County Road 130, Westcliffe, CO

CR130 WESTCLIFFE COArtists’ pigments on 300# CP watercolor paper, masked border

I spent last summer in southeast Colorado. My mom and I left for Arizona in early October. I continue to paint from the photos taken while in the mountains, images taken with future watercolors and pastels in mind.

This view stretches west to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains which are the eastern front range to the the Rocky Mountains. The road leads to the low foothills where it ends at San Isabel National Forest. From the Forest, footpathes ascend to heights of 13,000 feet and above.

I will return to these places next year after the snows have come and gone away.

All paintings are for sale. Contact me directly or visit http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/763423 to view all my work.

This painting is copyrighted by Jean Krueger who reserves all rights.

Paraty, SP, Brasil 

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Pineapple and Yogurt with Honey, 8×8“, watercolor, 2016

We’re on the road in Brasil and stayed the past 3 nights in Paraty on the coast. Each morning I drank an ample amount of coffee and steamed milk and ate a bowl, sometimes 2, of plain yogurt and honey with pineapple slices. This painting commemorates those happy occasions.
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Sara’s Garden

Allamanda, 8×8″, watercolor, 2016

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In Sara’s garden grows the Allamanda. The blooms are chromium yellow. I searched Wikipedia for it, https://googleweblight.com/?lite_url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allamanda&lite_escape=&fs=, and there you’ll find a lot more info.

The Allamanda is grown commonly in yards but is also naturalized appearing along sunny roadsides by the edges of dense vegitation. The soil it lives in must always remain moist.

In Sara’s garden it burgeons, competing for attention with its neighbor the Croton. It climbs high challenging the top of the 3 metered stuccoed masonry garden wall.

While in Campinas, I spent many hours painting in the shade of the veranda that looks upon this wide and sunny garden. There I am as content as any human can be.

 

Gardenias in the Tropic of Capricorn 


Gardenias, 12×9″, watercolor, 2016

Walking here in Campinas, SP, Brasil, I’m occasionally stopped dead in  my tracks by the fragrance of the gardenias. The smell is for me euphoria. I just stand happy to be present in the joyous perfume forever.

When I was a kid we had gardenias in the backyard that scented the warm and moist air of California mornings. I accepted them as part of everyday reality and held a belief that all the world smells like that as day begins.

Well, it doesn’t. But memories linger and, now that I’m reminded, I carry the sweet sweet scent with me as a natural universal truth to draw upon as needed.

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardenia_jasminoides?wprov=sfla1

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/627410

More about Gardenias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardenia_jasminoides?wprov=sfla1

Fabulous Fabaceae 

Seed Pods – Ormosia arborea, 8×8“, watercolor, 2016

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Sloppy Research in Marangá  

Cochlospermum gillvraei Benth., 8×8″, watercolor, 2016

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/624696
These seed pods grow on a tree, Bixaceae Cochlospermum gillivaei, a yellow flowered species common in Brasil, hailing from Australia. I haven’t determined its common name yet. Not being a botanist myself, I’ll offer the caveat that the above information might be wrong.

When I see a plant that interest me I take a photo. Then I paint it. Afterwards, I look through the three botany books I bought when I got to Brasil. If I can’t find a photo that matches my painting, I head for Google and search with words, then search the ‘Images’ that result. I scroll through pics, sometimes hundreds, til a visual match shows up. I then follow links that give me the name and characteristics of the object I painted.

So… there’s plenty of room for error in my research methods. However, I have a limited amount of time to spend ferreting out info, especially when it absorbs time I might otherwise spend painting. I have a curious, not scientific, mind. My botanical paintings deal in generalities, neglecting minutia.
I’m okay with that.

Ref: http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-44529

Mulheres do Trópico de Capricorn

Mulheres do Trópico de Capricorn, 12×9″, pastel

The sunlight in the Tropic of Capricorn is blinding, saturating all it settles upon. There’s a lot of ambient environmental red and orange from the tawny clay earth to the baked tile roofs. Trees and plants scream green and yellow, the sky vibrates blue and indigo. It’s astoundingly opulent.

And it’s hot, best to wear light, loose cotton that billows and cools in the breezes. The women in the painting are students at Unicamp in Campinas, SP, Brasil, going to class. Much of the campus has covered walkways  protecting from sun and frequent rain.
So the blinding sun, all the red and orange, the sheltered paths and young women in flowy white pastel garments is the reason for this painting. That’s reason enough, no need to go deeper.

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ARARIBA 

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Arabiba, 12×9″, watercolor on 14O # Paper

These winged seeds come from a tree which can grow to over 100 feet in height. In Brasil the tree is used extensively in reforestation projects, urban landscaping and for its ornamental wood. The yellow flowers become really large, 4-6″ whirly-gig units which are blown far and wide. The seeds also have pickery spines that cling to fur, clothes or wherever they can get a grip. I painted these as part of an ongoig study of seeds, my interest in these being their enormous size. These are painted full scale.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/622880Edit

Tamboril

Tamboril, 8×8″, watercolor on 140# HP paper

The tamboil tree goes by many names, most of which are associated with its ear shaped seed pods. Scientifically it belongs to the Fabaceae family and is named Enterolobium contortisiliquum. They’re native to Brasil. They can reach 20-40 meters in height giving welcome shade. The wood is used for furnishings, the bark which is high in tannin is used in learher industries.

