New years resolutions are meant to be broken – so much for posting every day! Oh well, “if you don’t have anything interesting to say” my Father used to say!   Not that my second trip to Nicaragua is not interesting, just the opposite; but finding time to sit down and write has been a challenge this year and I have been focused on the painting and less engaged in social media.

After touring around Nicaragua with my family for the first three weeks I am now on my own and free to paint every day!   I am staying in Las Penitas, a sleepy little beach community with a growing tourism industry, several small beach hostels/hotels for rent, and an active fishing community. The City of Leon is only a twenty minute drive, with a fantastic local bus service running back and forth every 40 minutes (starting at 5:30am until 6:30pm). Having spent 7 weeks in Leon last year, I know my way around quite well now and I am constantly amazed at the plethora of great painting subjects just waiting to be captured. My routine here has been the best of both communities: painting in the morning in Leon and then relaxing on the beach in the afternoon with a final salute to the day’s last light and a cold Tona (cervaza) in hand!

The bus stops just outside the center of the Leon right in the middle of a small street market, I literally stepped off the bus, purchased 2 bananas, turn around and find this painting. The market is abundant with street vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetable and a disarray of taxi, busses and bicicletas hustling for passengers and me, the gringo with a pop up studio. I love the challenge of calming ones self in order to find composition in this chaos, capturing a typical moment of Nicaraguan life, and share my interpretations with the curious onlookers.