Art by Diane Knight

I was introduced to Buddhism in Todos Santos many years ago.  Since then I have had the fortune of participating in a silent retreat and learned the value of daily meditation.  Whenever I look at a statue of the Buddha, I am reminded of peace and serenity.

Serenity

We went to this church in San Cristobal de Las Casas to see the fabulous wood door.  It was pure luck that these two children were playing right in front of the door and also that their mother was not watching.  They really, really, do not like having their pictures taken in Chiapas.  I have this awesome zoom lens on my new camera which does not stick out a mile.  I pretended I was taking photos of the church and managed to catch them in action.  Well, when you’re that lucky, of course you have to paint it!!!

Mayan Kids at Play

I learned how to laminate mulberry paper this past fall and chose a funky layout to portray this happy woman shopping.  I haven’t done collage for a long time and it was a fun diversion from painting.  I brought down to Mexico enough silk mulberry paper and other papers with leaves impeded (such as mango leaves) to do 3 more of these.  Alas, I haven’t gotten around to them yet.  But this one sold the first time I displayed it so that should be incentive for me.

Shopping Spree

The 3rd Annual Open Studios tour took place last Sunday, with 31 studios open to the public for just this one day.  Lots of work (as one of the organizers!), but a lot of fun.  Over 170 people took the tour.  I enjoyed showing a number of them my studio and current work – including one that I am working on right now.

Interpreting the Studio Tour map

Work in progress

Enjoying the work

What a luxury to be able to buy fresh fruit right in front of your home. These fruit vendors on their tricycles are frequent sights in many parts of Mexico. I used a black (with some red) to under paint my canvas and then heavy pigment with no water for the actual painting. This painting took shape very quickly and I was happy with the result.

Fruit Vendor

The side streets of Mexican towns are full of these little markets. The elderly woman sitting on the step between customers adds a lovely charm to this one. She looks like she would be an interesting person to converse with. I used the same black (with some red) under painting as the last one. Love these Mexican mercados!

Mini - Mercado

The Wall of Saints painting project in Todos Santos brought 30 artists teamed with a child from the Palapa Society Art Program together for an emotional day of painting. One lane of the street was closed off to protect the group of artists. People driving by were initially upset about the traffic jam but when they saw what we were doing, they honked, thanked us in Spanish and cried. Yes cried. Mexicans love their saints and they love art. Bringing it together for an amazing 90 metre mural was truly a memorable experience and brought the Mexican and expat community together. I was honoured to be one of the organizers of this event.

Young Artist

It’s been a busy month!  On January 12th, I was the guest speaker for the “Meet the Artist” talk at Cafelix.  They ran out of chairs, with about 50 people attending.  After the talk, Cafelix had the opening for a photography show, including work by my husband, Vic Kirby, along with Laurie Bauer and Barbara Holman.

During my talk

Relaxing with the audience afterwards!

I currently have a solo show at Caffe Todos Santos in downtown Todos Santos.  The show runs till the end of January.  The opening, on January 5th, was an amazing social event.  Superb food and wine, compliments of Angelo and Magda, flowed all evening.  And there was great live music by an impromptu group, including Alberto Poli.  Much dancing ensued.

I’d like to thank Angelo and Magda for putting on such an amazing event for me!

If you haven’t seen the show (and it was hard to get to some of the paintings that night due to the crowd of people), do drop in!

The group

It was a busy night!

A wonderful spread of food!

Caffe Todos Santos

This painting was inspired by a photo taken by my very talented husband, Vic.  The woman, who I think is absolutely beautiful, just happened to be looking over her shoulder against this striking old wall in Antigua, Guatemala.  So with my new love of painting people and my old love of stone walls made this a “must be painted” image.  I had so much fun painting this.  I hope it shows.

Street Vendor