A Return to the 80′s in Central America?

Facing into the Dark, Nicaragua under Siege, o/c, 4*" X 48", 1985

I painted these two youngsters on the archipelago of Solentiname in eastern Lake Nicaragua in 1985. They were armed by the Sandinista government, as were many country folk, so they could defend themselves against  the  Contras. The Contras specialized in terrorizing the civilian population They targeted new schools and hospitals built by the revolutionary government for the rural poor, often torturing the teachers and doctors to death. They assassinated a young, idealistic American, who traveled with us for a while, named Ben Linder. His crime: he was constructing small, inexpensive hydroelectric systems to bring electricity to isolated communities.

At the time we were told by President Ronald Reagan that the Contras were ‘the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers’ and that they alone prevented the  Nicaraguan Sandinista government from invading Texas. Imagine our surprise  on “The Artists’ Tour of Nicaragua ’84″ when we saw Managua the capitol of this fearsome ‘communist’ state still lying in ruins twelve years after the catastrophic quake of December 1972. We were even more surprised by the fearsome Sandinista army: many troops were barefoot and some even carried WW2 vintage rifles.

Downtown Managua, o/c, 18" X 24", 1985

The Contras were organized and funded by the CIA in Honduras with the tacit consent of our Ambassador John Negroponte.

Fast forward twenty-four years. The constitutional president of Honduras  is seized by the Honduran military in his pajamas and flown to Costa Rica. Curfews and a news blackout are imposed on the country. Many democratic activists are seized by the army. There are rumors of widespread torture and assassination. As many as two hundred thousand Hondurans protest for the return of their president and are fired on by their own troops, but a curious news blackout in the United States muffles these events.

The Obama administration admits that it was informed of the impending coup and advised against it. Hold on a minute. The President of the most powerful nation on earth which maintains a huge military base in this, the third poorest nation in the Americas, which is it’s major trading partner and which bestows millions of dollars in aid, could not halt a coup. Even stranger, after the coup, the Administration allowed the coup leaders to enter the United States to talk with their Republican allies.

Some of these coup leaders directed the Contras in the 8o’s. Hillary Clinton’s close adviser on the situation in Honduras is none other the our ambassador to Honduras in the 80′s, John Negroponte .

Is this the change we voted for? Tell me it isn’t so.

Completing my ‘Ceago Series’ at the Lavender Harvest

I arrived at Ceago Vinegarden, which is located on the shores of Clear Lake between Nice and Lucerne, a few days before the lavender harvest to paint the crop at its peak. The two acres of plants spread out between the winery and the lake are equally spectacular for their  hue and  their scent. Painting here in the hundred degree heat was like being immersed in a lavender scented sauna. I wondered if this was how the ancient Roman baths felt. Romans used it for treating wounds and for bathing. Its name is said to derive from the Latin word to wash ‘lavare’

Lavender Season at Ceago, oil/canvas, 18" X 24"

( The entire series of these paintings may be viewed on this site in the Ceago Series 2007- 2009 Gallery .)

Viewed up close each plant is like a small 4th of July  rocket-burst: from a silvery-leafed sphere hundreds of thin green stems shoot out bearing a second, concentric, shimmering sphere of lavender hued flowers. The air amid them is abuzz with bees and other insects. I even spotted some small dragonflies searching out insects among the stems.
Several mornings I rose around 5:30 AM to paint the harvest. It was already light at 6 AM as I sketched two of the farm hands working their way towards me. It would be another hour before the sun crested the eastern mountains dramatically illuminating the scene. A jay hopped from trimmed plant to trimmed plant gobbling unsuspecting insects. A field mouse, grown used to me, darted near my feet only running for cover when I looked directly at it. A great blue heron rose from the neighboring field and flew over us towards the lake.

Lavendar Harves, Ceago, oil/canvas, 18" X 24"

Jim Fetzer told me, later, that a row of approximately 50 plants produces one and one half quarts of lavender oil. Which means that this field could produce 20 gallons of oil. Later in the day I observed the distillation process. Water is boiled in the spherical bottom of the ‘column still’. (See painting below)

Lavendar Morning, oil/canvas, 18" X 24"

It rises through the central column which has been stuffed with lavender blossoms. The steam extracts the essential oil and carries it through a pipe that descends from the alembic dome and runs in coils down through a cooling container that is filled with water. It emerges at the end of the pipe as oil and and a milky hydrosol.  The oil is floated off and bottled and the hydrosol is collected and sold in spray bottles.

