"Old Town", 8x10"

"Old Town", 8x10", oil on gesso board 

With the frigid weather tapping at our windows here in Chicago, I felt the need to paint a memory from balmy, tropical Puerto Rico.  Did you know that the bricks that pave the streets in San Juan are blue ceramic?  I also learned that it is an unspoken rule in this colonial area that no two buildings or houses should be painted the same color.  Everywhere you look is a cacophony of riotous color: canary yellow, cantaloupe orange, aqua blue, parrot green.

As is the Feldman way, we packed into rental cars, left San Juan and traveled to the tiny town of Rincon on the other side of the island.  I dared myself to learn to body surf in the crashing waves, and succeeded with my pride and bathing suit intact.  I also bit into the best Cuban sandwich ever made at a roadside diner while my nephew learned the fine art of lunchtime gambling.  

The blaring music, the open smiles, and the rapid staccato Spanish of the Puerto Rican people stay with me even now.  And these memories sustain me as I pull on my boots to face the unrelenting  ice and snow outside my door.

For purchase information, please click on Ann Feldman Old Town.