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Orange in Guatemala
“You want a bag for that?” the guy at the counter asks routinely without making eye contact. “Nah, thanks, I’m good.” I answer, not overly polite either. “You from the US?” he asks while packing my...
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La Dolorosita: The Story Behind the Painting
La Dolorosita,gouache on watercolour paper, 55 x 70cmSunrise wouldn’t be there for another half hour, but already the sky was streaked with purples and reds. The ringing of church bells carried loud...
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My People: The Story behind the Paintings
Last March I moved from Hondurasto Guatemala, a change that was as hard as it was exciting. It wasn’t easy to leave Copán, a town I had called home for the last seventeen years, a town that had become...
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Road Blocks
Honduran joke: How do you know when a driver is drunk? - When he drives in a straight line...Being a foreigner while risking the roads in Central America can be both an advantage and a disadvantage....
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The Mystery of the Vanished Maya Glyphs
(Or: Miracles Do Happen in Honduras) The Missing Maya GlyphsIn March of 2012 I painted a series of Maya Tzolk’in calendar glyphs for a friend of mine who lives in Costa Rica. After emailing back and...
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The Circus Was In Town
For weeks the big blue tent occupied a huge chunk of parking space behind the bus terminal in Antigua Guatemala. And just when I had decided to go, of course the tent was swiftly broken up, loaded into...
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A Market Full of Magic
It took me a while, but I have finally figured out where the main entrance to the market is here in Antigua Guatemala. Or at least the place that people refer to when they speak of the entrance of the...
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A 66 Hour Short Trip
The very last leg...My recent trip from Amsterdam to Guatemala was going to be a long one, but then again, a 24 hour layover in London was actually something to look forward to. And it didn’t...
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Remembering the Dead in Full Colour
Death where I come from is cold, sterile and colourless. It’s not even daunting black, but a solid dull grey. Death scares us because we can’t control it. It keeps its own schedule, disregarding our...
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Christmas in Guatemala
Twas the night before Christmas, but twasn’t as quiet as a mouse in Guatemala. It rarely ever is, but in the days leading up to Christmas, things get even louder and louder. For weeks already there...
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The Story Behind the Painting: The Volcano Eruption Superhero
Superhero, acrylics on metal, 56cm diameterIt was less than a week after the Fuego volcano erupted and it was still chaos. People who left or lost their homes were accommodated in schools and churches....
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Cycles of Life
Why an exhibition of round paintings?Well, why not?Just wanted to do something a little different this time.Not half as happy as you normally paint, commented a friend. True. Nothing like my colourful...
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The Chicken Bus Experience
There is no public transportation today from Antigua to the capital in Guatemala. Yet another bus driver was shot by gangs that charge transportation companies excessive fees in order to be allowed to...
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Talking about the Weather
Asturias beach in SeptemberGuatemala is the land of eternal spring, they say. And yup, besides the occasional downpour, the weather is pretty cool. In the Antigua area the days are filled with sunshine...
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Half-Countryside-ness
There’s this word in Dutch that often pops up in my head and that I love: halflandelijkheid. It means something like “half-countrysideness” and refers, quite obviously, to places in between urban and...
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Guatemala`s Plastic Ban
Guatemalan Landscape I (Painting by Carin Steen)n the fisrt day of 2019's Global Climate Strikes, Guatemala’s government announced it will ban all single-use plastic bags and disposable utensils. The...
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Doggies in Heaven
Luca (Honduras, painting by Carin Steen)Today is World Animal Day. It is also exactly two years ago I buried my dog Luca on a beautiful mountain overlooking the valley of Antigua Guatemala. It was grey...
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Where You Can Expect the Unexpected – An Ode to la Bodegona
It's fascinating how distance creates an appreciation for things we tend to take for granted. Not just the big things, even more so those daily details we're barely aware of until they're not there...
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Corona in Guatemala
Daily free Corona Mini Art paintings for someone somewhere on this planet!Day 1-8 For more: https://www.facebook.com/pg/carin.steen.artisThe plan was all set out for Sunday, March 29th. I would have...
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Corona in Guatemala II
Antigua Guatemala, 6amToday it has been 116 days since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Guatemala.Exactly a 113 days ago the state of emergency was declared.A solid 105 days of curfew, first...
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Corona in Guatemala III
Time's a funny thing. Still wrapping my head around the fact that October is only a day away and that my last “recent” update is actually from three months ago. So where are we now, here in Guatemala?I...
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A NeverEnding Disaster
Worldwide people heaved a sigh of relief when the American elections were over, but for a lot of people in Central America it’s the last thing on their minds. The sun’s out, the storms reduced to a...
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A Christmassy Thing for Dogs
‘Twas a few days before Christmas and it wasn’t snow but a light traffic that covered the roads to San Martin Jilotepeque, a town in mountainous Guatemala. After many twists and turns in between steep...
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No more dogs!
There is lots to like about Guatemala but also a few things not to. Let’s not talk trash today, but about something else that bothers me.Street dogs.On my short walk through town yesterday I saw no...
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Rescuing the Wrong Dog
Some portraits I painted of dogs that were rescued off the streets of Antigua(Charlie, Bruno, Einstein, Cleo, Aggie, Milagros, Maco, Jacco)It was busy this morning on the Alameda Santa Lucía, as it...
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