The seed pods have a wonderful, pouchy shade with a have a rattle when jiggled!

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/622542

Philodendron 

Philodendron, 12×9″, watercolor  on 140# HP paper 

If you are a philodendron, the Tropic of Capricorn is where you want to live, not in the upper latitudes clinging to life in an office planter, overwatered, underfed, starved for daylight.

Here the size and variety of this species is vast. Plants which are scrawny potted slips in the US are as big as a house in Brasil, co-habiting with even bigger plants as they climb, coil and wind skyward. Their closed pods are the size of a liter Thermos bottle. When the pod (blossom) opens it reveals a huge ivory anther. After fertilization the blossom closes. Why? I don’t know, yet. I walk past this philodendron daily and always look to see what’s new.

Philodendron Pods

Philodendron Leaves and Pods


Goose Preening


Goose Preening, Campinas, Brasil, 12×9″, watercolor on Arches 140# CP
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Tropical Depression

Tropical Depression, 20 x 14″, pastel in Arches 140# CP

Being American, being of a nature that celebrates variety and a se la vie attitude towards  most  matters, I must admit that I had a real sense of depression and loss with regard to the  US election  results. I’ve been painting this since the day of the election  and it took longer than most. I couldn’t find graphic resolution to it’s  design. Sorta like I can’t find emotional resolution to why the US electorate had such sorry candidates as presidential nominees.

But it’s done like this painting is done. God bless us all. It is what it is.

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Edwardo’s Patio

Edwardo’s Patio, 12×9″, watercolor, 2016

Edwardo invited us to dinner last weekend. He has a highrise apartment in downtown Campinas, Brasil. The view’s great from the seventeenth floor and his deck is​ enormous and totally private. I was caught by the combination of geometry and airy openess and painted it in tribute to built spaces.

Downtown Campinas, SP, Brasil, looking northwest
  

7° North of the Tropic of Capricorn

We moved closer to the Equator last weekend, landing in Brasilia, 7° north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Ted had some business at the University of Brasilia. His colleagues, our friends, Adson and Diana, showed us  around several of the campuses spread far and wide throughout the city.

Brasil is going through political and monetary tough times. Unsurprisingly, the turmoil was evident throughout the city, particularly on campus. 

Sidewalk Graffiti, University of Brasil

This red, white and blue sidewalk painting shows the arm of the USA offering a bag of money to Brasil who in turn offers a barrel  of oil. These images overlay the great waterfalls of Brasil which turns to blood red as it flows into a sewer drain. Copies of dollars and Brasilian raeyes are glued to surface, pouring with the blood into the drain.

The truth of this matter lies between the Left and Right extremes portrayed in the painting. I was startled when I saw this  graffiti. In my book, this painting is good, honest art, nothing less. Salud to the artist.
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Jardim Botanica

Jardim Botanica, 2016, 8 x 8″, watercolor on 140# CP paper 

Ted and I have toured a few major highlights in Brasilia proper the past few days, places honoring the founders of this latest Brazilian  state, monuments which commemorate, venerate  and relegate these men who once held power to eternal memory. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

The botanical garden, Jardim Botanica de Brasilia, on the  southwest side of the city provided perspective when compared to the hard built shapes of its Brazilian architect, Oscar Neimeyer. The concrete plazas of greateness are so very hot and thirsty, the garden is cool and quiet, life abounds. A docent, Melissa, student of entomology, explained that bees, her specialty, are threatened and under great environmental pressure due to human activities. She studies at the University of Brasilia.

Melissa, Etomologist

We have  met other students, mostly in fields of engineering . Ted gave a couple lectures at the U of BR, which is why we’re in this capital city. Ted teaches design.The gist of both lectures was that when searching for design solutions, identify the true nature of the problem before embarking. Interact with people who have different academic backgrounds  to achieve wider vision when designing. The students we met are at the end of undergrad studies and must decide what to do next, pretty scary, I recall.

    Jean Krueger Gallery of Original Fine Art

    http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/jean-krueger-5457

    Comanch Lake, Custer County, CO, USA


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    Bananas Ouro

    Bananas Ouro, 9×12″, watercolor on 140 # watercolor paper 

    Here is a tribute to the Gold Banana. It is less than 4″ long, it’s sweet  and nutty and irresistible . The last bunch looked like a spikey headdress when arranged just so, sculptural and all realistically abstract. I had to paint them. Now all that remains of the bunch is a sweet memory and this full-size painting.

    Sweet memories is what I paint and why I do it….they will be all that is left when I cease to remain .

    http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/613236

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