Twin Suns

Twin Suns – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve just completed Twin Suns, a new painting for my Cosmic Bodies Collection. I got the idea to paint two suns together as I was thinking about how I was born with an identical twin. Last week I visited my twin sister for a couple of days to celebrate our belated birthday. We started getting together like this a few years ago and it’s been fun. I’ve done many double paintings over the years, usually fish or dolphins. I thought that this time it might be fun to do an abstract painting with a double effect.

It’s interesting to think that she and I were once an embryo that divided and formed into two individuals. I imagined what it might be like after a sun divided into two. I played with the idea of outer and inner space. I used two figure eight waves as infinity loops and more waves to give the sense of ever expanding movement.

Spring is in full force here, hope all are enjoying the season.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wolf

Wolf – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I have just completed Wolf, a new painting for my wildlife series. My goal in this series is to have strong graphic compositions which I think was accomplished here. I was tempted to use more color around the moon but restrained myself, in keeping with the mood of the painting.

I remember drawing a lone wolf up howling on a mountaintop with the moon above on the back of notebooks in late elementary school, probably fifth or sixth grade. It was a popular motif at the time. That’s probably when I realized that I liked doing art. From middle school through all of high school, I took art class as an elective.

I have another painting a wolf with a girl which I did for my Heni’s Happy Paintings Etsy shop but this one is a wink to those early drawings. In reality a lone wolf is quite rare. Wolves are family oriented and depend on each other. They symbolize loyalty, family and friendship, but also wildness and freedom, as they chose not to become tame like dogs.

.

Black Hole 2

Black Hole 2 ~ acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Black Hole 2 is a new abstract painting in my space series. A black hole is an area in space with so much gravitational pull that no matter or radiation can escape. Black holes are formed from super nova star explosions and the extreme density of the matter causes the gravitational pull. Astronomers think that black holes may help to stabilize galaxies.

This is the third painting in my space collection that includes a black hole. In this one, I put a large black hole on the top edge and added planets and stars along with a sun. I painted radiating colors being drawn to the hole along with a comet. It was fun to paint. I love the looseness of layering color washes and then scratching back to see what’s created. I also enjoy doing the detail work of painting the spheres and star dots. Doing detail work helps to keep me in the present moment, at times I tend to overthink. I’m fairly pleased with the result.

Squirrels in Spring

Squirrels in Spring ~ acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Squirrels in Spring is my most recent painting, A few years ago I painted a lone squirrel on a tree branch with the brilliant fall foliage that I had seen from my upstairs studio window. This time around I thought it would be fun to do a spring scene with more than one squirrel.

With spring is in full force here in Atlanta, all the squirrels are busy scampering through the trees like acrobats. I imagine they are happy with the cold weather gone and are enjoying the abundant food sources. The other day I saw a mom run over to rescue her young one who cried out for her as my cat looked on from our screened porch. She carried her from the nape of the young one’s neck and quickly disappeared under a fence into my neighbor’s yard. On my walk I counted nine busy squirrels in a tree shaded front yard, This time of year I also notice the lovely bright light greens of the new leaves contrasted with the tree trunks and limbs in the sunlight. So beautiful. I tried to reflect this in my my painting.

My twin sister likes the symbol of the industrious and social squirrel which is another reason I chose to do this painting, as I am rotating an abstract with my more “realistic” paintings. There is such a strong force of life this time of year in nature, I hope all are enjoying the season.

Alice’s Horse

Alice’s Horse ~ acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Alice’s Horse is a new abstract painting that I’ve done for my sister. She wanted one of my abstract paintings but one with muted colors that differ from my usual jewel colored space abstracts; one that would fit in with her open living space of their relatively new home. The painting is on 22″ by 33″ watercolor paper, I had not painted in this large scale for several years. In some ways it’s more freeing to paint with large strokes; I enjoyed it and I plan to do more.

My older sister took horse back riding lessons and was a natural, My dad got a beautiful horse named Scarlet for her and our family that he kept at a friend’s countryside place in Seal, Alabama. It seemed like every weekend throughout the year we were out there playing in the countryside. Alice spent many days riding Scarlet. I thought it would be meaningful for her to include a horse in the abstract landscape. Doing this painting brought back many happy memories of our times there. It got me thinking of a few more ideas of new paintings in the style to complete a series.

Black Bear Emerging in Spring

Black Bear Emerging in Spring

I’ve just completed a new painting, Black Bear Emerging in Spring. I’ve done lots of wildlife paintings but have never tried my hand at a bear until now. I wanted to get the feeling of the bear just coming out of hibernation and into the beauty of spring. It took me a while to get the pose of the bear that I felt worked, I wanted him moving and looking imposing.

Years ago, I spent a year living in a small farmhouse on a mountainside outside Asheville, NC. One spring afternoon I climbed way up the mountain behind our house, higher than I usually hiked and sat on a rock to write in my journal. Suddenly I heard thunderous sounding footsteps coming from the area above my rock, When I turned around to see what it was, the sound stopped. I quickly packed up my journal and hightailed it down the mountain. I knew it was a black bear who was probably just as surprised to see me as I was to hear him.

I feel that when we humans come upon bears, their massiveness can invoke a powerful feeling of awe. Perhaps this is why the bear as a spirit animal or totem is one of the most ancient worshiped animals. I looked up the symbolism of bears and it’s what you would imagine: strength, courage and protection. It’s been unseasonably warm here but cold weather is coming back; let’s hope the real spring will be here a bit later to enjoy like this bear!