Category Archives: Bolivianos

Q: What’s on the easel today?

A: I am just beginning a small 26” x 20” pastel on sandpaper with the tentative title, “Con Man.”

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Charcoal Drawing

A: This is a preliminary charcoal drawing to help plan my next small “Bolivianos” painting.

Comments are welcome!

Start/Finish of “Apparition,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58” x 38” image, 70” x 50” framed

Start

Finish

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

A: I continue making slow progress on “Oblate,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26” x 20.”

Comments are welcome!

Q: What lies in the future for you? (Question from “Cultured Focus Magazine”)

Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, La Paz, Bolivia
Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, La Paz, Bolivia

A: I still have so much to say and share through my work! First, I want to continue creating and adding to the “Boliviano” series of pastel paintings that I began in 2017.

Second, Jennifer Cox, my director, and I are considering making part II of our film, “Barbara Rachko: True Grit,” which will require a return trip to Bolivia – to the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, where I first encountered the masks that are my current subject matter, and to Oruro to see similar masks in action during Carnival celebrations. This will be a complex undertaking and the issue of financing will first need to be resolved. Stay tuned!

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

A: I continue working on “Oblate,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26” x 20”. I often say that titles can come from anywhere and here is a great example. “Oblate” came to me thanks to a sign on Route 95 in Maryland. It says, “Oblates of Our Lady of the Highways.” An oblate is a person who devotes themselves to a religious order. I like the word and thought it a fitting title for this painting.

I have been driving that stretch of Route 95 for more than twenty years. Only now, as I wrote this blog post, did I uncover a fascinating story about “Our Lady of the Highways.” https://www.ncregister.com/news/our-lady-of-the-highways

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

A: I started a new small pastel painting!

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress


A: I am working on a small 26” x 20” pastel painting called, “Harbinger” that, for once, is coming together rather quickly.

Comments are welcome!

Start/Finish of “Maestro,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26” x 20”

Start

Finish


Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

A: This is a preliminary charcoal drawing for my next “Bolivianos” painting.

Comments are welcome!