Christine's Exhibit

Resting
Oil by Christine Rieck-Sonntag

No Aqua!

Now it is on the second day there is no water in the colony or in the whole town of Cuidad Colon due to some kind of pipe break nearby. Unless you have well-water, there is none. Thank goodness we have the pool water for the toilet tanks and the main house on the property has a well. But no showers, and no water from faucets, I am so spoiled. We are getting pitchers of water for boiling, for cooking and drinking. Tonight dinner at the main house and a slide show that one of artists put together about "Art and the Landscape".
Lorraine M. & I had another Spanish lesson yesterday and then we went to local restaurant to watch the sunset, 5 margaritas later and the best cheesburger I ever had, we got a taxi home to our casita. The restaurant has well-water, they were open and it was a really nice evening, warm and dramatic skies a sunset of orange and pinks in the western mountain range.

Whisperers
B&W photograph by Lorraine Bromley

Carlos took Lorraine M. & I for a jungle walk to one of his friend's horse farm, these horses were on top of a mountain overlooking the canyon near Cuidad Colon. We also went to look at the oropendula birds on Rodeo Drive near the University of Peace, then we went to the butterfly farm after we had a tipico lunch at a local "soda".

The butterfly farm was wonderful! I have been several times to the same farm and this time was the most interesting with a tour guide that was so special, she made it very interesting and how we can use the butterfly metamophosis process as a role model. We tend to forget what the butterfly has gone through, how it has struggled to reach its place on the breeze and how it was effected. Our path of transformation can be likened to that of the butterfly's. We emerge from our cocoon, we take time to adjust to our new circumstances. Things are different, and we have to learn how to handle our new selves. We act in new ways. The things we say are surprising to others, because it's not what they're familiar with. People respond to us in a manner in which we're not used to. Because of my new attitudes, I lost some friends who couldn't adjust to the shift. And I made new friends who were walking the same path I was. Generally, when we embrace transformation, we only want to think of the end result. We don't want to think about the work that goes into it, or the sacrifices we'll have to make to be able to soar. I know that when I went through a transformation some years ago, I thought "Wonderful! Things will be better." They were, but in the process there were attitudes and behaviors I had to surrender that were central to my life. Eventually, the effect of the butterfly's journey allows it to climb free and rest. Spreading its wings for the first time, energy flows through them and they expand, finally ready to carry the butterfly on the breeze. Feeling confident with our new self, and like the butterfly, we fly free, a living jewel fluttering about the skies.

Heleconia II

watercolor and pastel
11 x 30
Lorraine Bromley

Rainbows and Motmots

Motmots (bird) are like seeing rainbows, green, red, and blue, they are so colorful. The motmot we saw at the hot springs at Termerales de Bosque (Hot Springs in the Woods) was so "colorful" he stoled Lorraine,s cherry off the top of her diquiri she was drinking in the pool. It was unbelievable. Swooped down without a warning. The hot springs were in the rainforest and it was raining the whole time we were there, it was perfect, cold rain and hot pools of sulfur scented springs from Mt Arenal along rushing rivers. The bus ride was awesome, I will never get tired of the rides in Costa Rica, spectecular views of villages and farmlands, steep hills, jungle, clouds, sunsets and shadows and of course rainbows. Great meals, great company and great sites.

Isabella is so proud of her chocolate milk bubbles.

Carols Painting's

Puriscal by Carol Shelton

Cuidad Colon by Carol Shelton

Juanita's Flowers

Juanita's Monsteros Deliciousa

Lorraine M. and I finally painted today some beautiful orchids we discovered here in the colony. I did not get a picture of them yet, the camera I borrowed ran out of battery, so had to recharge and then I forgot about it. I painted them all day and I really dislike the painting, I think I will wash it down and start over. Terrible painting!!!
We are having fun introducing ourselves to all the new artists this month, Gail, Diane, Charles, Irene, Donna, John, Lois, Robert a mix of writer and visual artists. My name is "Lorraine" and this is a friend of mine"Lorraine". Faces look surprised. lol
Carol went home on Monday, I miss her. We had a great time, painting, day-tripping to Orosi Valley, Puriscal and then to Rodeo Drive, oooooooo (yes Rodeo Drive) no shopping though, just viewing the mountains and the birds, the horses and nature. Catching a glimpse of the Oropendular birds of Costa Rica was awesome, hilarious actually. Black birds with yellow tails, squawking with 100 other oropendulars with a very distinct bird call and when they are mating which is all the time they swing like a pendulum on a branch, it is the funniest things. Oh yea I just remembered that we also saw a phenomonon of a rainbow cloud, not the ordinary arch but on the ground in between some mountains. We both saw this sight and would not have believed it i we did not see it together. Unbelievable!!
Made some plans to go on a boat ride in the jungle and visit the Trimbini Rainforest on Friday with the artists here. Can't wait!

