UMBRAL EN COLORES

Alvaro Gomez Ulloa is a master printmaker that has become a master painter. He began his career as an artist printmaking on paper and then moved to painting on canvas. He says that his first love is print making and working with paper. His new series of limited edtion screen prints that were inaugurated at the National Gallery in San Jose this August combines his painting technique and his love of printmaking on paper.

The idea began over a year ago when Carlos Rojas suggested that Alvaro start thinking about a way to produce a screen print that represents his style of painting. Carlos had the idea that he could combine the techniques of painting, screen printing and montotyping into a series of works.

The process began with Alvaro painting the flowers in his usual technique onto acetate instead of canvas. The difference being that every color used would be on a different piece of acetate. When these various layers are stacked, the same effect as in his paintings would be generated. When he was done, there was a set of 5 acetates or films.

This is when I took over and developed the screens for screen printing. The first film was black and I printed this on paper in the usual screen printing technique. I then handed the works back over to Alvaro who began the long process of monotyping. Alvaro took each piece and individually made a monotype print over the first black color. This monotprint was in irredescent golds pewters and silvers.

Alvaro then returned the prints to me and I completed the screen printing of the last 4 colors. We produced 3 different color editions: red, blue and ochre. The final editions are:

• Umbral en rojo (Threshold in Red) Edition of 8
• Umbral en azul (Threshold in Blue) Edition of 8
• Umbral en siena (Threshold in Sienna) Edition of 8

Each print is 61 x 44 cm on paper that measures 78 x 59 cm. The price is $575. We are very excited about this new mixed media work that Alvaro has developed. If you are interested in purchasing one of these works, contact Carlos at carlos@monteazulcr.com.

To see other available works from Alvaro Gomez, go to:http://www.monteazulcr.com/en/fineart/representedartists/1/AlvaroGomez

COOKIE SMILING

Cookie has now been a part of Monte Azul for 4 years. Shortly after I moved to the farm full-time, Cookie came into our lives. I had moved to the farm July 1, 2006 with our dogs Tyler and Shadow. Carlos was still living in Cartago and running the gallery space there during the week and coming down to the farm on weekends.

The third week of July Carlos was at the farm and he need to make a few phone calls. At the time there we no phones in the area and cell phones wouldn’t work in the mountains. To make a call you had to go to the public phone at the local pulperia. On one of these trips, we saw this skinny puppy eating from the garbage in front of the pulperia Soda Cindy. She was small and funny looking. Attached is a photo of her first day at Monte Azul.

Carlos realized that a number that he needed to call was not in the car and that we needed to go back to the farm to get it. During this trip, I got a bag of dog food to take to the puppy. When we returned to the pulperia, the sad puppy was still there so I began my attempt to feed her. She wasn’t scared at all. I guess that hunger overrides fear. When Carlos got off the phone he saw me feeding the dog and said ”put her in the car” This was all I need to hear. She was quickly in the car and on the way to her new home.

Cookie has grown up and is a very happy, silly, lovable dog. She is a little bit crazy but is good natured. She loves to go for walks. It was this week that I was walking the dogs up the hill when I decided to try a short cut straight up the hill through the forest instead of the long loop on the road. The heavy rains had created a new creek down the hillside and I wanted to explore it. The 3 dogs were happy to follow. I had my camera with me and got this photo of Cookie. It is now my favorite photo of her. It shows the excitement and joy that she seems to have in everything that she does.

I am happy that we picked her up that day and hope that she is with us for a very long time.

Alvaro Gomez: El Jardinero

This month at the National Gallery in the Museo de los Ninos, Sala VIII, we are proud to represent Alvaro in his first show at the museum. The show includes a series of magnificent acrylic paintings on canvas as well as wood block monoprints and a new series for monoprint screen prints (more info on this series to come). All of these works were created at Monte Azul in 2010 and represent his passion for color, flowers, water and nature.

The Opening Reception was on August 11, 2010 and was attended by art collectors, magazine and newspaper editors, photographers, artists, friends, and family to name but a few. The event was very successful and enjoyed by everyone. These are a few photos of those in attendance.

Alvaro is part of the Monte Azul family and has been since its inception in Costa Rica. Almost ten years ago when Carlos was running his art gallery in San Francisco, California, he did an internet search for Costa Rican artists. One of the artists that “popped up” was Alvaro Gomez Ulloa. Alvaro is from Cartago, the same city that Carlos’ family originates. Through emails, Carlos got to know more about Alvaro and his work which eventually lead to Carlos selling Alvaro’s work in California. At the time Alvaro was a professor at the University of Costa Rica teaching printmaking. Alvaro was trained in printmaking and is considered a master printmaker.

