fruitas

Janice Skivington 2017 Fruit and vegetable market in Queretaro, Mexico

I love fresh fruit almost as much as I love traveling. Shopping for fruit in the open air market in Queretaro was all my senses could ask for. Colors, smells, textures. I went a little crazy and had to walk home weighed down with a very large papaya, mangos, guavas, and a couple of guyabano. Worth it for the sweet fruit to eat and a painting that happened from the memory.

wandering

“Not all those who wander are lost.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Querétaro, Mexico...my spring break consisted of days wandering the city alone, sitting in peaceful plazas with my sketchbook and paints. 

Sometimes I simply wandered from one shady spot to another. This city has many buildings, still used as residences or shops that are 400 years old. Here I had found myself a shady perch with an old fountain featuring a noble priest from the 1800s and a wealth of pink and red bougainvillea.

traveler

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. 
Gilbert K. Chesterton



I was sitting on a bench across the street from this old church in Queretaro, Mexico drawing and painting with my watercolor kit. The doors opened, people went in to Mass and heart-touching angelic music came wafting across the street to me. It sounded like mostly women singing hymns and songs of praise in Spanish.

holding my breath

As I was sketching my 9 month old grandchild from life, I had to hold my breath for fear of adding one shade or line too many to this delicate image. Of course, she was moving about with the intensity of a new and rapidly changing life force. I did not use a photo!

babbling April

April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” 
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

Easter celebration

I sketched this with a ball point pen on a blank page in the service missal while standing in the noisy happy crowd.

All Glory

All Glory, laud and honor to thee Redeemer King!
...to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

one day away

Queretaro, Mexico...my spring break consisted of days wandering the city.

Querétaro, Mexico...my spring break consisted of days wandering the city alone, sitting in peaceful plazas with my sketchbook and paints. Many days away from my everyday life, and many conscious artistic moments and thoughts only of absorbing the beauty of the scene in front of me.

 “Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” 
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

pulpo

My first dinner while on spring break in Queretaro, Mexico. Delicious!

lecture notes

airport for people watching

visio trees

Spring is around the corner, trees are still mostly bare, mostly ghostly grey, soon to be blooming.

wooden spoon

A perfect toy for a nine-month old, replaceable, chewable, and satisfyingly noisy when banging on various objects.

it sounds so simple

Woh-oh, Mexico, it sounds so simple, I just got to go
The sun's so hot I forgot to go home, guess I'll have to go now....
Wo-oh, Mexico. It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon's so bright, like to light up the night, make everything all right...
Sleepy senorita with her eyes on fire...
lyrics to "Mexico" by James Taylor

I have been traveling in Mexico for the past two weeks. Spring Break for me and it was sweet.

My first night in Queretero I saw this senorita walking down the cobbled street with her bucket full of Calla lilies. It was a scene right out of  a Diego Rivera painting. Later, I purchased a dozen of these lilies from an old lady sitting on the steps of a church, again a scene right out of a painting. I didn't take her photo but brought my armful home and painted it.