Brothers by the Window

Brothers by the Window -acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Brothers by the Window is my new painting. A few months ago, I rearranged the furniture in our living room placing a side table in front of the big window and it soon became a favorite hang out for our kitties. I placed a pillow there which Truffle enjoys. Tuxie will sometimes join him by sitting on the edge but he tends to look a bit irritated at Truffle having more space. It also makes Truffle a bit nervous but he holds his ground. I tried to show this dynamic in the painting.

I took a picture with the boys together and sent it to my daughter who loves to get daily updates on the cats. We both noticed how striking it was with the light outside and the dark interior and I thought to myself, here’s the subject for a new painting. Mom’s birthday was last week; I generally do a still life painting around this time of year in her honor, and so I began the new still life with the cats.

It was a fun and challenging painting to do. I wanted the interior to be dark but also light enough to show off the beautiful antique table. I included the houseplants on either side of the cats to show the warm tropical greenery in contrast to the cold winter day outside. I’m getting better at depicting Tuxie who has interesting asymmetric markings on his face making it challenging to get his looks down. I’m glad to be back to painting and have started a new one that I’m working on this weekend.

Truffle Out on the Porch

Truffle Out on the Porch – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Truffle Out on the Porch features our other much loved tuxedo kitty. This painting is a companion piece to last week’s painting of Tuxie. I’m enjoying the challenge of working on the larger paper. This painting had quite a few elements that took a while to bring together and work out.

We built a screened porch just off our dining room after a few years of living here and are glad we did. It’s quite spacious outdoor space with a peaked roof and is much needed with the mosquitoes that thrive here. It’s great for entertaining and just hanging out on mild days. Truffle tends to spend more time there then his brother. Tuxie tends to roam while Truffle is our home boy spending many afternoons out on the porch.

I’m now thinking that I might put both paintings up in the dining room. This one is brighter and there is space for both. When I get them up I will post a photo.

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!

Pear and Lemon

Pear and Lemon – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  My daughter was home from college for a month and then left the second week of June for Japan.  She has been traveling throughout Japan and is now settling in Tokyo to start teaching.  It’s sounds like she is have an amazing experience.   Perhaps because she only has one more year of college I’ve gotten the urge to start to pare down.  I’ve combed through and sold of a lot of items that belonged to my parent’s estate and also cleaned out years of our stuff  that cluttered up the garage and the rest of the home.  There is still more to do but it is off to  a good start.

I’ve also been going through all my original paintings and making high resolution scans that will enable me to sell on online art sites.   I came across a couple of pear paintings started years ago that didn’t quite work.  I decided that reworking them would be a good project for me to get back to painting.

Pear and Lemon is a new completed painting of the first one. I added the lemon to the lone pear and changed the tablecloth and feel it looks better than it did and makes a nice addition to my pear series.   Once all my paintings are scanned, I plan to start selling the originals also.  One thing I’ve learned the past few months is that it’s good to let go  of things to keep the energy flowing.  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

 

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.

Beloved Sam

Beloved Sam-acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

Beloved Sam is a new painting that I just completed for a birthday gift for Lauri Shock.  Her husband, Billy Howard contacted me after receiving a note card of mine with the image of Adele’s Cats from a mutual friend.   Billy asked if he could buy the original since one of the cats reminded them of their Sam who had recently passed away to give to Laurie on her birthday.   Since I didn’t have the original I offered to do a new similar painting for him.  He liked that idea and sent me his Medium Post, Sam the Cat, which has some lovely photos of Sam.

It was my first commissioned painting and I was a bit nervous, but Billy said that they liked my style of using bright colors so I went with it.  I chose my mom’s stangl pitcher that looked a bit like one in the photos.    With Sam, I accented his green eyes and white patch that they loved about him.  I put a painting behind the flowers of birds flying as a symbol of Sam’s spirit being freed.

