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.

Autumn Buddha

Autumn Buddha – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Autumn Buddha is my most recent painting.  A friend lent me her Buddha statue that she inherited from her mother-in-law, along with the her prayer beads which drape his shoulders.  I like the soft and peaceful look of this Buddha statue.  This is the second painting I’ve made of the statue.

Here in Georgia the  fall colors are just getting started but I have been seeing many gorgeous images of fall scenes from Aquamosh’s Blog, a photography blogger that I follow. The rich warm colors of the fall images are just breathtaking. In this new painting I decided to play with those rich colors for the Buddha’s background.

I’ve done several Buddha paintings most of which I used a carved wooden Buddha statue from Thailand as the model. We bought the statue because it reminded us of our  Southeast Asia travels.  We visited many ancient temple ruins in park like settings. I loved walking among the massive stone Buddhas sitting peacefully in the landscape. I’ve tried to portray the serenity I felt there in my Buddha paintings.  Prints of all my Buddhas are available in my Circles Round the Sun Etsy Shop.