Quetzal Celebrates

"Quetzal Celebrates" is an example of the mixed-media works on paper that the artist does when she travels and teaches abroad. It is finished at 20"x20", matted in off-white with a black and gold wood frame. She has developed a technique which is very uncommon it seems, except that artists have always known that water and oil repel each other. Normally, one would do watercolor first and then maybe, add oil pastel or another medium. But she sketches the subject first in charcoal, then sprays it so the line drawing sets the composition. Then she outline the lines in different colors with Caran d'ache Swiss oil crayons. Next the artist fills in partially each area with oil pastels or oil sticks, and finally, she paints different areas with watercolor which acts as a resist and fills in any remaining spaces. It gives the resulting artwork a textured look.

This work is part of her Pre-Colombian series done from sketching at the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Oaxaca, Mexico. Last winter she spent 5 days sketching in 2D the tiny 3D 3,000 year old sculptures. She made up Mexican-like back-rounds and even gave them Mayan names. These characters are so human and showed a wonderful sense of humor so many centuries ago.