Ishtar

Ishtar – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Here is my new painting titled, Ishtar.   While exploring the symbolism of the number 8, I learned that the 8-pointed star represents the ancient Babylonian goddess, Ishtar. I have a vague memory of hearing the word, Ishtar either in a song or poem years ago and loved how the name sounds when spoken which is why I was drawn to learn about her meaning now. Ishtar is associated with the planet Venus; and like Venus, she represents beauty and the fullness of womanhood.  

Her association to Venus is why the star has 8 points.  The planet Venus in her dance around the sun with earth takes 8 years.  Venus’s movement with the sun and earth is in a 1.6 ratio pattern which is the golden mean ratio and one reason why Venus may represent beauty.  

I thought that information was interesting and so I was inspired to paint an 8-pointed star.  I started with small center circle and then a large cross and next add the diagonal cross and then put in the triangles to complete the star. I added the other elements to take some focus away from the symmetrical focus of the star. It was fun to paint and turned out fairly bright, like a star.

Pink Loops With Blue Roses

Pink Loops with Blue Roses -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I have been thinking about time and repeating cycles. My husband and I recently watched Palm Springs, an entertaining film that took a humorous look at a guy stuck in a time loop. Right now it feels like we are stuck in a bit of a unsettling time loop.  Because of the pandemic, many of us are staying close to home and not sure of when the situation will improve.  Challenging social issues are coming back around or being uncovered to be dealt with again and again.

Pink Loops with Blue Roses is my most recent abstract painting. In this painting decided to have a large center focus, similar to the recent painting, Neptune, which I think worked well.  I started with a large pink infinity sign which I then turned into a clover shape loop. I was going to have a pink and light blue loop to symbolize both female and male energy similar to the yin yang symbol but it looked better with pink throughout to connect the two loops.

In my last abstract painting, Triangles, I included some dolphins that seemed to be swimming the Nile, which was fun to do. In this painting, I decided to bring in blue roses floating around the pink loops to continue with the pink and blue theme. It’s a wink back to the days of my papier mache art when I decorated many a bowl with that style rose.

Hang in there everyone, we’ll get through this time loop! Enjoy your weekend!

Caribbean Dreaming

Ever since I was lucky enough to spend two weeks on a fishing boat in the Caribbean and learned to snorkel, tropical fish have amazed me.  It was  magical to witness these vivid colored and various shaped fish gliding along as if choreographed in a backdrop of coral in light dappled aqua water.

I painted Caribbean Dreaming a couple of winters ago during a cold spell to lift my spirits.  I find it freeing to paint fish  because pretty much any thing goes, you can play by layering colors as the fish starts to appear and the background can also be just as colorful and layered.

This year January has been unseasonably warm but cold weather is sure to come for a bit and I will definitely  take time to paint a new fish.

Available here.