What I’m Working On Now.

I try to be conscientious in my creativity. I use discarded materials as painting surfaces and I paint with water soluble non toxic oil paints. Yet recently, something had been weighing on my conscious. A stack of unfinished paintings, in various states of progress, some started and abandoned in Bogotá, others started and left untouched since the first months of my marriage, over three years ago. Not to mention half empty books of canvas paper I lost interest in.

Yes, I have several people interested in portraits at this time. But lets face it, I have an ADD style (and what artist doesn’t?) so I am usually working on more than one piece at a time. I am tired of cringing every time I pass these wooden and paper ghosts in the closet. I am taking them out, and finishing them.

How I wish I had a photograph of this painting from before! It was atrocious! I started it in April 2007, and worked on it now and then over the next year. The colors were very dark, and there was a bird, and a pink bracelet hanging over one branch. When I sat in front of it Saturday night I was horrified and overwhelmed. And then, inspired by some Emilio Pucci images I had been researching, I decided to go purple. After an hour, although not anywhere near done, the painting was transformed. It was now something I was excited to work on! Although in the light of the morning it did not look nearly as colorful or purple.

Then I went REALLY purple.  It occurred to me suddenly that this was a night painting, that the tree was lit from within, perhaps from lanterns for a party, perhaps because it is a tree house.  I was hoping I would have photos of it in a more finished state for today, with flowers even but this is as far as I’ve gotten.  I have a heavy hand (or you can call it “painterly” if you want to flatter me) and sometimes the paint needs to set a bit before I can continue.  Also, I was working on these two paintings.

These are two halves of a wooden box. FYI: I would love to find some old wooden boxes to repaint, if you have some you don’t want, send them my way!

The first one is a collage.  The  background image is torn from an old book. The tree was part of an acrylic painting on canvas paper I did in Bogotá, that I cut out with an exacto knife.  Why is a long story, but other parts of that painting, including another tree, Charlie, and Tom, are still waiting to me collaged into new works.

The aloe plant sat in my studio in Bogota and I miss it to this day. If only we could take our plants from post to post!  I painted this there, but it was a little rough around the edges.  I freshened it up this morning and am quite happy with it.

Not sure yet what do with the outside of the box halves….

Monday Pick Me Up-Retail Therapy

I often find myself looking for a pick me up in in Caracas, and not just Monday mornings. When a cup of coffee or a chunk of Miss Poema’s dark chocolate just won’t cut it, I turn to my newest vice. Online shopping. If, like many people, you think of South America as cheap, let me be the first to burst your bubble. Caracas is actually more expensive than NYC! And so, what was once a godsend for diapers and detergent has become my personal pick me up. Allow me to share with you what arrived last week, and introduce to you a talented young jewelery designer who surely won’t be this affordable much longer!

This is me in our garden sporting the Gold Hamsa Toggle-Clasp Bracelet by Alexandra Beth Designs. These come in several different colors and are available at http://www.alexandrabeth.com/. What impresses me about her jewelery is that it has a vintage appeal, while being new and refreshing at the same time. I love her bracelets with zippers, and her leaf earrings. Check her out!

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We did manage to get out of the apartment a bit this weekend. The men and I went out for lunch to Rey David, a very cute restaurant at Plaza’s. It seems to be Kosher, Italian, or some sort of mixture of the two. Either way, its delicious, and we had a great time. Rey David is actually a restaurant and a store, with the restaurant on the outside patio, and the store inside. If you are ever in Caracas, it is one of the more charming places to visit.

Here comes my Retail Therapy story Part Two. On each of the tables, there was a large glass Evian bottle, with a swirly, colorful pattern designed by Paul Smith, and I decided that I simply had to have one. I thought it would make the sweetest stem vase. Back in college, I would decorate my first apartment with a stolen flower or two, plucked from a near by park in the middle of the night. We’d use old water and wine bottles in place of vases. Now, all these years later, after bridal registries and showers, and collecting things in our travels, we have more than enough vases, and I love to fill the apartment with flowers. But I still love decorating in resourceful and unexpected ways. I may be a mama, but I’m a mamita bandida!

P.S.-Check in tomorrow for a new post, “What I’m working on now”!

The End of The Never Ending Painting

I thought I had conquered the Never Ending Painting the last time I posted about it, and I emailed a photo to it’s future owner.  He got back to me Monday and said he liked it, but the the front mountain looked a bit yellow and the center bushes were too bright. So bright that your eye was drawn to the bushes, instead of the mountains.  I took a look and realized just how right he was. Still, I thought, this is a quick fix! That night I told my husband “I’m going to finish this thing, give me half an hour…you can time me!”

More than an hour later I actually got to the bushes.  Those damn mountains drew me in again, screaming “pay attention to us! We aren’t finished yet!”  It…just…never…ends.

When my friend and I first discussed this project, he sent me tons of photos, and what drew me to this image was that unlike many of them, it had four components; the sky, the canyon, the river, and the greenery.  Yes, the Grand Canyon is amazing and beautiful, but somehow it doesn’t always translate well into photography.  It ends up looking like a hunk of rock.  And as someone who’s been there, it truly is beautiful.  So I suppose I thought by having these other components in the painting I could make it more dynamic.  I was reminded by my friend’s complaint, and by my hours of painting last night, that this is a painting about mountains.  It’s more fun (and fast) painting sky and rivers, but every painting has a subject  and the subject of this painting, the star, if you will, is the canyon.  I’m painting it’s portrait, and it simply couldn’t be finished until I stopped grumbling and did my best to capture it.