Sam showed up one day and became theirs when he was about a year old and for 15 years his quirky personality brought them joy daily.  It was a pleasure painting Sam.  I was touched by Billy’s thoughtfulness of wanting to do this for Lauri’s birthday gift.  What a wonderful idea in helping them to honor Sam’s memory.

Daises in a Blue Vase

Daises in a Blue Vase – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

This week I felt like creating a more painterly painting.  I chose to do a floral still life and then layered lots of paint on the paper and played with texture and color.   Daises in a Blue Vase is the result.   I’m fairly pleased with the result.

We are looking forward to our daughter coming home for spring break on Monday.  She is spending the weekend in Chicago with friends, it’s very chilly there and snow is expected on Sunday.  So far it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a big storm so hopefully she won’t get snowed in.

Enjoy the weekend and good luck with springing forward an hour tomorrow!

 

Tulips in Mom’s Pitcher

Tulips in Mom’s Pitcher

I’m back to painting again, here is a new still life I did in honor of my Mom. Her birthday was last Friday.  I discovered this small megellica pitcher of hers hiding in the back on top of my  kitchen cabinet last month.  I just love it, the sunflower with the bee and the handle made to look like a branch.

Tulips in Mom’s Pitcher is a companion to the other majolica stoneware pitcher painting I did last year. I chose bright colorful tulips and pears to lift my spirits as the news has been very discouarging lately, it felt good to get absorbed in painting.

It’s been a busy season, we’ve had a guy redoing our hallway bathroom for the past four months.  We have a 60’s split level and the bathroom shower was leaking and the floor cracked so we bit the bullet deciding to update it.  He said he’d have it done before our girl got home from school in late December, she went back to school in late January with the bathroom still unusable.  Now finally it is almost done.   Though it’s taken him a long time,  he’s quite an artist himself and has done a good job.  It’s looking great and we’re thrilled.

I’m going to start a new painting this weekend, it’s a good distraction.  Here in Atlanta everyone is very excited about the Super Bowl as our home team, the Falcons are hopefully going to “rise up,”as they say.  Enjoy the weekend!

A Pear of Goldfishes

A Pear of Goldfishes – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

A Pear of Goldfishes is my new still life painting.  I decided to bring several elements together, starting with the pear in the small white bowl and the philodendron in the deep red pot.  It became unbalanced so I decided to add a gold fish bowl and then topped it off with a Caroline wren in the window.

It was a fun challenge to get everything to work together and I I learned more in the process.  I love the little Caroline wrens that hop about in our wooded backyard with their  tail feathers usually pointing up.  I’d been wanting to paint one for a while.  Another  challenge was coming up with a name for the painting.  The helpful woman who scanned the painting for me suggested the name which I chose because it was so creative and fun.

It’s a beautiful yet cool and windy spring Friday.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Mom’s Majolica Pitcher with Tuxie

Mom’s Majolica Pitcher with Tuxie – acrylic painting by Heni Sandoval

I’ve just completed Mom’s Majolica Pitcher with Tuxie in honor of Mom’s birthday which is today.  For years now I’ve been painting a yearly still life for Mom.   This one features her lovely majolica pitcher.  Mom collected all kinds of antiques and she had a beautiful collection of majolica earthenware pottery which she kept on shelves in her kitchen.  They were colorful and distinctively decorated with natural motifs.   I think it was the natural motifs that attracted Mom to the pieces as she loved the natural world herself.

When I set the pitcher up in my studio to begin the painting, Tuxie, our cat, jumped up on the table and made himself at home around the pitcher.  This tickled me so I called my daughter, a good photographer, over and she quickly took some photos which I used to sketch him in.  Tuxie is not the most handsome of cats but he has a wonderfully quirky personality and we love him dearly.  I tried to capture his funny look.

I wanted this year’s painting to be a happy one full of color and chose a cobalt blue table cover to include Mom’s favorite color.  If Mom were here, I think she would be pleased because all of her daughters and their families are in happy, contented places now.  This makes me very happy also.  I hope everyone is having a great start to this year!