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.

Balance

Balance – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Balance is a new painting. Last week while painting the dove in an abstract setting; I got the inspiration to continue mixing my abstract style with images. The International Day of Peace is always on September 21st which is on or a day away from the Fall Equinox. I wondered if the reason for this is that we need balance to be peaceful. I am trying to stay as balanced as I can during these crazy times.

To welcome the Fall equinox where night and day are equal, I thought it would be fun to paint a yin yang symbol using a crow and dove. This is my fourth painting of a crow and dove together, in fact the last one I painted, Sooner than Later was in early April, soon after the Covid-19 pandemic began. I wrote in that post; ” I view doves as a symbol of peace and crows as a symbol of magic and transformation.”

It was challenging to get the birds to look right around a circle. I like the whimsical way it turned out and am going to do a series of animal paintings in this style. My hope is that as this season moves forward, we all can maintain some sense of balance and vision of peace for our future.

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Sooner Than Later

Sooner than Later – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

We’ve been sheltering in place for about four weeks now. It’s getting tiresome, but at least the spring season is beautiful here. With the loud city sounds gone, the quiet brings back memories of an earlier time, a sense of calmness prevails. On my daily walks it’s easier to notice the birds singing and it’s also fun to see so many young families out and about.

Prior to the pandemic I had planned to get more framed prints out into local cafes and yoga studios and also to seek out galleries that may want to show my originals, now with all that on hold, I’ve got plenty of time to paint. Sooner than Later is my newest painting. Can you tell it was inspired by the pandemic?

I love painting both doves and crows and this is my third painting with both together. I view doves as a symbol of peace and crows as a symbol of magic and transformation. It was fun to paint, I spent hours playing with colors of the orbs within the sky. The particles we breathe in and out connect us all, for better or worse.

I wanted to do an uplifting painting using both light and darkness. Covid-19 is revealing dark outdated systems that don’t work for the welfare of all. Hopefully, sooner that later, our world will change for the better; with more peace, less war; more harmony, less destruction of our natural world and more equality for all people throughout the world.

Moonlit Dove with Sunlit Crow

Moonlit Dove with Sunlit Crow – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve been thinking about the light and dark and how here in the United States each passing day brings more and more concerning news. We are living through an unique time period that has a surreal feeling to it.  There are many polarizing issues with such a big gulf between them; from gun control, global warming, immigration, to race relations and gender issues.  What seems clear to me, is not to others who have their own different beliefs.   I’m sure they feel the same as I do.  Arguing about the issues has not been productive.

There are no easy answers.  I again started thinking about Carl Jung’s term the shadow and how what we don’t see in ourselves gets projected onto others.  I think on a collective level we are all dealing with unhealed wounds from our past and collectively we need to blend the light and dark within ourselves.

Moonlit Dove with Sunlit Crow is a new painting of a white dove flying toward the moon and the black crow flying toward the sun is the result of my pondering.  Getting back to painting is helping me refocus my energy away from absorbing too much negative news to being more centered and peaceful.  This is helping me integrate my own anger issues that will hopefully reach out into the collective and help in some way.

The Dove and the Crow

The Dove and the Crow – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Spring is here!  The cherry tree blossoms are out along with the early flowering shrubs and  bulbs.  It’s lovely and the weather is forecast to be mild this weekend.  I plan to get some gardening in.  Here is my most recent painting, The Dove and the Crow.   I got the idea to paint these two very different birds together because I’ve been thinking about how our world needs more balance.   The white dove symbolizes peace while the black crow symbolizes wisdom and magic.   I’ve painted them looking back at one another as if they could make a connection.

There are many conflicts now between the West and East, rich and poor, progressives and conservatives, religious and secular…  After a while you wonder why there is so much extreme polarity and why people don’t work together in a balanced way.   The Spring equinox brings with it balance with the day and night being equal.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could work together through these differences to solve the challenging issues before us.  Happy Spring to All!