For more than a decade Barbara Hess was known as “the cat lady” because of her selfless service to the Lakeside Animal Shelter and its feline brood.
In April 2011, at the age of 67, she stepped down from that role to dedicate more time to another of her passions – painting.
Resuming her artistic career looks to have paid off handsomely.
Three of Hess’ large-scale floral paintings are set to grace the 2013 Salon de Pintura, a collective show to be held simultaneously at two Guadalajara venues, scheduled to open on July 30 and August 1.
Hess’ artistic ability was clear as a child. She regularly entered expositions and won prizes during grades six through nine, mostly sketching and drawing horses.
At university she worked for a time with oils, using both brush techniques and palette knife overlay.
Marriage and a career didn’t leave much time for artistic endeavors, although Hess did enjoy the creative process of making Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs, which entailed drawing intricate designs in hot beeswax on the egg with a stylus, and multiple immersions in a series of dyes.
Hess became involved in horticulture in the early 1990s. Part of her work included designing new gardens and renovating established ones.
“I had to draw to scale for blueprinting. This refined my ability to see and replicate the exacting details that are the signature mark on my flower paintings today.”
Hess had planned to resume her art career when she moved to Ajijic in 1998 but the needs of the Animal Shelter kept her free time to a minimum.
Two years ago she asked Ajijic artist Efren Gonzalez to teach her the technical aspects she lacked.
“I spent the next two and a half months taking working lessons in his studio. He dislikes flowers and each new painting was greeted with an agonized, ‘Again with the flowers?’”
Hess has now found her happy medium – acrylics.
“I can correct mistakes much faster and easier with acrylics and achieve effects I probably wouldn’t be able to with oils.”
To see Hess’ impressive work close up, along with works by many other artists, you can visit Galeria Vertice (Lerdo de Tejada 2418), and the Club de Industriales (Francisco Javier Gamboa 2) throughout August. The two venues are located within three blocks of each other. The Galeria Vertice opening is on Tuesday, July 30, 8 p.m., and the Club de Industriales inauguration is set for Thursday, August 1, 8 p.m.
For more information call Galeria Vertice at (33) 3616-0078.