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.

Two Sunlit Dolphins

Two Sunlit Dolphins – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve painted many dolphins over the years and this week was inspired to paint a new one which I’ve titled Two Sunlit Dolphins. I like painting double fish because it reminds me of my relationship with my twin sister. We are identical and born during the double fish sign of Pisces. I don’t remember not knowing how to swim, we spent our summers swimming every day. On our family beach vacations we looked for dolphins out in the waves and were thrilled when spotting them. I love the way dolphins always seem happy and carefree.

I had done a painting of two dolphins in the moonlight so I decided with this painting to make it a day time scene. I enjoyed figuring out how to show the sunlight and using my favorite aqua green colors. It’s a fun light painting that I think works pretty well.

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!

Dear Old George

Portrait of George Washington acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I think some of my best paintings have been the one’s when I paint with love in my heart.  I painted George Washington’s Portrait in memory of my Mom.   It was fun to paint while thinking about her.  Mom was very patriotic;  she loved American history and early American antiques.  I have many childhood memories of our family driving out to the small towns that dotted the countryside  and spending what seemed like eternity waiting around at antique shops while my mom shopped.    Our house was filled with antiques that she had picked up over the years.

My twin sister and I were born the day after George Washington’s birthday on February 23rd.  Every year not only did I have to share my birthday with my twin, but also with him. Our birthday party themes always centered around George Washington.  There was the cake with pink frosting and cherries.  Little papier mache hatchets;  tree stumps;  George Washington busts;  and miniature red, white, and blue drums adorned the dining room table.   In my twenties I was pretty angry about that.   Years later, now that I am a mom too, I realize how creative my Mom was and how it must of been fun and enriching for her to do.  So this painting is a thank you to my Mom for her creative example and her taking time to follow her own passions.  I like the way he looks just a little bit conflicted.  Happy President’s Day!

This is a repost from Presidents Day from 2013 when I had just begun to blog. It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging since 2012.

Tiggy

Tiggy – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve just completed Tiggy, another new cat painting. In December when I was working out how I was going to paint Katniss, the last painting, I sketched out a cat laying on the page. Once I saw the photo of Katniss sitting on the wall, I decided to put the first cat sketch aside and do a new sketch of her sitting. My daughter, who was home for the holidays at the time, suggested I use that first sketch to paint our beloved cat, Tiggy. So, that’s what I’ve done and this painting is for her.

Tiggy and his sister came into our family when they were tiny kittens. We got them from our neighbor for our daughter who was three at the time. They grew up together. Tiggy was a wonderful cat, loving and patient. Through the years he was patient and present with all the kids who came in and out and he loved our daughter. He also loved being outdoors,spending hours outside laying in the front yard. Neighbors walking by would stop to pet him. He was majestic and kind to all, everyone knew him. Here’s a picture of my daughter with Tiggy.

A few years after we lost Tiggy’s sister, we brought home two new tuxedo kittens,Tuxie and Truffle. It took him a month to adjust but he soon became like a father to them; again, he was patient and kind. At thirteen, he became ill and we knew it was near the end, but he still loved laying outside. He died a week after our girl graduated from high school. It was almost as if he waited for that, he actually went up into her bedroom and passed away. I think of Tiggy as such an evolved being and know he’s somewhere up in heaven where all our beloved pets go. That’s why I did the fanciful background as if he is in a heavenly sphere.

Katniss

Katniss – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is my new cat painting, Katniss which I plan to give to my chiropractor. Back in April when I had just started seeing him for my neck issue I brought him a few of my note cards which included some of the cat images. He then told me about their big, beautiful tabby cat, Katniss that he and his wife adore. He saw me once of week for several weeks and generously gave me a price cut. He is a true healer and helped me get through the six months of my slow recovery which I so appreciated. I decided to thank him with a portrait of Katniss.

I tried to capture her look from the photos of her he had emailed me. This image is from their neighbor’s back patio wall. I liked the composition and how it showed her adorable plump look. I’m going to bring the painting with me to my next appointment in in early February. I am hoping that they like the painting of their much loved kitty.

Cardinal in the Tree

Cardinal in the Tree -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Cardinal in the Tree is a painting that I recently completed. I’ve done many dove and crow paintings with the sun or moon in the scene and I got the idea to try my hand at creating a similar whimsical painting of a song bird. I chose the cardinal since I felt like using bright red paint.

We have a couple of cardinal couples that hang out in our yard. One late afternoon while in my husband’s upstairs studio, I looked out the window and saw a beautiful cardinal high up in a tree branch, this surprised me because I hadn’t realized just how tall particular accent tree had gotten. I planted 15 years ago and it has tripled in size.

With that scene in mind, I started the painting. I know that many people think when a cardinal appears it can symbolize a dead loved one is thinking of them. I like that idea and every time I spot a male cardinal, I like to think that my dad is winking at me. He and my mom loved their backyard with all their song birds. I hope all are enjoying this Easter and Passover weekend.

Sunflowers in Mom’s Silver Pitcher

Sunflowers in Mom’s Silver Pitcher – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I felt like taking a break from my abstracts to do a still life painting. For several years now, around my Mom’s birthday, I have painted one of her pitchers in her honor. I skipped this year as her birthday was in January, but recently I’ve been clearing out many of her antique items from the estate which we’d kept all these years. I’ve sold some of the silver and have taken boxes of tinware and depression glass over to the Treasure Mart, a local consignment shop. This has gotten me feeling quite sentimental.

I’ve kept her small silver-plated pitcher which does not have much value, but I love the shape. It was down in our dining room and I thought to myself I’m going to do one more pitcher painting in honor of Mom. I also liked the challenge of trying to depict silver. Since we are in the heat of summer, I chose sunflowers. I’ve been thinking and appreciating my three sisters lately and thus I chose four flowers symbolizing the four daughters that Mom had.

It was a fun painting to do and now I’m starting a new painting with the same pitcher next to my cat Tuxie to add to my cat still-life series.

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.