By the time Carlos and I made our first trip together to Costa Rica in July 2003, Alvaro had begun working with oils and acrylics on canvas. We met Alvaro in his home studio on that trip and immediately fell in love with his paintings. On the spot, we bought 2 prints and one of his first oils on plywood paintings.

Over the years, Alvaro has developed and refined his painting technique, always pushing his limits, ideas and techniques to create remarkable works whether in printmaking or painting. The new series of paintings are in El Jardinero series (The Gardener). Alvaro is truly a gardener (in fact, he actually uses a watering can on the canvas), developing, nurturing and growing his ideas and talents. Alvaro is an integral part of Monte Azul and we are very proud to have Alvaro as part of our family.

We are also looking forward to his next idea.

For more information on Alvaro and his recent series of works, got to:

http://www.monteazulcr.com/en/fineart

http://www.monteazulcr.com/en/fineart/representedartists/1/AlvaroGomez/

LUXEMBOURG YEAH!

July 2010 has been a very interesting month at Monte Azul. We have had our first guests from Luxembourgh. I had heard of Luxembourgh but didn't really know much about it other than it being a small country in central Europe surrounded by Belgium, Germany and France. It was interesting to talk to the couple, Gian Luca and Xenia, and learn about their country. There are only approximately 500,000 citizens in Luxembourgh, far fewer than live in San Francisco, CA (750,000). There are many similarities between our countries: lots of mountains, lots of small country towns, one big city.... The big difference being the weather - tropical climate verses 4 distinct season with snowy winter cold being very dominate. This is great if you like skiing.

For some reason the rarity for me to meet people from such a small country made me realize that this is one of the added benefits of living at Monte Azul and having a boutique hotel. The world comes to my door. I never have to leave home.

It has been joked about a lot that I don't cross the bridge and the Rio Chirripo Pacifico at Monte Azul very often. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons. I have the good fortune to have interesting people from all over the world come visit our hotel. I get to meet these wonderful people and find out about their lives and countries. In return, I get to show them the wonders of the tropical rain forest, my home. I see them have breakfast at Cafe Blue while watching the monkeys, hear about their trips to the thermal baths, the cheese tour, and Cloud Bridge Forest Preserve, see photos of them at our waterfall and all the birds and plants that they took during their daily activities. It also reminds me of how lucky I am to live in such a magical place.

In addition to our guests from Luxembourgh, July included guests from Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Panama, Denmark, Switzerland, England, other parts of Costa Rica, Canada, and the USA: San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami and Lewiston, Maine. All of these places are also interesting to learn about especially from an insiders perspective.

I am looking forward to seeing who will arrive next and where they will come from. Who knows, I may never have to leave Monte Azul.

For more information on Luxembourgh, go to :

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/luxmborg.htm

OUR LATEST DOGS

Do you like dogs as much as we do? If so, you will enjoy our latest screen prints that feature our 3 newest pets: GRRR…, ARF and BOW WOW.

15+ years ago Carlos made coasters in a ceramics class that featured these loveable dogs. Over the years they somehow ended up packed in a box and “lost” for a decade or more. After he moved out of his apartment in San Francisco I was organizing his stuff and came across them. If anyone has ever seen how Carlos packs, you will know that everything needed to be repacked. But that is a whole other story.

Anyway, I had the idea to frame these coasters and hang them in our kitchen. Everyone that saw them commented on them and wanted to know if they were for sale or if there were other sets for sale. Unfortunately, these original coasters are not for sale and never will be.

Now we are at Monte Azul and the coasters are again hanging in the our kitchen. Guests still ask if they are for sale. Here at Monte Azul, we tell guests that every wall is a gallery wall yet I kept having to tell the hotel guests that they are not for sale. I think that Carlos would sell them but I say no.

So, I think that I have fixed this issue. We have taken Carlos’ images and turned them into limited edition screen prints. Each image is an edition of 20. The printed image size is 4.75 x 5 inches on paper sized 16 x 11.5 inches. Each prints costs $48. If you are interested in adopting any of these prints, just send me an email and we can start the adoption process.

