Award-winning watercolorist offers workshop
By Marcia Dworkin November 14, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Bonnie Steinberg is a popular and highly respected artist and art instructor who conducts workshops and classes in Canada and the US. She has exhibited extensively in both solo and group shows, and her works are displayed in both Canada and the US.

Steinberg’s watercolors encompass a variety of subject matter, architectural detail being her latest interest. Ordinary “slices of life” are important in her work. Her use of high-keyed color and dramatic light make her style instantly recognizable.

As the artist puts it, “My vision encompasses my views of the world and aims to give the viewer a glimpse into that world. If this relationship occurs, the painting has been successful.”

Steinberg has been elected to the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Society of Canadian Artists and is a member of the Toronto Watercolour Society. She has won several awards and gained worldwide recognition.

Luckily for San Miguel residents, the painter will hold a workshop here February 16–20. Steinberg will provide demonstrations and give personal and individual assistance that will be sure to inspire.

Some of the topics covered in the workshop will be Composition and Construction, Techniques and Execution of Techniques, and Introduction to Perspective, Color and Light. 

Marcia Dworkin has formed an organization called Simply Art, which will offer this class. For further information, call Marcia at 152-4280 or email marciamexico@hotmail.com. 

“Natura” odes to plant life
By Michelle Wey

Art Opening
Marisa Boullosa & Norma Suárez
Sat, Nov 15, 7–9pm
Mero Arte Contemporáneo
Zacateros 24
154-8580

Mero Arte Contemporaneo presents a new exhibition by printmaker Marisa Boullosa and photographer Norma Suárez. Although not originally from San Miguel, both Mexican artists now live and work here. They also both teach at Instituto Allende.

A two-person exhibition in two distinct media is appropriate because an undeniable visual connection exists between the works of these two artists. The title of the exhibit, “Natura,” refers to the subject matter, which is nature, and in particular, plants and flowers. What unites these works is a common approach by the two artists to their material.

As Boullosa describes her own work on this series: “The experience led me in the direction of an ever-increasing simplicity of pictorial elements. Backgrounds are limited; dry-point etching is the only tool.”

Suárez says she “is interested in the construction of images that stem from organic composition, always within a very carefully composed environment, and as such demonstrates a clear connection to the Japanese minimalist aesthetic.”

In both cases, their prints and photographs demonstrate a search for an essence of form, a paring away of anything more than the essential, a cleanness of line. Their aesthetic sensibilities are distinctly feminine and highly refined. The results are quietly breathtaking odes to plant life.

Figuras Femininas

Open Studio
Bonnie Griffith
Sat–Sun, Nov 15–16, noon–3pm
Mesones 65

Artist Bonnie Griffith opens her studio/gallery over the weekend to show gold and silver jewelry and a new collection of black and red Collaged Clothing, her creative line of cut-up artistic clothing redesigned from contemporary designers. In time for the cold weather, she also has made velvet and fleecy one-of-a-kind hats.

Aside from her work in clothing, Griffith is a painter who has shown extensively in the US and San Miguel. Her studio is an experience, like entering into a Matisse painting, filled with light and color.

Her newest art form, Figuras Femininas, is a series of papier-mâché sculptures of females, iconic dancers and goddesses, whose forms represent outrageous and beauteous variations. Using a variety of papers and fabrics, she has created a whimsical, yet serious form that speaks to the power, humor and beauty of the female form. The first tribe of 10 figures is currently being shown at the OM Gallery. The second tribe will be on display this weekend. 

Visit her studio to see the creative spirit at work and play in the various media she has explored.