Days 3-7

Trying to get caught up...and I just realized that I never actually said that what I'm doing this time around is painting from photographs that I took while in Nepal in November.  I got to go along on a tour with my husband, Fred Gillen Jr, and eco-activist-musicians James Dean Conklin, Andy Mattina, Laura Bowman, and photographer extraordinaire Jim Metzger.  We are called The Greenheart.
I have been posting daily on the 30 in 30 website, but it's too hard to find our paintings among the hundreds who post there, so I'll try to keep up here.
There is so much to say about each of the photographs that lead to the paintings.  I'm still at a loss for words when someone asks me, "How was your trip?"  I guess it was like what I tried to capture in the photographs I took: colorful, beautiful, and complex.

Day 7:  Offering

I took this photo at the Golden Temple.  It is a brass bowl filled with marigolds, chrysanthemums, and poinsettias, which grow all around Kathmandu.  A new (and already dear) friend, photographer and teacher Deependra Bajracharya, gave us a wonderful walking tour, and taught us so much about his culture (and mandalas!)

Offering, oil on canvas, 8" x 8"

Deependra explains.

 

Day 6:  Walking Meditation

We encountered many monks while exploring Kathmandu.  There was so much to see, I barely wanted to sleep.  This man's footwear looked a little like high top Converse sneakers.

Walking Meditation, oil on canvas, 8"x 8"

Day 5: Almost Tibet

I took this picture on what would be both the most terrifying and exhilarating excursion of our trip.  Imagine driving the Bear Mountain Parkway with no guardrails, four or five times higher, and unpaved.  The views were astonishing, and just too grand to describe. The hotel we stayed in was in the town of Tatopani, where we looked out across the river at the border of Tibet.

Almost Tibet, oil on canvas, 8" x 8"

Our crew, hotel family, and our fearless driver, Ram, far left.

 

 Day 4:  Mountain Flower

These gorgeous flowers bloom where we hiked, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Mountain Flower, oil on canvas, 5" x 5"

Day 3:  Untitled

I took the photo below inside the courtyard of an ancient temple at Patan Durbar Square, where the Greenheart played a concert.