Flying Colors

The Divine Chalice,

Within the hollow of all things in nature there exists a theme,
one of unity – the supreme power of the Goddess.
A divine Mother where all life is born from, and
then also returned to her at death to be once again reborn.

original painting - artist collection - Nashville, TN - USA - "Krater"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, glazed • 24"H x 24"W • © Lisa Rivas
Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow. ~Plutarch

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Krater: a bowl used in ancient Greece for diluting wine with water
and used in religious ceremonies to hold libations.

La Siesta...

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS IT TO DO NOTHING, AND THEN REST AFTERWARD. ~ PROVERB
This piece is for all the tired bloggers, specially the Cactus Monday friends ~ backdrop image is a FerroCactus!

HE THAT CAN TAKE REST IS GREATER THAN HE THAT CAN TAKE CITIES . Benjamin Franklin

 

Never forget...

Ah! Never shall the land forget.
How gushed the life-blood of her brave -
~ William Cullen Bryant

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
~ Maya Angelou

Aloe succotrina - digital •  2009 © Lisa Rivas  ~ RAISED TO THEM!

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The sap of the Aloe is effective in the treatment and healing of wounds.

Mother of Millions,

The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.

She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.

Hildegard of Bingen (German abbess, 1098 - 1179)

This piece was inspired from a wonderful "photo" of Julie's at  A Succulent Life

"Mother of Thousands" (Kalanchoe diagremontiana) reproduces by producing tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves, it has lost the ability to make viable seeds. This succulent has shifted some of the genetic processes that make seeds to it's leaves.

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Never allow anyone to rain on your parade
and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on your entire day.  Og Mandino

...the secret leaves

SPINES ARE EVOLVED LEAVES TO PROTECT THE PLANT AND REDUCE WATER LOSS, THEY ARE NOT THORNS.

MEN ARE LIKE TREES: EACH ONE MUST PUT FORTH THE LEAF THAT IS CREATED IN HIM. Henry Ward Becher

The Sipper...

✿ - ✿ - ✿ - a cup of "Claret" for the "picaflor" or "colibrí" - ✿ - ✿ - ✿

 

A distinctive cactus species is the "Claret Cup Cactus" with attractive reddish and cup shaped flowers, it is considered a hummingbird cactus. This is because a wide range of hummingbird species nourish and "sip" on the Claret Cup Cactus flower's nectar and assists it in their pollination process.

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The Hummingbird's feathers have little true color,
instead they reflect the light and this makes them look so brilliant and colorful.
If we reflect light and joy in our life we too will turn the ordinary into the beautiful.

They represent joy, optimism and sweetness ; a messenger and stopper of time!

In fraganti...

Late one night last week I went into the studio,
and found the "Nopalitos" plant were huddled in a hush, hush!
Can you believe this ???

I wonder what they were up to? What do you think?

Nopales In Fraganti • photo - digital • Lisa Rivas © 2009

"In flagranti crimine" is a latin phrase meaning  "caught red handed in crime"

He who profits by a crime commits it.  ~ Seneca

Agave ...gave it all!

Legend says the Century Plant takes "100 years" to bloom! However, century plants in cultivation may bloom much quicker, an average of 25 years. The flower spike, grows at the incredible rate of 5–6 inches per day and can reach heights of 30 to 35 feet. This bloom grows so fast that it saps all the resources of the plant, which then dies, leaving a tall wooden seed stalk. It blooms only once in its lifetime.

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. Albert Camus

 

Century Petals •  sketch - digital • Lisa Rivas © 2009

The Century Plant or the Maguey (Agave Americana) is a succulent, not a cacti. It is an important plant to indigenous people, being used for medicines, fiber, needles, and food. Also used commercially in Mexico to produce the liquors of pulque and mezcal.

• Tequila is made from another type of agave - (Agave Azul / Blue Agave.)

The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Albert Einstein

Gego

For the past few months, while focusing on the diverse / unique structures of cacti and rendering their forms, a very dear professor of mine would come to mind often, her name is Gertrude Goldschmidt, also known as GEGO.

