Ganesh

Ganesh – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

This week I felt like painting something light hearted so I chose Ganesh as my subject. Ganesh is one of the most worshiped gods of the Hindu Religion. He helps to destroy selfishness and vanity and to remove obstacles in one’s path. He brings good luck and fortune as he represents the material universe with all it’s many manifestations.  His elephant head represents super intelligence, his one tusk represents being focused and his large tummy symbolizes digesting both the good and bad peacefully.

One of my sisters who has an elephant collection has always liked Ganesh.  Years ago I made her a papier mache bowl with a painting of Ganesh on it.  She still has it and it makes me feel good whenever I go up to visit her and see it.  Her partner liked the white elephant that I painted last year and mentioned that he would like a Ganesh note card to give to his Indian friends at work, so that’s the plan.  I’ll make some note cards of this to give to him for Christmas.

It seems to me that Ganesh knows how to relax and enjoy life, which helps to bring good luck.  That is something we westerners could learn and benefit from.   Here in Georgia the schools have already started up in what used to be the lazy last days of summer.  In our home, my husband has just gotten a large job and will be working like crazy all month so we’ll just have to make do and relax when we can.  I hope that everyone can carve out some relaxing time during these last days of Summer.

The Lion’s Gate

Lion’s Gate – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

The Lion’s Gate is my third try at painting a Lion.  This Egyptian Lion is standing below the Sirius star. The ancient Egyptians viewed Sirius as the bringer of new life because Sirius was newly visible in the sky at the time of the yearly flooding of the Nile River.  They depended on the flooding to fertilize their lands.  In August, Sirius lines up directly with the pyramids in Giza.

I wanted to paint a regal lion, as if he were a king.   I placed him on a large monolithic structure looking out upon his kingdom.  As I continued, it became a night scene, which was fun to do.  I like the way he turned out, I feel it’s getting easier for me to paint lions.

The summer season is moving along, my daughter has a month left before she returns to school.  We’ll be visiting my twin sister in a few days, hanging out by their pool, which I’m looking forward to.  Hope all are enjoying these hot summer days!