mexican bordado inspired

a one-off and birthday present

to the beach for sunset

An old sketch from La Punta, Mexico. 2009

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.

Happy Snake

A lot of the fun with teaching the children comes during planning... The Happy Snake Game became a bit of an obsessive art project for us both... a giant dice made from an old box brought back from a trip to SuperChe, and a bright assortment of drawings around a simple board game route, it became a competition to fill your space with the most colour. This was the result... look at that happy face!








































Luckily the ninos enjoyed the game too and it's become a favourite!