Distillation is a process that was developed by the Alchemists some of whose methods are also incorporated in ‘biodynamic’ farming practiced here at Ceago.

Saturday, June 27th was the day of the Annual Lavendar Distillation Lunch. I was working in the raised corridor above the entrance painting a view through an opening that overlooks the courtyard.

View of the Courtyard, Ceago, oil/canvas, 18" X 24"

(This view is the exact opposite direction from the one I painted from up here on my last visit in January. It was reproduced in the blog titled “Painting at Ceago Vinegarden”.)

Standing  above the courtyard I witnessed people’s reactions as they arrived. There were loud “Oohs!” and “Wows!” as they got their first view of the field in full bloom. Many headed right for it. Others paused at the fountain, which splashed seductively in the heat, to take photos of each other. Soon the courtyard was filled with friends and families seated at tables eating the fresh salad, grilled sausages and handmade tortillas.

A photographer, Ron Kees, found me and took some pictures of me at work. He told me that his paintings of Barack Obama had recently been featured in the New York Times.

“Art about, art about art.”  I commented, referring to the fact that he was photographing me making a painting of  Jim Fetzer’s creation.

” Life doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you can create something beautiful to pass on to the next generation.” he responded.

Around sundown I joined the  dinner guests in the back courtyard. The Ceago Estate Lamb Gyros prepared by chef Nick Hiedeman from a lamb Jim had slaughtered on Monday was, hands down, the best lamb I’ve ever tasted and so tender it seemed to melt in my mouth.

A live Salsa band, Orienta,  performed in the main courtyard until late into the evening. I chatted with some of Jim’s childhood friends. We all paused to savour the lavender infused cake with macerated strawberries and lavender blackberry cream.

“Life” someone observed, “doesn’t get much better than this.”

( In early October I will be exhibiting my complete ‘Ceago Series’ at Ceago.

The entire series of these paintings may be viewed on this site in the Ceago Series 2007- 2009 Gallery on this Site.

To receive announcements to this and other exhibitions e-mail me at  anthonyholdsworth@yahoo.com  with “add me to you e-mail list” in the subject line.)

Mexico en mi corazon: Mexico in my heart

Plaza Don Vasco de Quiroga, Patzcuaro, Michoacan

Are you a tourist or are you a traveler? Do you already know what you want to experience or would you prefer to be surprised. Most, with only a couple of  weeks vacation, understandably prefer the first option. In Mexico they head for the coastal resorts where they play and lounge at waters edge while they are treated like royalty. What they  see is a facade that Mexico has created to conform to their desires.

There is another Mexico that greets the serious traveler. It is a place of extreme contrasts of dark and light offering expressions of sorrow and joy that pluck at our heart.

Market, Patzcuaro, Michoacan

Consider this  Purepecha woman, her skin as  red as the earth, waving flies from her produce. Her black hair falls over a dark rebozo which is shot through with threads of  electric blue. Seated amid a riot of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, her environment has changed much  since the Conquest. There are plastic containers and the glint of chrome on parked trucks. But something of the ancient culture prevails. Her people, the majority as poor as dirt since the beginning of time, continue to practice elaborate ceremonies and to create objects and clothing of great beauty.

The Conversation, Ihautzio, Michoacan

They are the descendants of a powerful empire the size of Switzerland that was never conquered by the Aztec, but they owe much of the survival of this culture and their traditional crafts to a man known affectionately as ‘Tata Vasco’. At age sixty Don Vasco de Quiroga was dispatched by the King of Spain to minister to the survivors of the brutal Conquistador Nuño Beltran de Guzman.

For thirty years Don Vasco, a Franciscan and  a Utopian, supervised the building of schools and hospitals, he re-established tribal councils and encouraged a demoralized people to integrate their traditional crafts into the emerging Spanish economy. Today the indigenous people of Michoacan are deemed the most skilled craftspeople in Mexico. They are also, arguably, the most prosperous.

