“Lisa, Are You OK?”

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Friendship, lluvia 2019 manabi, poza honda manabi ecuador, Timeout for Art

Neotropic Cormorants /Poza Honda/Ecuador

“The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.” ~Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927

Our friend Hugh Curtler wrote this week about Friendship, a post worth pondering.  Reading off line, I wrote a reply to send when on line (now) but circumstances  dictate responding via a just-received example of friendship.

In my unhurried off-line reply, I mentioned one dear friend who emails about twice a month.  She always asks, “Lisa, How are you?  How’s your back?   Do you need anything?   Are you OK?”

Dady inspecting the Squirrel Cuckoo watercolor at Museo Portoviejo

This past Tuesday I dropped a music CD at her house after visiting the nearby Portoviejo Museo.  Stocked with ‘survival’ groceries in case the heavy rains provoked more mud slides, I needed to get home before dark.

At sunset I photographed the reservoir, which lacked about a sneeze worth’s of water to send the excess over the spillway.

That night and last night we received more heavy rains.     The waters now reach the high-water level, and the surplus is surely generating enough electricity to illuminate the planet!

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Water hyacinths cascade over the spillway, and chocolate-colored water marks the beginning of Rio Portoviejo.  After taking photos, I drove to Ayacucho to make progress on neglected cyber tasks.

Waiting in the inbox was an email from my friend Dady.  The subject read “Lisa Are You OK?”

“Hmmm,” I thought, “she must know more about something than I!”

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Now You See It; Now You Don’t

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decorative ways to conceal cracks in a wall, Timeout for Art, timeout for art now you see it

“Often, we try to repair broken things in such a way as to conceal the repair and make it “good as new.” But the tea masters understood that by repairing the broken bowl with the distinct beauty of radiant gold, they could create an alternative to “good as new” and instead employ a “better than new” aesthetic. They understood that a conspicuous, artful repair actually adds value. Because after mending, the bowl’s unique fault lines were transformed into little rivers of gold that post repair were even more special because the bowl could then resemble nothing but itself.” – Teresita Fernandez

Panama City-PANAMA –   Like a stepchild that it is not, an impromptu project at Barb’s condo in Panama has been waiting in the queue of stories to share.   After receiving another two-year nonresident visa to work in the arts, I was free to leave Ecuador without a lot of red tape to return.    I first visited Costa Rica for a week, took care of personal business, visited with friends, and then on the return trip to Ecuador, bailed out in Panama to spend a week with Barbara.

Barbara is my amazing and tireless friend who is selfless when it comes to helping others.  Here are images from some of her past visits, starting with when she helped create the Magic Carpet at Casa Loca.

Barb preps border with fresh layer of Agua Stop.

Barbara brushes white over white!

Inventory from PlayaMart

This is surely the most lovingly-painted bodega door in the country!

Postscript:  Last year’s earthquake altered that Casa Loca chapter.  But let’s move on….

Recycled cans!  Why is Barb chuckling as she sits on the bench?

When the ocean advanced, Barb witnessed the changes.

Barb and I enjoyed a 30-minute detour* through the “Women’s Art Exhibit” in Museo Bahia de Caraquez. – *before the earthquake…

Thanks to Efrain’s visit to the property, Barb was officially infected with the birding bug!

Barbara has helped me with SO MANY projects, and even if it were just a week, it was time to spend time with her.   “I’ll be bringing my paint brushes,” I stated, “so be thinking of a project.”

Timeout for Art – The Zen of Repetition

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ideas for kitchen countertops, Painting on concrete, repetitive painting, the zen of painting, Timeout for Art

Trompe o’leil – ” an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture. “

Years ago, my friend Xavier Cevallos walked into my studio and stated, “I can never tell what’s real and what’s painted! I’m always afraid I’m going to step on something.” We were looking at a painting in progress, which was on the hand-painted floor – a painted illusion on top of another illusion.

Just recently my friend Dady Quadrado expressed a statement that made me laugh – yet it also made me more sensitive to the subject matter that’s painted. She did not want to sit on a sofa in Cafe Palo Santo because I had painted a little gecko near the top of a big logo painted on the space behind the sofa.

She explained, “I know it’s paint, but it looks so real that I am scared that it might drop off and fall on me!”

“Counting prayers while fingering beads is a universal use. The idea behind this lies in the nature of repetition that soothes like a lullaby. It is calming and introspective.” – Manuela Dunn Mascetti

Presently I’m visiting friends in Costa Rica and volunteered to re-work a design that was painted on the guest-house kitchen counter.  They have decided to put part of their property on the market, and this guest house is part of that parcel.   The counter deserved some attention!

