I entered the store of a Russian book and arts dealer.
"Can you teach me Cyrillic so I can read your books?" I asked. She gave me a brief lesson on the four main geometric forms of Cyrillic characters.
"Do you have any Nicholas Roarich books here?" I asked. "Roerich," she corrected me. She did not. "Are you an artist?" She asked. "I don't know," I said, "I just spent the last 25 years in a spiritual community."
I showed her a picture of a painting I did. "Come back later in January," she said. "We'll talk."
Later in January: "I like this drawing," she said. "But it needs to be 5 times larger.""OK," I said. Where am I going to buy materials for something that big? And I will need to paint it, not draw it, I thought.
Eventually I found a local arts center who let me use their space and acrylic paints. On a 14" x 17" piece of Bristol board, I worked on the following painting. "I think part of that looks like a house," said Gu, the nice young Masters student in art history tending the center. "Hmm ... I see an eagle's wing, and possibly the profile of a solider." "Yes, I see that," she said.
Thus was Eagle House Soldier born.
And the Russian book and arts dealer said, "I'm sorry. Nope. But it's really not bad. Really!"
acrylic on bristol board, 14"x17"
Hi Eduardo, yes, the person in the artist workspace where I painted this made the same comment. I have always been inspired by the work of M.C. Escher and Albrecht Dürer ... I hope one day to pursue printmaking ... Have fun with the etching; that is awesome!
I like very much your acrilic on bristol board... It seems to me a woodcut print than an acrilic paint. I´m very interested in woodcuts, as a matter of fact I´m currently assisting to an etching atelier...