asakiyume | Entries tagged with painting

The tall one had acquired a Holy Family statue from somewhere. It had seen better days: the paint on it was peeling horribly; Mary and Jesus looked like they had terrible skin conditions, and Joseph looked even more beaten down than he often does. More than a year ago, I asked him if I could repaint it, and he said yes ... and then it took me more than a year to do it.

Putting aside issues of oppressive evangelization, I really love localized madonna-and-child representations--from Vietnam, Ethiopia, the Arctic, anywhere. Hell, that's what all of Renaissance art's depictions are: localizations to Europe. And to different eras. In that spirit, I painted a more melanated version of the Holy Family. Maybe they're from southern Asia. Maybe somewhere else, I don't know.

The statue also came with an electric lantern, but the wiring was fried, so

wakanomori got a solar lantern to replace it. In the photo you can just about see the light it casts. (... everybody is shiny because I coated the statue with something so it can resist the wear and tear of outdoor life, UV rays, all that...)

When we lived in Japan (nigh on 30 years ago--yikes!), the signs at various trains stations, advertising businesses in the towns, were often hand-painted. A dentist's office, an ob-gyn, a grocery store, a florist, etc. Sometimes we'd see someone painting a new one.

I hear from my kids in Japan that now, as here in America, they're mainly printed.

But in Leticia they are still hand-painted. We rented bikes one day and passed this guy, just short of the airport, painting a new sign (I asked him if it was okay to take a picture; he said yes).

I've been painting signs myself, recently--first for a neighborhood picnic and this time for a movie night. Normally I like to use markers or cut-out letters on bright poster board, but I didn't have any bright poster board, and neither did the nearby supermarket, so I made do with paint on kraft paper. It would be better if the paint were black instead of white, but white was what I had:

It's not a very exciting presentation--it could be done better!--but I love the concentration and control involved in painting the letters. I'd love to know more about the guy painting the sign for the colchones (mattresses) shop. Do people hire someone professional to do this work, or does each company get one of their employees to do it? The signs are pretty good... I'm thinking it must be professional work. But how do you get to be one of the people doing the painting?

There were all kinds of paintings around--in buildings, on buildings, but I'll save those for another time and will close with a photo of a magnificent stormcloud over the Amazon, because--well!

Current Music: Rio Mira: Aguacerito

My sister has many talents--one of them is painting. I really *love* her painting, and I thought I'd share her painting website and highlight a few of the pictures so you can enjoy them too.

(This is the website--you can see these and many more paintings there in a larger size)

One thing she does is look at the relationship between sky and water--all the colors of sky, and what those do to water, plus the texture of clouds:

She also paints the many, many textures and patterns of water--man I love that:

Some of her paintings capture the ethereal magic that can happen with our atmosphere...

And lest you think that the palette is always tipped toward the cool--no! not at all:

Do check out the website if you'd like to spend some minutes in the company of more scenes like that.

Current Location: AmIEvil: Super Metroid FourLittleMetroids OC ReMix

I should be less credulous.

I noticed in the photo I'd taken the other day that the stalk in the background looked spattered, as if by paint. This morning I went back and looked at the flower again. It's closed up now, and you can clearly see where the paint hit and where it didn't.

Ah well!