I hope I’ve finally done that.

Monday Pick Me Up-Orange, Brown, and Blue

Here it is, your Monday Morning Pick me up.  A rich color scheme of orange, brown, and blue, that pervaded the photographs taken of our Sunday morning spent in the Embassy playground with our friends and their dogs.

Though these images were taken here, in Caracas, Venezuela, the colors make me think of the American South West….

Caracas is a difficult post, but getting together with other members of the Embassy community helps a lot.  Especially those with dogs and/or babies!  Look how happy they are! Although Charlie was MIA the moment the photo was taken, rest assured he was off being traviesito somewhere close by.

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…And so, our outdoor photo shoot (so to speak) in the morning inspired an indoor photo shoot of the same color scheme in the afternoon.  Here I am cleaning off our young model after a pre photo shoot oreo.

Orange tee-shirt by Penguin.  Rug by Dwell Studio for Target Kids….or something like that.  Adorable blue knit teddy bear by Baby Gap.  Modeled by Kate and Owen Laufert, of Vida Viva

This Country is on Fire

And so, the story of my never ending painting continues.  This was my state of progress yesterday morning.  I vowed to finish it that same day, once and for all.  And my little men vowed to do all they could to help/distract me.   One of the little men was particularly distracting (one clue, the little man with less fur) as his first molar is making it’s first appearance.  Mi hombre comelon didn’t even want to eat!

The evening ended very strangely indeed, with a highly anticipated aguacero, and Owen insisting on being sent to bed without supper.

Yet more curious than all of this, was the smell.  At first I thought I must be imagining it.  But my husband assured me it was quite real.  “This country is on fire” he said, “that’s the smell of the rain putting it out”.

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I was woken up AGAIN at 5:00 this morning, but to a seemingly more happy Owen, who eventually ate his breakfast.

…And possibly, we have come to the end of The Never Ending Painting.  At least, I think so.  I’ll probably touch it up here and there over the weekend.  But it’s looking pretty done to me.  What do you think?

Charlie makes his modeling debut!

Charlie the Dog

I painted this yesterday morning of our beloved border colie mix, Charlie.  This is the newest edition to my collection of paintings for children which I am now calling “Vida Viva Kids”, and which I can now rightfully call a collection since there is more than one painting! These two paintings are both available as prints of various sizes on imagekind.  If you are interested in purchasing the original of this painting please email me at klaufert@gmail.com.

….And don’t worry Mark, I am still working on your painting!  Getting right back to it this moment!

Monday Pick Me Up

It occurred to me last night that I should post a blog each Monday morning with an image that inspires my work.  Just the cure for the Monday blahs.

I bought this vase at the Ice-T (I know, bizzare name!)  Murano glass factory recently.  Our trip to this factory has been one of the few highlights in our time here in Caracas.  I love this vase because of it’s retro, almost psychedelic style.  Yet  it is also so undeniably Latin, with it’s swirls of  flamboyant canary yellow. Doesn’t it make you want to throw on a Pucci print dress and go salsa dancing? Very Vida Viva.

The Never Ending Painting…Part 2

Well here is the photo I promised.  Yes, I know I said I would put it up last night, but I didn’t realize just how terrible it would look with a flash.  So this afternoon I took some photos of this work in progress.    I don’t think I’ve ever done a landscape like this before, and seriously, it is the hardest thing I have ever done.  I get lost in all the tiny details of the mountains.  There have been days when I have thrown down my brushes and declared that I just can’t do this.  Ok, pretty much every day.  Call me dramatic, but this is a tantrum inducing painting.

But I put my nose to the grind this week, and it finally looks like it is coming together.  Not finished, but getting somewhere. What do you think?

This is Charlie, the other little man who interrupts me.  I think he likes it.

The Never Ending Painting

A friend commissioned a painting of the Grand Canyon, and I have been working on it far longer than I care to admit.  Hey, I get a lot of interruptions!  Notice the child gates, Owen’s “coral” crossing over into my studio space.  More photos later tonight.  For now, back to work!

The Crafty Mom

I like to call myself a painter, rather than an artist. There are musicians who can pick up any instrument, and then there are those who have a passion and ability for one instrument only. This is me. I used to draw, but now it seems I can only paint. And I only want to. I love paint because it is liquid and flexible. I can mix it, thin it, layer it, manipulate it however I please. In my first months as a new mother, when I had no time for anything other than Owen, I would think of the physical sensations of painting, and crave them like chocolate.

After a brief and frustrating stint with mixed media in Bogota, I accepted for good that I am simply a one media kind of woman.

And then, we had Owen. Now I am filled with desires to be that perfect adorable crafty mom. To knit toys and scrapbook and decorate. I bought a load of scrapbooking material, and since I’ve saved everything from our first dates onward, I will someday sit down and make that family scrapbook and it will be beautiful damn it.

I drove myself crazy for Owen’s first birthday, which we celebrated in February. I chose a puppy theme, and I wanted it to be perfect. The big show stopper, of course, was going to be the puppy cake. I found a photo online that was both cute and seemingly easy to copy. All I can say is thank God my mother was there, and Devorah, our housekeeper’s daughter. I was too anxious about every aspect of the party from the caterer (who was late) to the goody bags to even think straight. In the end, it was a joint effort. But I have to admit, that thirteen year old kicks my ass in cake decorating.

Devorah kept saying what a shame it was that we would have to cut up our little work of art. But hey, cake is for eating. And I think someone inherited my sweet tooth.