Catch-up

View of Puriscal, a village Carol and I decide to paint Saturday afternoon.

Well this week has been a whirl wind of events. Sorry I have been quilty of ignoring my blog, without my camera, I have been kind of lost. Its hard for me to tell a story with out my camera shooting every moment. Like another pair of eyes and another arm.

I have met some wonderful people here at the colony and outside the colony. Gerry has let me borrow her camera for the remainder of my stay here, she is back home in RI and I will get it back to her when I return....she is a doll.....while working on a painting in the next city with Carol, a woman came over to us and talked to us about her artwork in Spanish, which was difficult, but we got through it and later she brought over two pieces of cake for us. On Friday, Carol & I rented a car went to the Orosi Valley again only about 30 miles away, but it took us about 3 hours to get there, there are no signs, and many one way and dead end streets, anyway on the way home we had a flat tire and a young man and his girlfriend stopped to change it for us and would not take any money for helping us.....and let us follow him out of the city because we were lost again. We cried all the way home, I cried more, I am such a wimp. Anyway, everyone has been so hospitable and kind, not to mention the breathtaking views of the countryside of mountains, steep hills, farms, flowers and birds, and oh yea snakes! Yikes....Carol and I saw a boa constrictor crossing the street, thank goodness we were in the car. We screamed until it finished crossing, and took picture of it. But I can not bring myself to put it online yet. Hector, and artist from NY, is having a show at the museum next year in San Jose, and has talked to the director about my work as well, and maybe showing together, so I have a mission this week to contact her to show here some work. More later....

Carol took this picture of me with my addiction-putting chapstick on.
I need a camera!!!

No Photographia

My camera broke, will have to wait to get home to have it fixed, or save up to buy another one, that camera has been through so much with me, a very good friend. Of course it went everywhere with me. I have tried many things to try to fix it, online troubleshooting, my camera repair shop in RI to no avail. So, don't know what I will do the next 4 weeks. I will need a photographic memory!! Kind friends will let me take pics with their camera. Then I will download on my computer, so sad. I am lost with out it.

Well, Carol is here......we are having a great time together, I had a welcome dinner for her with a few other artists from the colony, a pot luck dinner, vegetable soup, pork loin with ginger, garlic and lime juice, pesto pasta, salad, pineapple, and chocolate. We painted all morning up on the hill overlooking Cuidad Colon, she did two great paintings, I was working on one large one, Gerry joined us to paint too. Bernarda took us to town for some groceries, did a little clothes shopping and got a couple movies, Carol got the "dollar more" tour of Colon. We saw a funeral go down the main street, the whole town goes to funerals, carrying the coffin in the middle of the road. Also got a little gift for Isabella's birthday party at the pool for Saturday. Dinner tonight at Jaunita's and Frank's, some pad thai is on the menu. Tomorrow- dinner party at Francisco's main house. He got into two car accidents yesterday, he is fine but car is a wreck.

Enchanted by Montezuma

me, Christa (Angela's friend), Angela, Suzanna, Soizic, and Ava
in front of one of largest tree in Nicoya, a strangling fig.

Suzanna, Ava, Soizic and I went on an adventure to the west part of Costa Rica, Nicoya Pennisular...and Playa Montezuma. We rented a car and took the ferry and traveled the enchanting roads along the tip of the pennisular to a small, really small beach town...open air living, bohemian, beautiful, quaint, colorful, warm, hammock filled, refreshing, enchanting place. Suzanna made arrangements for us to stay at her friends hotel, Hotel Aurora. Angela, the owner, was delightful, an artist herself, set us up in a modest suite, beds were really hard to sleep on, but "enchanting". We walked around the town, walked the beach and planned the itinerary for next day,....BEACH. Tough decision! Breakfast the following day with chocolate croissant and cappuccino. Walked along Playa Montezuma, then Playa Grande. Met some of Suzanna's and Angela's friends who are artists and living on the beach for a month, working on their art for an exhibition we will see in San Jose in February. One of the artists, Minor, saw that my sandal needed some attention and sewed it up so the damn thing wouldn't "talk" to me while I walked, you know how the bottom sole ends up flapping while you step? Yea annoying, not "enchanting " at all. Angela took on us an "enchanting ride on some "enchanting" roads on Thursday night to Playa Santa Teresa to watch the sunset. The "enchanting" roads were dirt roads, potholes, thru rivers and jungle along the most beautiful coast lines of blue oceans and blue skies. Swimming in the turquoise ocean was soothing, cool, waves were perfect to ride, it anointed all my sore joints and feet. I floated into "enchantment" for hours.

