Swimming Turtle

The last painting of the crow and dove reminded me of the time, as a park ranger, I led a program where I told stories of animal myths from different cultures. While researching for that program I had seen many wonderful animal illustrations in children’s books and decided it would be fun to do an animal series in my abstract style. Swimming Turtle is my first attempt, it’s actually my fourth turtle painting.

Last weekend when a certain politician in the news was compared to a turtle on my twitter feed, my reaction was that was a grave injustice to turtles everywhere. I love turtles and feel fortunate when I spot one in nature. In Native American lore the earth was called “turtle island,” from a tale that the turtle carried the earth on it’s back. In this painting I have the turtle swimming through space.

Four Dragonflies

Four Dragonflies – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

After learning last week that because dragonflies zig and zag about, they symbolize flexibility and the need for a fresh perspective I was inspired to do a painting with a dragonfly focus. I then decided to check out the meaning of the number 4 since I had painted 4 dragonflies circling the sun in the earlier painting. The number four is symbolic of stability, order and structure. The year 2020 adds up to four and it’s interesting that our structures and foundations are somewhat shaky now and need transformation with all that’s going on.

Four Dragonflies is the result. I chose to have the dragonflies rising up in a spiral and decided each one would represent one of the four elements: earth, water, air and fire which helped me with the the composition and transitions. I’m not quite sure how successful it is but it was fun to paint, I loved playing with the swirls of color, trying to make it work. Well hang in there everyone, we will get through this.

New – Heni’s Art Shop

I am introducing my new online shop where you can purchase merchandise with my artwork.   Over the years friends and customers have asked if there were mugs, tote bags, etc of my images such as the Flying Pig.    I have worked diligently in the past few months getting high quality scans and learning Photoshop.  My husband, a Photoshop pro has been a great help.  It’s been fun and somewhat creative doing a bit of graphic design and coming up with quotes and captions for my designs.

The company my shop is with is offering free shipping through Nov. 26th.   Click on the link below to take a look and get a jump on your holiday shopping!   Thanks!

HenisArt.threadless.com

 

Tide Pools

Tide Pool – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Crab and Tide Pools – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here are two paintings I’ve done for my sister’s upcoming birthday.  She and her family live in Seattle and she wanted a couple of prints for her bathroom.  She was looking through all my fish prints and trying to decide what to use.  The thought came to me to do a new painting for her with sea life from the Pacific Northwest.  Her shower curtain had oranges and blues and tans so I worked with those colors.

Years ago we lived in Oakland California where I worked as an outdoor program specialist for the San Francisco Bay Girl Scouts.  I drove a van throughout the bay area leading special programs for girl scout troops.  Every so often I would meet a troop out on the coast where we would explore the tide pools.  The Northwest coast can be pretty gray, chilly and overcast; but the tide pools are just bursting with color of the various sea creatures.  The stark contrast made it exciting, like finding a treasure.   I loved teaching about how the sea creatures had adapted to their stark environment, opening and closing with the tide changes.

It was a fun and challenging painting the tide pools, and it helped that I did them both at the same time.   The paintings brought back happy memories that I had not thought about in years.  I feel they turned out pretty well and hope my sister will like them and that they will work in her space.