Gego taught a course called "Three-Dimensional Form & Spatial Solutions" at the Hans Neumann School of Design in Caracas, Venezuela where I studied  Graphic Design. I took this in depth course of hers for 3 consecutive years and worked extensively with spatial concepts... that explains why I think of her so often when I look at these cacti and succulents.

Upon pondering it came to me how spatially interconnected we all are and thus with nature also. And that thanks to the web and art we have been able to express it in so many a wonderful ways, like this Cactus Monday group has done!

• 10" x 10" • (thelocactus) • © Lisa Rivas • "Tribute to GEGO"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

Gego is a very well known artist, she played with the idea of the stable and the unstable elements of art. The stable elements of art was the sculpture itself, while the unstable elements consist of the constantly changing shadows and the slight movement in her design. She used scraps of metal that she would bend and weave together in order to evoke movement, experimentation and spontaneity. (Venezuelan, born Germany. 1912-1994)

She did a whole series called "Drawings without Paper"...
...to read more about her click GEGO

The creative economy is giving rise to a new spatial fix and a very different geography
– the contours of which are only now emerging...

Lolo's tenderness...

When I saw this little piece
by Studio Lolo
I was struck by it's simplicity,
it had a delicate personality,
and oh! I saw it was a portrait!
...a soft-shy "Cactus Sprite"
So very magical!
Then Laurel sent it to me !!!
...in it's own custom envelope
and a very appreciative note!
So now I am the one saying
"Thanks" Lolo! "Thank You"

Studio Lolo is a "wonderful artist" and an avid "animal caretaker" from San José, CA.
I met her through my participation in Cactus Monday, please visit her site!

La Bruma...

Do you wish the world were happy?

Then remember day by day
just to scatter seeds of kindness
as you pass along the way ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American poet and writer 1850-1919)

• 10" x 10" • © Lisa Rivas • "La Bruma"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.
G. K. Chesterton

It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.
J.R.R. Tolkien

The sequence...

... of "La Bruma"

Opening stages...

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... the adding of drama with India ink!

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... then the rendered wax line is ironed out and outlined with pencil.

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All the rendering is done in hot wax using the "tjanting", a tool for drawing fine wax lines.

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The "Grand Finale" will take place next week on another Cactus Monday post!

The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time,
but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order,
it is the continuous thread of revelation. Eudora Welty

A glimpse...

... of my painting area

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... of an initial start

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... of further progress

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I'm trying to connect the sky and the earth through the winding maze of "La Bruma"

Bruma ➙ brume ➙ fog ➙ mist ➙ murk ➙ smaze ➙ a mixture of haze and smoke!

The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.
Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.

Beavertail Cactus...

... is another Opuntia type cactus. It is a low-spreading spineless perennial with flat, oval to roundish pads. The areoles contain numerous short brown glochids (barbed bristles) which can be painful if one brushes against them. It blooms from March to June with bright rose to magenta flowers which appear on the upper margins of the joints.

Beavertail Cactus •  sketch - drawing • Lisa Rivas © 2009

The fruit is pear shaped commonly called prickly pear or cactus fig and measures more than an inch long, juicy and edible when ripe. Also called "Tunas" in Mexico.

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Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher

Click here to download an awesome Powerpoint Presentation:

Cactus-BeautyInBloom pps

Carnivorous Cacti?

So who ate who?
A thorned and spineless situation...
...among the blossoms?
Impossible!
So where is the cacti?

• 10" x 10" • © Lisa Rivas • "Thorns or Spines?"
• watercolor, digital, printed on ricepaper and mounted on canvas

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.
Stanislaw Lem, polish science fiction writer

Spines are leaves that have been modified into cylindrical, hard structures with sharp ends. They are occasionally called thorns, which is incorrect (thorns are modified branches or stems). Similar to prickles and thorns, they are used by plants to protect themselves from herbivores.