Above Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan

Climbing a rocky trail on the edge of an escarpment we are gingerly walking  the remnants of a processional causeway that linked the town of Ihautzio with pyramids that rise above the lake. Directly below us a man and his son are maintaining a steep field of maize. Beyond them, past stands of prickly pear and Joshua trees, a patchwork of fields declines towards the placid lake. Roosters crow and and a bull bellows from the direction of our lodgings in Rancho Santiago.  Dark clouds brush the tops  of distant peaks that encircle the lake. Electric bolts light the clouds and thunder rolls towards us across the placid waters. It’s easy, in this context to sense the presence of the ancient gods.

Forty miles beyond these peaks rises the active volcano Paricutin. It’s birth in 1943 , in a farmer’s cornfield, makes it the youngest volcano in the America’s. The mother of our host Arminda Flores recalled the volcanic ash raining, intermittently, down on  Ihautzio during her childhood. On our last visit to the nearby city of Guanajuato we visited the childhood home of  Diego Rivera This home, which is now a museum of his early work, displays a series of drawings  he created after witnessing the eruption  of Paricutin.

Morning, El Jardin, Guanajauto

I will be leading a painting group to Guanajuato and Lake Patzcuaro for two weeks in early January 2010. For further information about this trip visit the “Classes” section of this website. Scroll down until you reach ‘Outdoor Painting Classes around Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan Mexico’. There is also a short video about our last trip.

Uptown Unveiled: The Fox and Paramount Theaters, Oakland, June 18

I’ve painted them on several occasions. Now my guest blogger, Annalee Allen, will fill you in on a celebration which will showcase two of Oakland’s premier movie palaces:

Annalee Allen

The upcoming Uptown Unveiled street party on June 18th presents an opportunity to showcase both of Oakland’s movie palace gems – the Paramount Theatre on Broadway, and the newly restored Fox Oakland Theater on Telegraph Avenue. The lobbies of both theaters will be open for viewing, and guides with the Oakland Tours Program will be leading walks from one venue to the other throughout the evening.

The Paramount

The Fox during Restoration

East Bay Open Studios 2009

Saturdays and Sundays
June 6 & 7, 13 & 14, 2009

11AM – 6PM

351 Lewis St Oakland, CA 94110

Google Map

The East Bay hosts one of the highest per capita concentrations of visual artists in the United States. You’ve probably never heard of most of them. Many are not represented by local galleries.

Pro Arts, oil on canvas, 18″ X 24″, 2004

If you are interested in an overview of the East Bay visual arts, I encourage you to participate in an event that throws the doors wide open. More than four hundred studios will welcome the general public the first two weekends in June. This visual smorgasbord is keenly anticipated by art lovers, as well as collectors and gallery owners.

Because of the number of artists involved I recommend visiting Pro Arts Gallery in Jack London Square where each participating artist shows a sample of his or her work. With the catalog in hand  you can plan your voyage of discovery.

Nowadays you can also take a virtual visit. Check out the Online Gallery.

East Bay Open Studios is a excellent opportunity to discover emerging artists at reasonable prices. While I don’t advise buying art primarily as an investment, there is no doubt that, these days, reasonably priced work by living artists has a greater potential to appreciate in value than most stocks and bonds. It’s also much more enjoyable to look at!

Four artists, who have attended my painting workshops in Oakland, Mexico or Italy, are taking part in Open Studios. They are  O’Brien Theile and Ron Weil both in Berkeley,  Marvin Dalander in Alameda. And Lorrie Fink in Oakland.

I’ve participated  in East Bay Open Studios every year since it’s inception in the early 80′s.  Pro Arts is an artist membership organization which has acted as an entry point into the art world for emerging talent. It hosts a number of exhibitions each year. My exhibition with Pro Arts in 1986 garnered a full page review (by Charles Shere and Susan Stern) in the Oakland Tribune, as well as a gallery connection. Sales from this show enabled me to phase out my landscape gardening business and devote myself full time to painting.

Autumn at the Farmers' Market, oil on canvas, 18" X 24", 2008

This year I am showcasing my painting of the San Francisco Chronicle (Storm Clouds over the Chronicle) and the Farmer’s Market painting that was featured in an article by Brenda Payton in the San Francisco Chronicle. I will  be showing other examples of my Farmers’ Market Series and Urban Garden Series as well as new urban landscapes.

You are welcome to explore my racks in the mezzanine where I store about a hundred paintings, and to take part in lively conversation with other guests over wine, cheese and cappuccinos.

I look forward to seeing you.