Roatan Art
coming soon...
We will cover:
Honduras photos/Honduran artwork
Honduras area only Art and Artists
Preview
Watercolor Exibition
Honduras Roatan pictures: Roatan.ws/pics
Please check back as we build this site, send any suggestions to Roatan@Roatan.ws
Friday, May 14, 2010
Monday, October 8, 2007
Art - Roatan Island - Wood Carving Artist Palanca
Art on the Island of Roatan
Bay of Honduras, Central America
Bay of Honduras, Central America
(Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama)
Palanca is an eclectic artist of many talents. Roatan Island claims him as their award wining local wood carving artist! Works of art literally blanket the island of Roatan. Look for them at the foot stoop of shops, on counter tops in restaurants, and hanging from various porches and balconies! He has a fun knack of staring at pieces of driftwood or discarded branches of trees and seeing a living creature pop out! With his vision, carving tools, and paint; a new creature is born. He says he likes to capture the Caribbean island life around him and its people.
Palanca noted that both of his parents were artists and with both of their genes in him, he is literally “blowing up inside” with creativity. His mother was from the Caribbean Island of Jamaica and wrote many pieces of music and songs for her local church. His father was from La Ceiba, Honduras where he wrote books. After growing up in La Ceiba Melvin set out for the Island of Roatan just out in the Bay of Honduras to look for his cousin Mora. Mora is better known to all of us in Sandy Bay as the local fisherman in his dug out canoe!
Once he made it to Island of Roatan he began to work for several large homes at odd jobs, digging wells, and gardening. In his spare time he walked the beaches of Roatan and collected driftwood and odd shape branches. He would ponder them for a few days and then begin to carve. He says that the Caribbean Sea brings the wood already in these forms and that he just sees it and works with it. His favorite wood is hard mahogany drift wood. The longer it is in the Caribbean Sea the better it is to carve with! He also uses many of Roatan Islands fruitwoods and hardwoods.
Some common Fruitwoods are Hog Wood, Nance (carabo), Fig Trees, Sea Grapes, Mango, Almond, Fichus, Cashew, Palms, Mangrove (red, black, and white) and Buttonwood. Each has its own distinctive growth patterns and thicknesses. Melvin says that each one is like a new canvas waiting to be painted!
Common Hardwood Trees are, varieties of tropical red wood better known as Mahogany, Tropical Oaks (their thick bark supports bromeliads and orchids), Evergreen Palms (Arecaceae), and Bursera trees which are known on the island of Roatan as the Gumbo Limbo Tree and the Elephant Tree for its water swollen trunk. Bursera trees have a distinctive smooth reddish peeling bark. The wood has a distinct odor when carved known to us as Frankincense. Our own Gumbalimba Park sports many of these massive trees here in Roatan. The older the wood, the better it is for carving. “It has had more time to dry out and twist into its final shape before carving”, says Palanca. Hibiscus Trees are also interesting to carve and create little creatures with. They are known as the “Queen of the Tropics” for their lovely flowers. Their sap is used for dyes and resin.
The most common Hardwood is Pine. Pine in North America is very soft, but in Central American it is very hard. Pine is the National Tree of Honduras. It won this declaration in 1926 and is protected to this day to conserve and improve the existing numbers in the country. It is commonly used on the Island of Roatan for beautiful wood floors. Palanca says it takes hard work to carve in Pine, but it is worth the effort because of the final product that is produced.
The easiest wood to carve is Balsa wood. Balsa wood trees are abundant in rainforests and jungles on the Island of Roatan and in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama). When the wood is first cut it is very heavy with water. As the wood dries it becomes very soft and light weight! Over 60% of the tree is just water. Balsa wood is strong for its light weight and can easily be bent with carving tools without loosing its strength. North Americans may remember it best by small model planes that were made in the 50’s and 60’s. On the Island of Roatan it is easily carved and shaped into the common parrot figures and fish replicas that we see in souvenir shops. Palanca would rather take a hard chunk of Mahogany and spend lots of time on it rather than use the delicate balsa wood. That is very easy to see when you encounter one of his life size statues in West End.
Where in Roatan can you find Palanca?...
