Day Eleven of Twelve Days in Guatemala

The outside of the Dona Leonore.

We painted at the ruins of Santa Clara this morning. The cathedrals of Antigua are very beautiful. There are a lot of them. Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala, but now it is Guatemala City, about 45 minutes away. More than 14 times, earthquakes devastated Antigua during 230 years in the 1500's. Many old buildings are now ruins. Some are in restoration. Once the capital was moved, the inhabitants were asked to leave the city. With it's nice little shops and layout, it kinda reminded me of a Guatemalan version of Aspen or Vail. Many Americans live here. You can see our western influence here and there.

"Ruins at Santa Clara, Antigua" - 9" x 12" oil on canvasboard

After lunch, we hiked down to the local market and sought out a subject to paint, however, after looking at the booths and shops and seeing that neither lent itself to plein air today, we chose to hire another local for our subject. Her name was Catalina. She was sitting in the sun, we were under an archway, not a lot of light for color mixing and as Kaye said, "Deal with it," and we did. Probably the one time I have been happiest with my color mixing the whole trip. This was one of those paintings that just sort of flew from my fingertips onto the canvas. Does that ever happen for you?

"Catalina" - 8" x 10" oil on canvasboard

And here I am at my easel. We had so many onlookers. I at least got my practice at that, in this place. Lots of little kids running around, also, tripping over easel legs. LOL.

This evening we went to the Jade Factory. A factory rep told us how the only real jade comes from Guatemala. Lots of vendors claim they have jade items, but unless you get a certificate, it isn't real jade. An American archaeologist and her husband located the areas to mine, based on Mayan history. It was interesting.