Now these enchanting ladies were the best traveling companions, Ava, speaks only Itailian/Spanish, Suzanna speaks like 5-6 languages, Soizic, speaks, her native language French, Spanish, English and a bit of Italian. and me... pogueno Espanol and my native "enchanting" english. So the conversations were "enchanting", a mix of all the languages of the world, and we all understood the topic and it was a bit hard to keep up and down right exhausting, but wouldn't have had it any other way. I will go back someday to "enchanting" Montezuma. More later, for pictures of Montezuma, click here. PURA VIDA!!!

Isabella-Simon-Adelia

Pinturo y Bailo

Watercolor on left, photograph on right
I paint....This is the "watermelon lady" at the open market on Saturdays, I think she is a hoot! So I started a painting of her. A challenge! I have to work on it more of course but it is a good start.


I dance...we went to a dance club last night, we had a great time watching as well as dancing. Costa Ricans love to dance. Men are so good at it. The traditional dance is "cumbya", a very fast paced couples hop-like dance, but can be with more than one also. So, entertaining, you have to be in very good shape. We will go back to this dance hall for sure. I would like to do some drawings there, but I will have to do some from memory. Lorraine M. will love it when she comes to visit me!!

By the Colony Road
watercolor

Up the road by the casitas, this tree overhangs the road up to the top of the hill, erosion of roots, a log and rocks cover this section, Very abstract shapes are formed from the various roots that stem out from the earth, some of the rocks fell after earthquake and were wisked away the other day by bulldozer. This one is being considered to buy by a friend here in colony.

Yesterday started a painting up at one of the hotels up the hill and took many pictures of a motmot, a green bird with long tail feathers and brilliant blue head.

Jungle Book

The hike down to the cascade falls to swim with Carlos on Thursday. He invited a few of us residents to join him on this jungle walk with the RISD students that are here for the month. A Plant Speicalist was with us as well, and explained some of the plant life we encountered along the way. The waterfalls were spectacular, I think everyone went in except me, I was fearful, the rocks were steep and I was chicken basically. But it was wonderful!

I worked on this painting some more at the canyon, mmmm, not sure if I need to do more on it. It might be too dark, will have to look at it for a few hours to see. It is dramatic!

Monsteros Deliciousa

Delicious Monster, is a tropical fruit that Jane just showed me on the property here. It looks like a cucumber with kernels and inside is a custard like texture that tastes like mango, pineapple, banana, and , SO I have one ripening in the kitchen right now. I can't wait to try it, they say it is wonderful, and it ripens at different rate, so this is exciting! Most exciting thing this week.

Yogurt & Yoga

Bamboo Vertical 4 x 9
Bamboo Horizontal 9 x 4
watercolors

Yogurt, toast, costa rican coffee, sunshine, produce market with Sarah, a ripened pineapple for 1.40, a cucumber for .20, checked on Patricia at the river, took taxi home, went in pool, painted, worked on post card design, worked on dvc menu, painted, Carlos fixed the sink drain in kitchen, salad for lunch, painted, getting ready for studio tour Wednesday @1:00, found gecko in bathroom looking at himself in the mirror, painted, yoga for an hour, felt dizzy, watched Top Designer, very windy tonight, another salad, post card design, blogged, talked to Cal, emails, bed, book, sleep.

Yo!

Air on Air, 11 x 30 watercolor by Lorraine

Was invited to dinner with Hector DeCordova, artist from Long Island, NY. His gallery is a website listed on side bar on right. I helped him get online with his computer, he had old version of windows and it needed to be manually configured. He was so kind to thank me and took me to dinner at Essentia (Spanish for perfume). One of my favorite places in Costa Rica, real artsy place, great food and lots of art everywhere.

The Day the Earth Shook

Yes, there was an earthquake on Thursday, I felt it. Was short, a little scary. I was with Sarah, Marc and Bernarda at the orchid gardens in Cartago, a few miles south of San Jose. Bernarda grabbed my arm and said that was an earthquake, I thought she was feeling dizzy and holding on to me. She was pulling me away from trees. So, we went about the gardens in a usual manner and found out from workers that it was high on the rictor scale (6.!). A little nerve-racking. I was more concerned about it all when we went to a restaurant and they had the news on. It was only about hour later and they had news about tourists being trapped up near La Paz Waterfalls and Poas Volcano, where we had been considering going. Thank goodness we did not go there, anyway, there are some people stuck up there, safe but no road to get back down from mountain, roads are very rough, but paved up there, just close to edges, no gard rails and roads were wiped out with landslides. Today will be more news. Glad to be back in studio. But also went to the Orosi Valley, which was breathtaking, it was late in afternoon and the sun was shining in the west going down and dark clouds in the east, it was so dramatic looking down the valley to the river winding around green jungle hills.