The Story of Upe

This is a story of something that happened to me during one of my early trips to Costa Rica. I think about it every now and then and wanted to share it with everyone. It was November 2004 and Sherry, Rob and I were on one of our property hunting expeditions to Costa Rica. This is long before Carlos and I ever moved to Costa Rica and long before I had any ability to speak or understand Spanish. Carlos, who usually came on these trips and was the designated interpreter, did not come on this trip because it was a busy season at his art gallery in California.

So three non Spanish speaking city dwellers ventured into the southern zone of Costa Rica in search of a property to call Monte Azul. We had met a real estate agent on a previous trip, Mike was his name. I use the term real estate agent loosely. The real estate system in Costa Rica is very different from the USA and this topic could be an entire book by itself.

Anyway, what it came down to was Mike worked for a guy who knew people wanting to sell their property. It was his job to escort interested buyers out to the property and see if there was any interest. Most of these properties were way off the main roads with no phones, no electricity and sometimes rather treacherous roads or other encounters. Making arrangements for an appointment was impossible since most owners did not have landline phones and cell phones didn't work in this part of the country at the time.

It was a bright sunny morning and we met Mike at the local pulperia to go see a large property at the top of a hill, which actually turned out to be a mountain. Mike said that we needed to go early before it rained. The road would be impassible if it started to rain. The property was in Punta Mala approximately 6 kilometers (4 miles) up the hill from the coastal highway. We had looked at other properties on this road but had never gone beyond the 3 kilometer marker. The road started out with a slight grade with good compacted gravel. At about the 4 kilometer mark, it changed completely. It was now nothing but red clay; slick, wet, rutted, squishy red clay that was getting steeper and steeper. Most Americans would not even consider this a road. We were in Mike's car and he was driving never showing any nervousness or fear. There came a point when we just couldn't make it any further and so Mike pulled over and said that we need to walk the rest of the way. It was supposedly just around the corner.

So we all piled out and started to walk up this incline of slick wet, rutted, squishy red clay. Then, we arrived at the gate and breathed a group sigh of relief. We looked around and marveled at the scenery. The views were magnificent. Further up the hill and to the north and south was nothing but primary rain forest. Directly west was an open unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean.

The property was more than 90 hectares (225 acres). A small percent was pasture land and the rest old growth rain forest. It was my job on the trip to write down all the statistics and information about each property along with the positives and negatives and any other pertinent or unique information. It is hard to remember one property from another after seeing a few of them and there is never any "sales sheet" from a realtor. We needed some way to remember and to discuss what we had seen with Carlos later.

So we went through the gate and Mike started calling "Upe!, Upe!, Upe!" so I wrote in my notes, Upe's Farm. From now on this property would be referred to as Upe's Finca. Finca is Spanish for farm. I was being a bit uppity with my Spanish title for the property. Other significant notations were, positives: size, price, views, good building sites, primary rain forest and negatives: bad road, no immediate water source, no electricity, no phones and no means of getting phones or electricity anytime soon. Upe wasn't home so we toured the vicinity around the house. Then it started to rain and Mike said that we had to leave immediately. We hurried down the road to the car and survived the 6 kilometer white-knuckle drive, or should I say slip n slide, down the hill.

When we returned to our base camp, a little motel along the southern coast highway, we were happy to see Carlos' mom, dad and aunt waiting for us. They had most graciously offered to come down to the southern zone and help with our property search and act as translators and maybe even negotiators. They asked us about the properties that we had seen and so I pulled out my notebook and start going over the information that we had gathered during the previous days that we had been in the area on this trip.

I got to the information on Upe's Finca and Carlos' dad, also named Carlos, got this really strange look on his face and and asked what I had said. I told him that I had named it Upe's Finca because that was the name of the owner. I didn't know his last name because Mike hadn't known it and we never met him. I was very proud of myself for remembering his name and made sure that Carlos' dad knew that. The strange look on his face turned to a very large grin and then non-stop, belly wrenching laughter. I had no idea how this could be so funny.

Carlos' mom and aunt, Ana and Laura, were also laughing by now. When they calmed down a bit, Carlos explained to me that upe is not a name but and expression that is used when when approaching someone's house to see if they are home. It is the equivalent to "hello, anybody home?" I quickly realized my error and my pride of remembering the owner's name evaporated.

For years, Carlos' dad would see me and ask about my friend Upe and how he was doing. Always with that big grin on his face and reminding me of my lack of skills when it came to the Spanish language. Last week, years after the incident, Carlos can back from a trip from San Jose with a gift. It was the tee shirt that I am wearing in the photo that says UPE!. The small writing says: "interjection used to find out if there is someone at home or in any other private place." I love this tee shirt and the fond memories it brings back of my short time visiting Upe's Finca and the visual I get of the big grin Carlos' dad always got on his face when he talked about my dear friend Upe. I am certain Carlos' dad is up there somewhere laughing at me wearing this tee shirt wishing he had given it to me himself.

