vogue cover, November 2012 supplement, recreated from Nickolas Muray photograph of Frida Kahlo 1939 with actress Salma Hayek.
“I had two accidents in my life-the streetcar crash and Diego Rivera”, from this quote we start to understand the complex artist, Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). She painted “pain and passion”. Fifty-five self portraits of sorrow and happiness, filled with symbolism of pet animals, religious connotations, colour and fashion. Fashion may not be the word used by Frida but she had style. She was proud of her ancestoral roots; wearing ethnic clothing and pre-Columbian jewellery in her portraits
“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”
Here in Mexico, street and beach vendors sell knockoffs of Frida Kahlo’s painting for 1500 pesos, her portrait on a bag for 40 pesos or a pareo for 180 pesos.
My favourite images are by professional photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965), some of his portraits of her are available for purchase at his website.
Frida Kahlo lives on within her images and we all take what we want from her.
Final note, Jennifer Dickson collection of garden images ” Giochi d’ Acqua ” at Wallack galleries from February 21 until March 8, 2014, Ottawa, Canada. She will give a talk on March 8th ” Light and Colour in the Garden “, you need to reserve a space through email with the gallery. No regrets if you attend.
Below are some sketches from my week.
Linda Denis, village, watercolour and gouache, Venezia Book, 2014
Great blog, Linda! Hope you’re enjoying Mexico. I can see you are in a beautiful place in the sketches.
It is a beautiful spot but the ones you find us in Quebec are special and unique too. Have you finalized your list for 2014?
Congratulations Linda, finally you’ve posted your paintings bigger, way much better to view them!
Each post I learn another aspect. This time I figured out how to use this app, appropriately, called ImageEditor on my i Pad. Just like painting, there is always a thousand ways to do things.