La Jolla Cliff Walk, watercolor plein air

La Jolla Cliff Walk, watercolor, plein air, 6x9" (15x22cm.) Available. This is in San Diego, California, painted a couple of weeks ago.
La Jolla Art Association is having an Open Juried Watercolor Show, April 8-22. Registration is April 8, 4-6 pm. Dare to participate! Enter the show! Reception and Awards Ceremony is Friday April 13, 5-7 pm. Best of Show, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place awards. Come for the art, stay for the wine! For prospectus, email me:  minnievalero@yahoo.fr 

Fuente de Burgos, Spain, watercolor plein air

Fuente de Burgos, Spain, watercolor, plein air, 4x6 (10x15cm.) Available.
Burgos is a beautiful and sophisticated city in the North of Spain, where sculptures, water fountains, parks, give you a feeling of calm, relaxation, and joy. I painted this small watercolor sitting in front of the changing fountain, its waters danced for me with gusto and passion!

Let There Be Light, acrylic on canvas

Let There Be Light, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 14x14" (35x35cm.) Available.
I've just finished a book about Hungarian Decorative Folk Art: Although each district in Hungary has some distinctive traits, in general the designs are mainly floral, and birds are very popular, too. The typical colors are different shades of red, and they seem to avoid yellow and purple. Strength, definition, a lively fantasy characterize Hungarian folk art. More on art in Hungary coming up soon, as I am brushing up on the Fine Arts in Hungary in the next few months, in preparation for an Artist Residency in Hungary this summer.

Kirsten's Request, watercolor

Kirsten's Request, watercolor, 27x20. Sold.
 My friend Kirsten commissioned this painting. She had an old postcard of a watercolor by a German painter, and her mother loved this picture. Kirsten asked me to make a big painting from it, and this is it!

Creation, acrylic on canvas

Creation, acrylic on canvas, 14x14" (35x35cm.) Available.
I've recently visited the Women Surrealists exhibition at LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, titled: "In Wonderland", and have been impressed by the creativity of women in Europe, the US and Mexico at that period. Although Surrealism was born of the ideas of two men: Andre Breton and Sigmund Freud, who saw Woman as the object of art and sexuality, women artists took the surrealists ideas of freedom, nature and sexuality and run away with it. Women artists created themselves, created their own definition of art and sexuality, through introspection and self-analysis.

Tango callejero, watercolor

Tango Callejero, watercolor on Arches paper, 30x22, available.
I was born in Argentina, and remember my youth when my father taught me to dance the tango. When I visit Argentina now I like to take pictures of tango dancers in the streets of Buenos Aires. I then use my pictures as resource for paintings.

Balcon de la Residencia, Madrid, watercolor

Balcon de la Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid, watercolor, 5x7 (12x17cm.) Not available.
This is one of the small watercolors I painted while staying at this Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid in 2010. They were having a special exhibit in memory of Federico Garcia Lorca, Salvador Dali, and the rest of the group of students who lived together there for a few years at the beginning of the century, when they were young and careless. Not only I love Dali's art, and Lorca's poems, but I also remembered how my parents met, many years ago, in Argentina. They were actors in a small town play: "Dona Rosita la Soltera", by Lorca.  It was very interesting and somewhat emotional for me to walk the walk of these two great artists, some 80 years later, and I discovered that Lorca also liked to draw and paint, and that Dali liked to write, too.

Notre Dame de le Petit Pont, Paris, watercolor sketch

Notre Dame de le Petit Pont, Paris, watercolor sketch, 21x15cm. Available.
Walking around Paris and stopping to sketch is one of my favorite activities. There is always something going on. Groups of turists taking pictures everywhere, while locals go about their business, announcements of concerts, plays, art exhibitions distract you. Meanwhile the clouds play their hide and seek game with the sun...ahh..a day out in Paris....just walking around and stopping for a cup of coffee, or a glass of Bordeaux, and my sketchbook...

Mission Bay Friend, watercolor

Mission Bay Friend, watercolor, plein air, 5x4". Available. Mission Bay is a place in San Diego, California, where locals and tourists alike walk, hike, run, or just sit and enjoy the view. Friendly visitors fly in and out, hoping for a scrap of food or a piece of bread.

Olubunmi, pastel

Olubunmi, pastel, 20x16", available.
This beautiful African girl is a friend's niece, she lives in France. Her beauty struck me and I obtained permission to paint her. The pastel painting is in France at the moment, so it won't be availble for mailing it till I get there, before the end of June.