My plans were to ‘patch’ the stained and damaged areas, but while scrubbing, sanding, then filling in the lost areas with splotches of white paint, I was inspired with new ideas. One problem with the previous design was that it was unforgiving and showed all stains and wear.    There are now more options for protecting the surface, so the new work should last a very long time.

When Marie finished her other work and walked down to see how I was doing, I presented the “new idea. ”   She wondered if it would consume too much time, but we decided to do a sample. She watched as I mixed dumped red, blue and yellow to the white already in the container and eventually hit a color that matched the hues of the ceramic floor…

Silent Critics/ Acrylic – painted door panel converted to wall art. Other items await attention, but for now, the counter demanded the immediate attention…

Timeout for Art – Kahlua 7.8!

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Fernando Cevallos Sabando, jama ecuador, K 7.8, Kahlua 7.8, Kahlua Disco Jama Ecuador, Timeout for Art

Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’   Source: Lao Tzu   —

Thanks TWICE to Eddie Two Hawks for two inspirational quotes in a row!  eddietwohawks.wordpress.com

The owners of the cabanas probably think I am sleeping, but in fact, I’m following the above advice to write today’s Timeout Post. After selecting, “Publish” I’ll return to the project.

Project?  What project?

Ladies and Gentlemen; step inside!

Fernando Cevallos Sabando and his assistant Gatito work on the upstairs DJ section of Kahlua 7.8.

Jama Ecuador —    “Leeee-sah!” Fernando quietly called from outside my cabana door.  “Do you have the key?” 

Approaching the 8 A.M. work hour, Fernando needed the key to open the gates to Kahlua 7.8, a discotheque he is bringing out of hibernation.  The disco was always called, “Kahlua,” but the 7.8 links all comrades who experienced last year’s earthquake.

I opened the door, smiled and replied, “It’s hanging on the hot-water spigot on the water machine.’  

“Oh!” He chuckled; the first person in the outdoor kitchen usually turns on the hot water option for tea or coffee…  With his always-present smile, he added, “Excuse me – now go back to sleep!”

Fernando at work at Kahlua 7.8…

Five hours earlier under a stunning Carl-Sagan sky, I drove into the hostal parking lot just before the roosters announced the approaching dawn.  Before retreating to my cabana,  I pondered the best place to leave the key.

I had last seen Fernando the night before at his brother’s Palo Santo Cafe.   We failed to discuss that detail when he handed me the key and said, “We are finished for the night.  The lights are set up for you.  Paint as long as you’d like.”

Perhaps the locals need a vibrant social spot for jazzing them out of their phone daze!

With a mischievous grin I replied, “You’re giving me the keys?  And I have all night to paint?  Oh my, you might be in for a shock when you show up for work in the morning!”

Timeout- Creative Incubation

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Acrylic, ceibo trees, Incubation and Art, Paintings of Ceibo trees, The Magic Canoe, the magic carpet, Timeout for Art

Incubating – Croaking Ground Dove

“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers this morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth, what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation….” — Joseph Campbell

Ecuador – Every so often someone offers a mirror, and we see ourselves through another’s eyes. That happened this week via Dennis Koenig aka Balsamean’s  blog.   Thank you again, Dennis, for an exceptionally-written ‘About the Artist’ review; I remain humbled.

Here’s his post

NATURE WRITERS I FOLLOW – ZEEBRA

“Is that ME he’s talking about?”

His kind words inspired me to finish organizing words and images on an incubating website that showcases my art.

Fledgling’s first flight!

‘There was an ole artist who lived in a canoe… she had so many paintings, she didn’t know what to do!’    Pencil, Museum Studies, Flora, Fauna, Whimsical, Contemporary, Hand-painted Floors –  it will take a while to lasso the offspring and tweak their placement in this eclectic family tree of art!

The ‘Portfolio’ site starts HERE: SKETCHBOOK NOTES

This week’s art is still growing, but a new member of the family tree is ready for a pre-party viewing.  Meet “Abuelito” Grandfather Ceibo:

Timeout for Art – When Away from Home

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andino hotel quito, painting on walls, Timeout for Art

Memories of painting sessions at Hotel Andino.

Sweet Gaby took a Timeout for Art several months ago, though she was absent last time thanks to a broken wrist while playing basketball!

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” ― Pascal Mercier

Between the reception and the guest rooms

I’ll ask who painted this mural….

The reception/office

The view from the reception area

Quito Ecuador – Returning to Hotel Andino is always a pleasure, and I am able to rest, run errands and almost always take a Timeout for Art.

