Merry Christmas!

It has been 2 months. There have been some changes.
Our art show in November was a very nice, family oriented event. It was great to see the kids looking at all the different art on display and being created before their eyes. The art was beautiful, the artists are all impressive people. We only didn't have enough art enthusiasts there and consequently very few sales.
I decided to step down from hanging the art on display in the Martial Arts Studio, the wall space is going to be needed for
a new kickboxing program.


Our kitty Music left us, she spent her last week with us being constantly with her and we all miss her. It seems her death brought us all closer to each other.
The day before the Italian group (I had worked for in Dec. for 3 years) arrived and I found out I had been replaced. Robert had taken the week off to help me, he was very supportive and we had some good talks and a wonderful date together. In spite of it all I was able to have some time with my Italian friends, Marina and Jonathan.
As you understand there was little time to paint, just enough for some small pieces:
three Rockart inspired paintings and a sunset.
Shaman by the Sea is a departure from my usual way of painting, I used the Rockart and some stones with line patterns for reference, but the sea is just as it came from my imagination. It is kind of scary to just paint and not judge what comes out.
The little icon was the first one I tried to do in one hour to train for the slapdown (at the art show). It was obvious that I needed more time. It is here to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
My website is www.verasart.com and to unsubscribe send me an email.

October already!

Dear Friends,
Gerald, having been home schooled all his life, started high school at the end of August, Robert, who had a wonderful 6 months in Cambodia, came home just in time for his birthday. Misha came to visit twice (!) and Gabriel, who is well now, had pneumonia at the end of September.
In the meantime I did have my work in the New Braunfels Art League gallery (for the first time) and I participated in the Art Across the Americas exhibit in Austin. This exhibit benefits teenage mothers in Peru. The beautiful hummingbird painting is by Alberto Vasquez from Peru who won the juror's award this year! I am putting the finishing touches to bringing the exhibit to the Martial Arts Center in Converse on Nov 7th. (In Austin $1130.- was raised!) If you want to participate in the slapdown and/or local art show during the reception, let me know. (verabenck39@hotmail.com)
Just before my birthday I got a call from a 3rd cousin who has been studying my father's family for 15 years. He is writing a book and I am learning a lot from him and supplying him with family pictures and the information I have. It is a dream come true and very exciting to me!
I am going to the Rock Art Foundations Rendez-Vous in West Texas this weekend to see some of my cherished prehistoric rock art in real life.
Four of my recent rockart pieces will be in the Oct 21st reception for Spirits and Demons in the Civic Center in Schertz. There will be entertainment by square dancers that draw a crowd!

My life-long friend, Sandra, wanted to know about the baby portraits. Two sketches from Jayden Washington as baby and a picture of him at 1 year old.

a Bowl of Figs and Fiesta Poster contest

The Bowl of Cherries was my most successful painting so far. It sold right away, there were lots of positive comments (thank you!) and my artist-friend, Cindy Morawski, liked it so well as to want a print for her kitchen! And I always thought that I was not good at Still Life....
Well, we had some delicious figs from the tree in our backyard and even before I posted the painting on the website, I thought about painting them. When the cherries were sold, I just had to. I do love figs. The first fresh ones I ever had were the purple ones in the South of France and I remember how impossible it seemed to associate their taste with the dried figs I had hitherto known.
Another artist-friend, Irena Bowren, has generously provided us with tasty figs from her yard this summer. Thank you! I don't know why, but all of us, Gabriel, Gerald and myself were craving figs this year!

The Fiesta Poster contest over, it turned out my design was not chosen. It is not to be wondered at, probably, since I absolutely chose to please myself. There is a story about it. The 2 cats are the inhabitants of the wonderful garden of the Schultze House in Hemisphere Park, San Antonio (figuring on the design with the beautiful poppies in its garden). The poster celebrates that in 2012 San Antonio will be a no-kill city and that thanks to the Trap, Neuter, Return program many feral (and less feral cats) can live out their lives happily in green areas in the city. I have dreams of my poster being used to raise money for SARA Sanctuary or another good cause. But for starters I will put it on the website.

News of early July 2010 Sunrise, Poppies and Cherries (Oil)

With the hot weather, I have been more inside. A good opportunity to finish a couple of paintings and get some cleaning done.

