Flores Article Finally Complete

The Chicken Coop Across the Street, watercolor, 6" x 10"

It only took a year and ten months since my trip to Flores in the Azores Island, but today the third part of my photo-essay on Flores is finally complete. Check it out at elenamaza.com. This last part was much harder because I am now my own webmistress, so had to create the page layout as well as the rest. The only good thing about that is that it forced me to learn new skills, though I've long way to go in understanding html code.

You can now read all three parts:

Part One: An Artist-in-Residence on the Island of Flowers
Part Two: Lagoas and Pocas, On the Trail with Pierluigi
Part Three: The Florentinos

I'd love some feedback on the piece--would you want to travel to Flores after reading my article? Would it be helpful if you were an artist going there for the first time? You can leave a comment here, fill out the survey on the left, (or both) or send an E-mail to elemaza@verizon.net.

A Little Light, Please

I'm having a hard time painting today, what with having a shiner and swollen face as a result of the dental surgery a few days ago. So, this photo is just for fun.

I've been taking a class in the fundamentals of outdoor lighting for my engineering job, and last week our instructor brought in an assortment of different light bulbs (technically known as lamps) for us to appreciate the large variation in sizes and shapes, as well as different sources of light. We all know incandescent bulbs are on their way out, since in today's energy-conscious world, incandescents use up too much energy for the amount of light they give.

The photo shows an unusual item: a 3000-watt incandescent lamp once used in the lighthouse at Lajes das Flores, in the Azores Islands. This lamp was used from the mid 1940's through the 1960's. The current lamp is a 1000-watt halogen lamp, amplified by the original set of Fresnel lenses.

Jose, the Lighthouse keeper in Lajes, gave me a tour of the lighthouse when I was there last spring as Artist in Residence. His father had been the lighthouse keeper before him, and now he keeps an immaculate lighthouse. You could eat off the floor of his machine shop, and every bit of brass in the tower shines like new. Most fascinating of all, he has kept a collection of old equipment which was used in the lighthouse since its inception sometime in the early 1900's and is in mint condition. I imagine someday all this will make a wonderful museum for both the children of Flores and visitors, and I commend him for his foresight in keeping these artifacts.