Mead Brown - Costa Rica Vacation Rentals

Love nature, food and art? Monte Azul is perfect for you.

This past weekend I re-charged at Monte Azul Boutique Hotel + Center for Art & Design near Chirripo, the tallest mountain in Costa Rica at 12,228 feet (as a frame of reference, Mt. Rainier in Washington state is 14,441 feet). Fishing and swimming in the really cold and beautiful river, hiking and seeing many species of birds, the community dance on Saturday night, amazing meals in the organic Cafe Blue, a really comfortable and thoughtfully designed casita decorated with world-class art, and goat cheese from the resident herd were all highlights. 

I give Monte Azul my absolute highest recommendation.  The 125-acre nature preserve is perfect for those who are delighted by nature (many species of birds are spotted here; monkeys, too!).  The river with huge boulders and difficult to catch fish, lush trees, vines, orchids, bromeliads, the ethereal light, cloud forest, rainforest and all the jungle sounds make this an idyllic place for connecting with nature, resting, reading, thinking and hiking.  

Casita Amarilla was my comfortable home for the weekend

All of the casitas have first-class original art, really comfortable beds and bed linens, a spa-like bath with watery Italian tile and hand-made soap, a kitchenette perfect for brewing a cup of the organic coffee grown on the preserve, plush robes and lots of light.  Each casita is situated for maximum privacy.  I left my windows and doors open for most of my stay for the full effect of being in nature.  No worries about creepy crawlies here!
The staff at Cafe Blue–led by Sherry Lee West–lovingly, artfully and professionally prepared and served some of the best food I’ve had the pleasure of tasting in Costa Rica.  Much of it was grown, raised or made on site.  Randy, the many-talented visionary-host-owner (there are 3) of Monte Azul, made the goat cheese served with fruit and a glass of wine in my casita just after arrival.  Randy also made a pumpkin pie that rivals any made by my grandmothers!  The bar in Cafe Blue is a “must see”; much of it is a beautiful work of art created by Alvaro Gomez.  Cheese-making in the Swiss style with a local family is one of many offered activities.  This is on the list of “to experience” for my next visit! 

The light, trees, orchids and bromeliads all combine for maximum lushness

Carlos Rojas Jara is another of Monte Azul’s visionary owners with many talents.  He’s an artist and host with something interesting to say about many topics.  His Monte Azul creation delights one’s senses of smell, taste and sight.

Cafe Blue at Monte Azul features locally-produced, organic food perfectly prepared and attentively served

The climate at Monte Azul is perfect for me (I’m from the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.); it’s considerably cooler than Jaco, Los Suenos Resort, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Tamarindo and other popular beaches along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.  The topography, scenery, flora and fauna are all quite different, too.  A perfect vacation for someone visiting Costa Rica for a week or more would be to stay at one of the beaches mentioned and then at Monte Azul.  It’s about 2 to 2.5 hours from Manuel Antonio, 1 to 1.5 from Dominical and 3 from San Jose.
Activities in the immediate area of Monte Azul include whitewater rafting, horseback riding, cooking lessons, cheese-making lessons, yoga and massage, hiking, birding, trekking, swimming and fishing in the river (I did both and found the really cold water invigorating; the current is swift and the fish are impossible to catch, but what a way to spend an afternoon!).
For families or small groups, the newly completed Villa Palo Alto is a really special place to spend a week.  The contemporary design fits perfectly into the land; the 1,100 square foot great room opens to a magnificent view of the valley with the rain forests and cloud forests above and beyond.  The home is filled with art from some of the most talented artists active today.  (The owners have art galleries in New York City and San Francisco and Monte Azul has a an artist in residence program.)
I could go on and on.  The bottom line is that Monte Azul provides all the comfort in a stunningly beautiful setting that anyone who loves art, food, nature and life needs to create memorable experiences they’ll remember for a lifetime.  I hope to make this my home away from home, with a retreat to the mountains every couple of months.  It’s that special and that restorative.
******
From the Monte Azul Team:  Please be sure to visit  MeadBrown.com.  They have been great friends and wonderful business partners.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am and is filed under Costa Rica Travel, Luxury Travel, Luxury Villa Vacation Rentals, Uncategorized, tourism, vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.