Friday, April 30, 2010

Adventures on the road to Canada- Marty Pique


On our way to Vancouver from Mexico, in the Mojave Desert, Dan and I stopped in a convenience store on the corner of nowhere and nowhere - well, it seems that way in such a huge desert. Dan noticed on the wall a photo of a man with a small bicycle and a HUGE load of bags of bottles and cans. He asked the proprietor if that was a real photo, and she said, "Well, here is, just coming in the door" and yes, there was Marty, coming in for a coffee. He took us over to show us his setup, and then I suggested I could promote his initiative, which is to clean up this part of the desert...so here is a link to an article all about Marty Pigue (he said it is pronounced "pig" but he is not Canadian!- shouldn't that be "peeg"?) - anyway, Marty's another great guy doing his best to clean up our world. At the end of the article are details of how you can send him a donation to help his initiative.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Adios Plastico

Oh, happy day! a truckload of bamboo furniture arrives in town, and the vendor, who has driven 25 hours from Vera Cruz, is anxious to sell. Lots of interest - it is surprisingly difficult to find reasonably priced comfortable, light furniture like this, even in Guadalajara, apparently.
Now what to do with the purple futon - and its purple painted metal frame? With the team of Israel and Javier "no hay problema" and up to the teraza it goes.
By the end of the day, the vendors are happy - they have sold all the goods on the truck, and are headed back to Vera Cruz with orders for more.
It's sure fun translating this Mexican color into my artwork.




Sunday, April 18, 2010

Homemade popsicles

My neighbors, Yair and Elvis, love making "paletes" from blended papaya - wish I could be here for the mango season, too...they will be very plentiful in a few weeks.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

Dan discovered this beautiful little restaurant in Melaque - called El Patio, it has been recently renovated, and is off the busy main street, in a little courtyard. Its colors and the structures were perfect for the photos I like to take to inspire my Mexico paintings. The food was really good and inexpensive - good find, Dan!






Eating well in Mexico

Nopal is a useful cactus plant that grows very easily here - you can just throw a pad down on the ground, and it will root. The local people eat it every day, as it is so inexpensive and nutritious. I make a morning drink of it with blended raw nopal, apple and pear, and a little ginger and pineapple juice - very refreshing, and we think it tastes better than the popular jugo verde, which is more savory and includes celery and parsley. These nopal cactus right outside my gate are really starting to grow now that spring is here. I plan to be a nopal guerrilla gardener one of these days, and just start planting the pads everywhere there is a bare patch of ground. It seems to me we should make sure there is plenty of free food available in the village "just in case".

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Semana Santa

It must be the biggest thrill for a Mexican child or teenager - a few days camping at the beach at Easter time. Many of the families are on holiday from Guadalajara and other inland cities. Our usually quiet village transforms with food stands, cake displays, plaster mold painting kiosks (you can see here a whole family earnestly painting a Snoopy or a Virgen de Guadalupe) Enrique's favorite "jardin" acticity is a multi-level trampoline with a safely net all around; during Semana Santa there is more than one... not to mention all the merry-go-rounds and carnival shooting stalls. It's really a step back in time.





Abstract or Not?

This painting is based on a few rows of ribbons that I saw in a shop here. I've had a good time balancing the cool and warm colors in this piece - usually here warm wins out - I wonder why? This is a 20 x 24" oil painting on canvas, and you can see it on my website. Look for Ribbons 2 at my website (see the link to the top right - scroll up) under the Available in La Manzanilla set.

A Trip Inland to Comala

Comala is a small colonial town which is famous for its Botaneros - restaurants which serve delicious drinks that you pay for, and then receive endless free appetizers to go with them. The Mariachis are there, too, ready to play and sing for you - altogether a really fun attraction.
Comala also has an interesting former hacienda which is now a museum with a beautiful ecological park - the plant in this set of pictures is a vanilla vine.





Growing Food In the Garden

A year ago, this 10 foot "tree" was only a seed! Imagine my surprise when I returned after last summer, and saw this beautiful papaya plant. I thought we would be eating papayas in a few weeks, but they have actually taken about 4 months to ripen - which, I am told, is why the fruits are so sweet. They have been allowed to grow slowly, with no chemicals, and are much better than the ones you buy here in the shops. All you have to do is broadcast the seeds from one of the papayas. Some of them will find their ideal growing conditions - and...what a bonus!

Magic Hour

The hour before sunset is beautiful here - the 2 photos and the oil painting (called Magic Hour on the Beach) reflect my fascination with the warm color and the contrasting tones of that time of day.



Another of This Year's Paintings

Martin's restaurant is one of the favorites here in La Manzanilla.

Surprise Visitors

I very seldom see scorpions (called alacranes here) in my house or yard, but these ormigas sure found them! These ants visit your property, and go right through, housecleaning, and eating every living thing (well, every insect, anyway) that they can find. They surrounded this alacran, and within a half hour had devoured it. Then they moved on.


Christmas Visit by Enrique and His Mother

Chasing butterflies - and actually getting them to land on his finger - is one of Enrique's favorite activities here, where they fly right through the living room.


End of the Season

It's early April, and many of the Northerners are heading home from Mexico. Semana Santa is over, and the beach is getting cleaned - by volunteers and by the tide...
I have not been blogging this season, so plan to catch up my "blog followers" with a selection of photos taken over the last few months...below is one of the oil paintings inspired by the jungle of my yard down here. It is called Jungle Flower, and you can see it if you go to www.carollopez.com, and look in the Available in La Manzanilla set.