Catedral de Burgos III, watercolor alla prima

Catedral de Burgos III, Spain,  watercolor alla prima, 6x4, available.
In the January-February issue of Artists Magazine, there is a recommendation I highly support: "Spend time at a museum. Aspire not to copy, but to seek what they sought.  They depth of your art will be in direct proportion to your love and understanding of your subject." And I add: keep a record of that museum visit, write notes, copy/sketch one of the masterpieces that struck you the most, study it, analyze each stroke, learn.  Your next paintings will reflect what you have learnt.

Catedral de Burgos II, watercolor sketch, alla prima

Catedral de Burgos II, watercolor sketch, 6x4" Available.
When visiting the beautiful city of Burgos in Northern Spain  last summer, I did several watercolor sketches in the cathedral. It is an amazing building. The town is artistic, elegant, sophisticated. I recommend a visit to Burgos next time you're in Spain.
LA JOLLA ART ASSOCIATION, in California, is having an Open Juried Watercolor Show, from April 8 to 22. Entry day is April 8. You must hand in your work. Any questions? Send me an email, and I'll send you the prospectus. I'm the juror. Time to get serious!! Go ahead, it will be a great show!!!

Along the roads in Panama, watercolor sketch

Along the roads in Panama, watercolor sketch, 5x7" Available. Painted on the bus, going from Panama City to David, trying to capture the views along the road. I paint anywhere, everywhere, like Sorolla used to say: "to keep the hand warm".
This past weekend I visited La Quinta Art Festival, in the Palm Springs area in California. It is a wonderful event, with mostly good quality art. I also visited some art galleries along El Paseo in Palm Desert, and I found some of the art exhibited there of excellent quality, too. It was a rewarding and interesting experience.

Alcazar de Sevilla, watercolor alla prima

Alcazar de Sevilla, Spain, watercolor alla prima, 4x6" (10x15cm.) Available.
When the king and queen of Spain visit Sevilla, they stay here. Over 700 years ago, the Moors lived here, and they had built this palace with lavish gardens, water-fountains, and beautifully decorated walls, ceilings, gates and patios. It's an amazing place to visit and spend an entire day immersed in centuries old beauty. When I go to Sevilla, I love to spend at least an afternoon in the Alcazar, and paint a couple of watercolors. This one is a small sketch from 2010.

African Sketch, inkwash

African Sketch, inkwash value study, 4x6, available.
I was reading in the Artists' Magazine January/February issue, the name of some of the great painters of snow: Peter Bruegel the Elder, Marc Chagall, Frederic Church, Anselm Kiefer, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, John Twachtman, and Ezra Jack Keats, were on their list. So go find them, and study how they do snow! This is today's advice to all you painters out there!

Iglesia de Alex, Sevilla, Spain

Iglesia de Alex, watercolor, 7x5", available. This is a church in Sevilla, Spain, where Alex did her first communion a few years ago.
Art history began to be established in the 18th C. In A BRIEF HISTORY OF PAINTING by Roy Bolton, I've read: "The history of painting is the history of humanity's struggle to come to terms with its predicament. The reasons we're interested in art are the same reasons why we are interested in religion, philosophy or science. This is why great art is never only about beauty; it is also about the recognizably valuable human experience that it transfers from one person to another."

Les Pyrenees vue du Meridien

Les Pyrenees vue du Meridien, watercolor, 12x18cm. Available.
I painted this small watercolor sitting at the cafeteria of Le Meridien, a big shopping center near Tarbes, France, in the Fall 2011.  The cafeteria, on the 2nd floor,  has a magnificent view of the French Pyrenees. The sitting is indoor and outdoor on a large balcony, so no matter the weather you always get a fabulous view!

The Cove, landscape/seascape

The Cove, watercolor, 14x20" (35x50cm.) Available. I painted this watercolor plein-air, standing near La Mano Masks in La Jolla, California, a few days ago. La Jolla Cove is a beautiful place in Southern California, near San Diego.
According to Ian Roberts, it's important to engage both horizontal and vertical lines of force. Our goal--he says--is "to orchestrate engagement, and have: strong value masses, subtle color intensities and harmonies, edge quality, and great drawing." Have I done all that in this painting? I'm not sure. You be the judge.