Rose Goddess

Rose Goddess – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Rose Goddess is another painting that I began years ago and have just now completed.  I had always loved the composition but her face was not right.  I had found the image from a photograph of a goddess statue in the Versailles gardens.  Her face had always looked too masculine, so that’s what I changed to complete her.

I have heard that my mom’s mother loved roses and had a beautiful rose garden.  She died when I was too young to remember her.  My parents both admired her and always spoke of what a wonderful and loving woman she had been.  No one ever said an unkind word about her.  I think of her and her loving qualities and wished I had gotten to know her. She had  a pair of rose vases that I feel lucky to have inherited.   The fact that my loving grandmother loved roses has stuck with me and gotten me curious about the rose symbolism.

The rose has been associated with goddesses throughout history.  In one legend the first roses sprang from the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite’s tears.  In later times the rose symbolized the beauty of romantic love.   Under Christianity, the rose became the Virgin Mary’s sacred flower, representing the divine feminine love.  The accepting feminine  loving energy is so special and much needed now.

 

Wily Coyote

Wily Coyote – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

After last week’s more complex painting, I felt like painting something more whimsical and loose.  As I was pondering what to paint,  I happened to see a  funny cartoon of  Wile E. Coyote getting into trouble with the Road Runner and later that evening  Joni Mitchel’s Coyote tune came up on my Echo; I love all her music and had not heard that fun song in years.  We also have had plenty of coyotes in the hood,  I’ve never seen one here but have heard their strange calls in the wee hours of the night.

With the decision made, I looked up the symbolism of the coyote.  He is often thought of as a trickster, a joker, and even a shape-shifter, but is also revered in Native American culture as an important messenger of personal transformation, showing endings and new beginnings.

I thought it might be fun to paint a coyote in a fanciful colorful magic-like landscape and Wily Coyote is the result. I’m pleased with the way he is looking at the viewer as if he knows something we don’t.

Next week my husband and I are heading to Seattle for my niece’s wedding. Its definitely a time of a new beginnings for my niece and also for her older sister who is days away from her second child’s birth.  We’ll be there for a just under a week with all my sisters and the nieces and nephews.  Our daughter will  fly in from Japan, luckily her internship ends two days before the wedding date.  We’re so looking forward to being with her and hearing all about her experience there.  Not sure that I’ll be able to start another painting before we leave but am looking forward to new inspiration of being in Seattle during this exciting time with our extended family.

There Goes My Shadow take 2

There Goes My Shadow 2 – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

There Goes My Shadow is a painting I blogged about a year and a half ago that I  recently reworked.   Last month as I began the recent painting Moonlit Dove and Sunlit Crow,  I took a look at this older painting because of the similar theme of dealing with the shadow.   I realized then that the painting looked weak.

I have added more color and contrast to to help pop out the fall colors and I also reworked the girl’s face.   My painting teacher used to have us do an exercise of painting in a darkened room since it would naturally force us to use more contrast with the lights and darks.  It was a helpful lesson and it came to mind as I looked back that this painting.  I think it works better now.

Twin Fairies

Twin Fairies is my third attempt at painting twins and I think the most successful.  As  I have written on my about page, I have an identical twin sister and we are the youngest in our family.  My parents had an eight and four year old when we came along.  They were busy with the older daughters, so the two of us were left on our own  and played together all the time.   We actually developed our own language and I can remember being in our own imaginary world pretending to be animals, fairies, etc.   If you were to see our baby photos, we actually looked like chubby cherubs with curly hair.

My Mom was born in the early 20’s and when she was a child, her mom gave her illustrated prints of little fairies and children that were popular during that time period.  Mom kept them and they hung in our  bedrooms growing up.  We loved them, they were magical and fun to look at.  I wanted this painting to have a bit of that dreamy, magical style.

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.

Two Pears in the Sunlight

Two Pears in the Sunlight – acrylic painting by Heni  Sandoval

Two Pears in the Sunlight is the last of my pear painting touch ups.   I loved the bright yellows of the pears and the foreground texture.   There is a simple looseness in this early painting that I wanted to keep so  I just added the purple stripe and a bit more detail to the background wall.

It’s a bright painting for an early overcast Friday morning.   Hope everyone enjoys the weekend ahead!

