Wednesday 26 August 2009

el mexicano:

...

silver lining:

...

sea bubble:

(zoom in to see the bubble on the left)

sea lump:

(or waves as some people call them)

La Casa de Cultura:

We're still enjoying teaching the ninos every Monday.

anniversario:
It's the anniversary of the Casa on the 30th of August. Our childrens class is making a giant poster full of all sorts of English words that they've learnt and cut out with paper, pictures they've drawn and photos of everybody in the class to show off at the event.


















reciclas:

La Casa de Cultura is La Punta's recycling point, and they help promote the 'idea' of recycling around the village.

oaxaca city:

We popped to the city for a weekend to soak up some activity. Lots of art to see for free, plenty fiestas in the streets and generally some amusing 'everyday' things to see.

stamp collection!!!
sounds dull, but there were some amazing old versions with very symbolic illustrations. I liked this one in particular from 1937.






















parade:

one of the daily street parades, with full brass band, crowds in tradional dress. We were given flags to wave and the children were given sweets.






















pods:

seed pods at el arbol del tule.

















street arrrrrt:






















paper mache artist:

prepares the 9 foot manequins for the street parade later that day. Giant traditional dresses are sewn too. His workshop was full of giant shoes and armless hands.

















big eyes:






















multi-coloured chicks:

The seven year old girl selling them had no idea how they became so colourful!

















maguey:

The tequila plant. Really strange things, so solid and a bit creepy.

mother hubbard:

Washing 'el viejos' pants.

sketches:

My subject matter is a little restricted when I want to draw people.
Ed's been very patient.

Watch out visitors, you'll be my new subjects for a while.


Toma el sol 07/09













La Punta 08/09
















beach scribbles












Crossword
07/09
















´Busy´ reading
08/09

olios:

Ed introduced me to oil paints.






















My first attempt was a portrait of Ed... we decided later perhaps it's a stroppy David Bowie rather than Ed. It was fun and frustrating and the result a bit scarey, but it won't stop me trying again.






















Ed's portrait of me however is pretty accurate!























Of course it isn't meant to be me.
The two heads have been staring each other out ever since.


My next attempt was to copy a Monet from an issue of National Geographic. It was originally a portrait of Madame Monet and her son. I gave up with the son, I couldn't get the little ****** to look right. Still only working on scraps of cardboard.
I'll have to try something of my own next.















carrizalillo:

A little tropical beach down the road with lovely water.





























frutas y verduras:

Helping out a friend, we agreed to look after a little local cafe, Frutas y Verduras, for a few days. It's part of a hostel on the main street of La Punta. Tomo, the guy who owns the hostel, loves animals so much he can't help but collect them.

We met Lola the pig, we'd seen her a few times on the beach going for walks with Tomo's many dogs:

















Normally she's in her pen with all the ducks and rabbits, she needs to be reminded every now and then that the small rabbits are not there for her to eat!:











We also met Maria the parrot, she usually spoke to us from her cage next to the cafe, but she'd venture out at other times to find a more interesting perch:



The cats had to be kept an eye on too, this one had just been caught out trying to get into Maria's cage:











We served crepes, juices and milkshakes and the very popular cafe mezcal (coffee mezcal with ice and milk... mmm). It was good fun learning how to use a crepe hot plate, and testing the results!

It was a pretty chilled few days:











This was our view... not a bad days work really: