March 8th, 2007 by: Ashley
A worldwide celebration of women
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SOLD
As I’ve been sorting through hundreds of photos from Venezuela, trying to select the best ones to translate into paintings, I wasn’t sure what to do with the one I used for this sketch. I’ve been on the fence about painting it, but as luck would have it, the image was perfect for today’s drawing in recognition of International Women’s Day. I think it’s very endearing image, and very much speaks to the importance of family in Latin America.
These two women stood beside me as we listened in a larger group to members of their communal council speak about their fishing community in the small rural town of Caruao. It wasn’t in my group’s usual meeting surroundings, which typically consisted of an air-conditioned office in an urban area.
We gathered in a circle by the bank of a river, feeding into the ocean, in the middle of a much larger and lively crowd celebrating carnival before Lent. It was hard to hear our translator describe changes the community has undergone in recent years over salsa music and kids scream as they fled from incoming water balloon attacks. I got still got the message, and then we all put our notebooks and questions aside to celebrate with them (and get hit with water balloons).
4 Comments
March 8th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Happy international women’s day. I didn’t realize you painted from pictures. Is that easier or harder than painting from real-life for you? I think it’s harder, but everyone tells me I’m nuts.
Do you use Etsy to see backlog or do you just sell over the blog?
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Thanks Andrew! Sorry, but your comment got caught in my spam box and I just caught it tonight.
I almost always paint from pictures. I’m much better at rendering than creating images from my head, and so painting from life doesn’t work well for me because everyone and everything constantly moves. I don’t know how artists did it before photography. I’ve read that many teachers, years ago, thought of photos as a crutch. I would be kicked out of art school if that were the case. But, taking my own photos is part of the creation process for me. I’m very picky about composition, lighting, cropping, perspective and so on.
Also, I HATE the way people change and get self-conscious or act differently when they’re aware I’m painting or drawing them. I try to stay invisible.
I don’t use Etsy. I sell prints on imagekind.com and I’m currently in the process (along with my web developer, god love him) of launching a shopping cart once I re-shoot high res pics of my work and populating it. I’m very excited!
March 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
[...] I’m always surprised to see how people respond to each of my artworks. Evidently, I’m not very good at estimating which of my paintings will be favorites. This sketch got great reviews and one of my clients asked to buy it, even though I don’t typically sell drawings out of my personal sketchbook. Then I got an email asking if I would make a painting of the image, and viola! [...]
June 7th, 2010 at 10:49 am
[...] artworks. Evidently, I’m not very good at estimating which of my paintings will be favorites. This sketch got great reviews and one of my clients asked to buy it, even though I don’t typically sell [...]
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