paintings in the past for the occasion. It had been a couple of years since I’d done one; this time, I decided to paint two white doves together within the larger space.

International Peace Day is observed around the world each year on September 21st. It was established in 1981 by a United Nations resolution. “Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.”

I enjoyed painting both the abstract background and the two doves. Even though it seems more and more crazy out there lately, somehow, I feel that soon things will flip, and more peaceful solutions will come as we all get tired of the distractions that keep us apart.

The weather is beautiful here, still hot but cooler days are coming. Fall is just days away. Enjoy the new season.

Yellow Sun, Blue Sun

Yellow Sun, Blue Sun – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Yellow Sun, Blue Sun is a new painting for my space collection. I decided to paint the sun, our star connecting to the star Sirius in our galaxy. I used my favorite jewel colors which was a fun change after the wolf painting. Planets are orbiting each of the suns while the milky way stars are in between.

This time of year Sirius rises with the sun and in ancient Egypt it signaled the new year. Many ancient cities were built in alignment with Sirius as it was believed that the vibrations of this huge star could reign down and deliver higher frequencies to help in the advancement of life on Earth. Sirius is also known as the dog star because it rose in the late hot days of summer, which we are certainly having here in Atlanta.

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and is actually a double star. The smaller Sirius B which I painted is bluish is color in front of he larger white Sirius A. I painted the blue spiral between the two suns to symbolize the helpful energy coming our way this time of year.