The sunrise painting was started this winter, when I had to get up early to take Robert to work and drove back home with the sun rising. Sometimes it was hard to drive as I was blinded by the strong light, at other times you just wanted to be able to stop the car and enjoy the beautiful view, but that was impossible on the freeway and there was just enough time to get home, eat some breakfast, take care of the animals and take Gabriel to his first class.

The White Prickly Poppies are of the thistle family, I believe. They are so beautiful, they cheer me whenever I see them. I discovered a yellow cousin on my walks with Maya. The background was inspired by driving on the freeway and seeing a wall of flowers, yellow and purple so thick that almost no green was visible, on the hillside of the road. I gave the top the canyon pattern and added the turquoise sky to remind myself of the Native Americans, their love of turquoise and their canyons. The painting kind of happened and the explanation came as thoughts after it was finished. I have never seen wildflowers in other countries like the ones in Texas.

A Bowl of Cherries, Oil 2010. My dear friend, Cheryl, and I used to love getting together, sharing what was going on in our lives and in cherry season: eating cherries. She just moved to College Station, we will all miss her, her family and her hospitality. This is your painting, Cheryl! When I was working on it, I had thoughts of another cherry painting hanging in Simone's kitchen in Perpignan (France) (anybody knowing Simone will have visions of joyful gatherings and true friendship). Cherries also remind me of my brother, Sjoera, and of cherries bought from the farmer along the river Vecht and shared with Sjoera, Sacha, Dimitri and Boris.

First Native American paintings

When visiting my website, www.verasart.com, many people living in the States like the Native American paintings best. Still Rockart and Shamans are not part of everyday life and may need an explanation. Ever since I was little and dreamed of being an archeologist, I have loved pictures of the Lascaux animals; they were the only rock art I knew. Many years ago I found out about the Lower Pecos civilization in West Texas in the Witte Museum in San Antonio. In 2005 we took a trip Seminole Canyon State Park where I got to see the rock shelter paintings of the Lower Pecos (up to 4000 years old) for the first time. It was wonderful! However it was sad to hear that these paintings were gradually disappearing because of a change of climate resulting from the creation of Lake Amistad and nothing could be done. (More information about Rockart is at www.rockart.org.) I paint rockart inspired paintings because it fascinates me, the paintings are so old, so mysterious and they were painted by people who, in the Native American tradition, are still here in Texas somehow intimately connected with the land.

This is Earth, the name came when walking my dog. The rocks and wood were found on the same walks and my cats were present during the painting of everyone of the pieces, sometimes wanting to sit in my lap and be patted, forcing me to take a break. I think the animals did contribute to the watercolors. The ground was very dry and broken into patterns when I was planning this one. I walk Maya in a wild area close to home where there is some beautiful nature left and a big cleared area where new houses are going to be built. Because of the recession nature is taking over all the land (Maya and I hope it is going to take a long time before construction starts). A regular shaman, one with rabbit ears and one with his hair standing all out: in a trance.




This is Air. The smaller feathers I found walking our dog Maya (hawk?), the big one is from a kite from Japan. The shaman has different animal attributes: antlers from a deer, a mountain lion face, and wings. The dark lines above his head are about what he needs to go through to get into the spirit world, if I remember right. The idea of animals as helpers I like, you find it in Native American stories and in fairy tales all over the world.



This is Water, the landscape is from inside the Canyon on the way to see the shelter. We were there on a very windy autumn day, but inside the canyon it was warm like in on a sunny day in winter or early spring (in Texas). There were butterflies, pools of water, running water, plants and no wind. It was so peaceful and you just wanted to live there, too. I put a yucca plant in the landscape, because we were told that the woman in the painting was holding two Yucca plants. She was wearing a coat made from strips of rabbit skin. She seemed like a mytical figure to me. I noticed that the yucca will often bloom after the rain, that is what ties it all together.



This is Fire, the hardest one for me to paint out of the four. The mountain lion is at Seminole canyon, you need to go there by boat, I got to see it only from the opposite bank. It is really big (6 or 7 feet, I believe) so it is visible from far away. The center has the White Shaman group which I still need to go see as well. The fire and the figures in the dark are from my imagination.