Upstairs – the view from the doorway of Room #7.

Time to go downstairs for breakfast!

Tucked on the back corner of the second floor landing,  Room #7 offers a sweet little nest for one.  A small built-in wall unit makes me wonder what the room’s original purpose was, and I suspect that the towel-rack area in the bathroom was once a doorway.

Each time I return, I hope that Room #7 is available for another Timeout for Art.

Timeout for Art: Under the Influence of —

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earthquake relief, jama ecuador, Timeout for Art

Jama Ecuador –    “Lee-sah,” my friend Nieve said when I stepped out of my cabana, “We were calling you and thought you were gone!”

With a bit of a shell-shocked gaze, I laughed and said I could hear nothing over the sound of the construction.

Just behind my cabana, workers have been working day and night on one of many ‘relief-house’ projects for those who are still living in tents.   Ground shaking machines prepare the new areas before portable concrete mixers belt out their own source of background music.  Workers tackle each house with amazing skill and seem to work in harmony, even if the noise level tested my patience.

Whenever I found myself getting frustrated about the noise, I reminded myself, “These sounds are like music to those who will wean from a tent to one of these houses.”   Yes, if I had been living in a tent for over a year, those sounds would represent an upgrade in my life.

Timeout for Wanderlust, Accidental Experiences – and a Little Art!

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baeze ecuador, costnga ecuador, rio napo ecuador, Timeout for Art, yachana lodge ecuador

Between Yachana Lodge and Loretto…

“Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what’s right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in.”   Andrew Zimmern

Ecuador – As a child growing up in the Misssippi Delta, I was painfully shy and dreaded interactions with strangers.  A loner, I thrived when roaming the outdoors, inspecting wildflowers along ditch banks or immersed in the dense canopy of the woodlands, where I might sit for hours in hushed tranquility.

My favored destination on my childhood roamings were big trees in dense areas.  – Ceiba tree Near Rio Napo – Ecuador

I am grateful for  young-adult opportunities of teaching art as well as speaking to groups as ‘A Gardening Artist.’   I realized that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that unique threads connect us all.    Slowly I grew comfortable with interacting with strangers, and now I embrace those opportunities to know my fellow man.

After leaving Yachana Lodge on Good Friday,  friends Stephen and Xiomara and I embarked on a journey that presented many unique experiences which almost always included the locals.

Timeout for Art – The Muir Tree

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"The Muir Tree", acrylic paintings, John Muir Quotes, Painting trees, Timeout for Art

The trees are watching!  Near Rio Cinto-Mindo Ecuador

“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed — chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. .” — John Muir

Sometimes a work of art ‘just happens’ as if some invisible hand guides the process.  Everything aligns as if magically orchestrated.

Watercolor  by Lisa Brunetti –  With no pencil prep, I focused on one part of the flower then went straight to painting; the initials strokes of paint slowly evolved into the study of the Thunbergia flowers.

Othertimes a work of art requires preparation and homework, which starts as a spacial gathering of information and honing that data until clarity guides the artist forward.

The Muir quote has always fired my imagination, and I pictured trees frowning in disgust or wide-eyed with fear of being felled or even timidly hiding and peering from behind rocky facades. While pondering ways to illustrate the quote, I began seeking out and studying the twisted growth of mature guava trees – cousins to crepe myrtles – to merge the illusion of limbs and antlers.

Timeout for Art: A Child’s First Drawing Lesson

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a child's first drawing lesson, cosanga ecuador, pachamama birdwatching journey, teaching children to draw, Timeout for Art

The Texas Pachamama Christmas Fairies brought a huge assortment of art supplies. The airlines might have taxed them for extra weight!

“It was amazing what an hour with her sketchpad could do for her mood. She was sure that the lines she drew with her black marker were going to save her years of worry lines in the future.” ― Victoria Kahler, Their Friend Scarlet

Cosanga Ecuador – Napo Province – See Map

The Pachamama Birding Group also brought treats for the teacher… Really really really-nice treats!  Watercolor paper!  Brushes! Sharpie Markers – not used ones like at my drawing table, but brand-new ones with precise points!!!!  But that’s for another post.   Check below to see the view from the table where I took a 30-minute personal timeout for art:

The Pachamama Christmas Fairies delivered high-quality art materials 8 months early!!! Thank you Pachamamas!

… While the ladies were out birding, the two boys and I sat on the front porch for an impromptu art lesson.

Remember Jordan and Rudy?

Please join me as they experience a fresh pad of drawing paper while they discover the magic of a well-sharpened pencil.