Sunflower Still Life with Black Cat

Sunflower Still Life with Black Cat – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Sunflower Still Life with Black Cat is a painting that I’ve just completed.  I felt like doing a new still life and wanted to use the fish pitcher that my twin sister gave me on our birthday last year. It’s one of her many unique thrift store finds,  she’s got a great eye and is always coming home with fun items.  She thoughtfully passed it on to me as I like to paint both pitchers and fish. The pitcher usually stays out in the screened in back porch; I brought it in and filled with sunflowers to paint.

I decided to add a black cat to the painting to continue the still lifes with cats series.  It’s the fourth one in the series and with the two other cat paintings I now have cat note card six pack for marketing purposes.  I’m pleased with the cat, he’s standing for a change which I think works in this painting and it’s also bit humorous that he’s right next to the fish.   I had been wanted to paint sunflowers for a while now, as they radiate warmth and happiness.  The sunflower papier mache bowls I used to make were always quite popular.

It took a while to balance all the elements but I’m happy with the result. Our daughter is coming home for spring break next week, we’re looking forward to her visit.  It’s gotten chilly again today, hopefully it will warm up by next week during her break.

Bounding Bunny

Bounding Bunny – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I have just completed a new painting, Bounding Bunny.  The lovely springlike weather we are enjoying here in Atlanta has inspired me to have some fun playing with color around a leaping cottontail rabbit.   I’m pleased with the sense of movement that the painting conveys.

When looking back at a similar painting done last year, Two Rabbits in the Meadow; I remember my struggle with the foreground, having to rework it many times.  I prefer the new painting, there’s more movement in the sky and the little bunny is leaping.  This new painting came together easily.

As I wrote before, the rabbit symbolizes good luck and abundance.   In the past few days I’ve sold four items from my two etsy shops, which is  encouraging as Etsy sales had slowed  down last year.  I’ve also gotten new framed prints up at the Fly Biscuit Cafes.  I have some other ideas for marketing and like this bunny I am ready to leap ahead.  March is here which means spring is just around the corner.  I hope all are enjoying these days!

Moonlit Fox

Moonlit Fox – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is a new painting I’ve done for my niece’s boyfriend.  When my sister was visiting a few weeks ago, she thought it would be fun to give him my fox print for his recent birthday.  He had just gotten a striking fox tattoo on his forearm.   The only fox painting I had was a companion piece to the baby bunny I’d done for my other niece’s baby which we didn’t think would work for him.

She commissioned me to do a new painting that would be better suited,  Moonlit Fox is the result.  I’m hoping he will like it.  He and my niece have a lot in common.  They share a great love for animals and both are intelligent, hard workers and they look cute together!  Interestingly to me, each of them has always felt an affinity for the fox.  Her boy friend has always felt a kinship with the fox.  He has light red hair while she has strawberry blonde hair and both have a sleek fox look.  My niece’s favorite Disney film was The Fox and the Hound; she watched it over and over.

The Native Americans saw the fox is a helper for solving problems for those with good intentions and a trickster for those who were too prideful.  The fox symbolizes cunning, being perceptive and adaptable.   The red color of the fox adds a solar element of fun and creativity.  This sounds about right for these two!

Mirror Fish

Mirror Fish – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Mirror Fish is my most recent painting.   Two fish  are swimming together like the Pisces symbol of  two fish swimming in opposite directions.  My twin sister and I are Pisces; our birthday is coming up later this month.  Maybe that’s why I felt like creating a new painting of the two fish to add to the other double fish paintings I’ve done through the years.  In this painting I’ve tried to loosen up some and play with lots of vibrant color.

My sister and I are in good places at the moment.  We are happy with our lives,  our families are doing well and we’re enjoying the empty nest phase.  We are identical mirror twins, which means the egg divided after 7 days and so we are mirror images of each other. She is right-handed while I am left-handed.

My sister was visiting last weekend and when we stopped by to pick up coffee at the local Dunkin Donuts, we got attention for looking alike. These days we find getting attention fun.   Growing up we never felt comfortable with all the extra attention we received.   Both my sister and I always smile to strangers and over the years I’ve realized that we do that because people were always staring at us.

We are still very close and talk to each other 2 or 3 times a week but like the fish above with the different colors and along with every identical twin, we each have a unique personality.