Life is sometimes mysterious and takes many turns, but it always knows where it is going, even if we don't know it, it knows it.
When you are at a point in life, for example, in childhood, you rarely know everything that is to come, but time always speaks.
At the age of seven my parents separated, and that was a blessing. But when that happened I lost all contact with my paternal family. Even my father denied having children... Anyway, that's another story. But the fact is that I know practically nothing about that part of the family, only something about my grandparents, my godmother and a cousin.
My second cousin, my father's cousin, Marta, is a very strong woman, with a lot of courage. I know she will read this, because she reads everything I write, she loves it.
The fact is that I had contact with her when I was a child, but then it was lost or very sporadic and I really knew little about her. Since I moved country, as it happened with many other people, the contact grew and was even greater than if I was close to her.
I never thought I would get part of my family back. My grandparents are gone, my godmother is gone. I am left with my cousin. The only one on my father's side. A woman who deserves to be called brave and strong. Because she has lived through hard things and has renewed her life.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
Some time ago I asked her what she would like me to paint on some rocks and she said a rose and a cat, and recently I asked her the colour of the rocks. Red rose and tabby cat.
I remember when I first learned to draw and paint roses, it is one of the most difficult flowers to paint because of the number of petals and shapes of the petals, but the suggestion I give is to always start from the centre, it is much easier to draw and paint roses that way.
All the petals are different so you can give free rein to your imagination, there is no symmetry, and you have to pay attention that the inside ones are more closed than the outside ones. There can even be a symbolism with life, even in the theme of the thorns and what they hurt and hurt.
I always go off on a tangent, I know. So now I will talk about the cat. On another occasion I made a cat and it was orange, but this time I wanted a tabby cat and a semi-profile, with its green, startled eyes. I think I achieved my purpose.
The drawings were not complicated to make, but the thing is that the stones are so dark that only against the light could I see what I had drawn, so I was constantly tilting the stone to see what I was doing. Mental note: I want to get large, flat, white stones.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
|---|
But the issue of painting on dark stones is not a problem because depending on the colour of the object I will decide on the background so that the contrast and the colour of the stone is the least important thing.
In the case of the rose, just as I started drawing from the centre outwards, I did the same with the paint, first I put the red, some black to mark the shadows and the light of the white finally to delimit the edges of the petals and give it that volume of one petal over another.
I also painted some leaves with two shades of green, one dark and one lighter, and put some black to create shadows.
The background, therefore, had to be very light, to generate the contrast with the stone, for which I chose white and carmine, but of the latter I only put a little, because it is very dark.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
|---|
In the case of the cat, I first painted the eyes with green, yellow and white. Then I put the white on the appropriate area of the coat to create the brindle.
I used two shades of brown, one darker and then I used ochre rather than brown, I thought it would be more noticeable compared to the other dark brown. I outlined the stripes and lines in the cat's fur, as well as the forehead and the mouth. For the nose I used flesh or fur colour with some black.
I loved the idea of making the cat in a semi profile and I thought it looked great. Finally I ended up giving the black colour where there should be more depth, like around the eyes, fur in the stripes and the mouth.
In this case the background was dark, to highlight the white areas of the cat's fur. That's something I decide at the time according to how I think it looks best.
 |  |
|---|
Then came the choice of the words that these stones represent for my cousin. In this case I didn't ask her, but my inspiration told me what to do: Strength and new life. She knows why I chose these words that represent her and that always accompany her in this new stage.
Having contact with her is great, she always reads my publications and always sends me a message commenting on them, I am very grateful for that. Thank you for being my cousin.
Thank you all for watching and reading this far, I send you a big greeting. See you soon.
Amonet.
All photographs are my own.
