Night of the Nightingale, acrylics on canvas, 36" x 48" (In process) • R. C. Flores-Gunkle

A Place and Space for Art

In my underworld

I have many interests — too many I sometimes think. After a long academic career, I enjoyed a second full career as a magazine writer and editor. Along the way, I continued a passion for photography. My photos have been included in exhibits, featured in a National Park Service calendar, and published in books and magazines. And I garden. And I paint.

My art studio is a room under our north terrace. The house is on a narrow mountain ridge and is built on two levels, so the studio on the lower level has large windows on two sides and opens to a garden. I share the “basement” with the walls of our pool, a small bathroom, an exercise room, storage space, and Gamby, our “outside” cat, who spends the night inside.

Field of Heliconias (l.); Lobster Claw Heliconia, and Fuzz, my cat (R.). Both acrylics on canvas, 36" x 48" R. C. Flores-Gunkle

I began painting as a teenager — my best friend, an artist, was my first teacher. I took electives in drawing as an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico. After a forty-year hiatus (I was studying, teaching, raising a family, following other passions, and experiencing a new career in San Juan), I began painting again.

Two things precipitated it. One was a friend who introduced me to acrylics. I had only painted with…