You won’t see Palanca in a fancy museum…no, his museum is the great outdoors. Look for a small house in a grassy field in Sandy Bay, (between West End and Coxen Hole) decorated with his own paintings! Just pull up along the road, meet Palanca, have a little chat, and buy a carving for your place. He is a favorite among island visitors and an award winner in the municipality of Coxen Hole. Roatan wood is his claim to fame!
Palanca noted that both of his parents were artists and with both of their genes in him, he is literally “blowing up inside” with creativity. His mother was from the Caribbean Island of Jamaica and wrote many pieces of music and songs for her local church. His father was from La Ceiba, Honduras where he wrote books. After growing up in La Ceiba Melvin set out for the Island of Roatan just out in the Bay of Honduras to look for his cousin Mora. Mora is better known to all of us in Sandy Bay as the local fisherman in his dug out canoe!
Once he made it to Island of Roatan he began to work for several large homes at odd jobs, digging wells, and gardening. In his spare time he walked the beaches of Roatan and collected driftwood and odd shape branches. He would ponder them for a few days and then begin to carve. He says that the Caribbean Sea brings the wood already in these forms and that he just sees it and works with it. His favorite wood is hard mahogany drift wood. The longer it is in the Caribbean Sea the better it is to carve with! He also uses many of Roatan Islands fruitwoods and hardwoods.
Some common Fruitwoods are Hog Wood, Nance (carabo), Fig Trees, Sea Grapes, Mango, Almond, Fichus, Cashew, Palms, Mangrove (red, black, and white) and Buttonwood. Each has its own distinctive growth patterns and thicknesses. Melvin says that each one is like a new canvas waiting to be painted!
Common Hardwood Trees are, varieties of tropical red wood better known as Mahogany, Tropical Oaks (their thick bark supports bromeliads and orchids), Evergreen Palms (Arecaceae), and Bursera trees which are known on the island of Roatan as the Gumbo Limbo Tree and the Elephant Tree for its water swollen trunk. Bursera trees have a distinctive smooth reddish peeling bark. The wood has a distinct odor when carved known to us as Frankincense. Our own Gumbalimba Park sports many of these massive trees here in Roatan. The older the wood, the better it is for carving. “It has had more time to dry out and twist into its final shape before carving”, says Palanca. Hibiscus Trees are also interesting to carve and create little creatures with. They are known as the “Queen of the Tropics” for their lovely flowers. Their sap is used for dyes and resin.
The most common Hardwood is Pine. Pine in North America is very soft, but in Central American it is very hard. Pine is the National Tree of Honduras. It won this declaration in 1926 and is protected to this day to conserve and improve the existing numbers in the country. It is commonly used on the Island of Roatan for beautiful wood floors. Palanca says it takes hard work to carve in Pine, but it is worth the effort because of the final product that is produced.
The easiest wood to carve is Balsa wood. Balsa wood trees are abundant in rainforests and jungles on the Island of Roatan and in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama). When the wood is first cut it is very heavy with water. As the wood dries it becomes very soft and light weight! Over 60% of the tree is just water. Balsa wood is strong for its light weight and can easily be bent with carving tools without loosing its strength. North Americans may remember it best by small model planes that were made in the 50’s and 60’s. On the Island of Roatan it is easily carved and shaped into the common parrot figures and fish replicas that we see in souvenir shops. Palanca would rather take a hard chunk of Mahogany and spend lots of time on it rather than use the delicate balsa wood. That is very easy to see when you encounter one of his life size statues in West End.
Where in Roatan can you find Palanca?...
You won’t see Palanca in a fancy museum…no, his museum is the great outdoors. Look for a small house in a grassy field in Sandy Bay, (between West End and Coxen Hole) decorated with his own paintings! Just pull up along the road, meet Palanca, have a little chat, and buy a carving for your place. He is a favorite among island visitors and an award winner in the municipality of Coxen Hole. Roatan wood is his claim to fame!
by: Lynne and Bob Millsaps, MCP
http://www.roatan.ws/ - We write about and photograph the Caribbean Island Roatan
Adventure and diving articles with pictures of the Bay Island Roatan, Honduras is how we invite our readers to Experience Roatan. Our readers grasp a sense of what it means to escape to pristine beaches, coral reefs and participate in the islands culture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
