Henry has dusted off an old hat that she hasn’t worn in a very long time to design a gallery/studio structure with a good tango floor for dancing and teaching her Organic Stretch system (an outgrowth of the Wallace Method). She envisions art events, small concerts, milongas, workshops, and regular classes once the new building is completed. The design includes a large open studio on the second floor where she can continue to expand the scale of her work and to further explore her current focus on colorful, abstracts in oil and acrylic.

The event on May 15th, from 6 – 9:30, is open to the public and will include both her new work as well as two suites of monotypes (a tango shoe series and a group with a Mexican flavor). There are limited edition prints of some of the original watercolors done when she first arrived in PV in 1997 (from her solo sail around the world) and a few from the time she spent in the Caribbean.

As with many decisions in her life, Henry says she just woke up one morning in late March knowing that it was time to move to La Cruz and her little house. Puerto Vallarta has been her home longer than any other city or town in the world, and after visiting 52 countries and spending considerable time in quite a few, that makes this move significant.

An opening date for the new facility is too far in the future to predict, but Henry will have a tango floor/stretch class space ready by the end of this June. Visitors with an appointment will be welcome to visit and view her art, but none of the work will be hanging on gallery walls for quite awhile.

Friday, May 15, 6 – 9:30, Pat Henry Studio, Jacarandas 183, Zona Romantica, Phone: 222-4119, www.pat-henry.com

Twelve years ago, at the end of an eight-year solo-circumnavigation on her 31-foot sailboat, Henry chose Puerto Vallarta for her home. She took a break from painting to write By the Grace of the Sea: A Woman’s Solo Odyssey Around the World (McGraw-Hill/2002), opened a women’s sailing school, and finally returned to art. A long-time watercolorist, she spent spring 2008 exploring new avenues for her artistic expression…moving from realism to pure abstract, from watercolor to acrylic and oil, expanding the physical size of her pieces, and rekindling her passion for painting.

Appointments to visit the studio are available at other times at 222-4119. The Pat Henry Studio is located at Jacarandas 183 in Zona Romantica. Her show includes abstracts as well as monotypes. See www.pat-henry.com

Henry went on to become certified as a practitioner and began teaching others how to do the mode of this program that encompasses the personal, solo work…something one can do on their own, at home. Heather also offered classes in Minneapolis with students gathered from her clients and certified practitioners. In Puerto Vallarta where there were no other practitioners or existing clients, Henry developed an approach that could introduce the concepts and principles to someone with no experience or exposure. Her driving interest was to provide “fishing poles rather than hand out the fish.”

Among her students, Henry finds that most come because they are experiencing the usual loss of flexibility and range of motion that accompanies each birthday. Some have specific problems that are restricting their enjoyment of life and creating pain. With organic stretching movements that follow the flow of the body structure and utilizing specific principles of movement, students find the edges of their limits and gradually release blocked and/or locked places that are causing pain or restricting movement.

On April 14, at 10:00 am, Henry will offer a free introduction to this program at her studio. Space is limited. Those wishing to attend should call for a reservation and directions to the studio.

Pat Henry, Certified Wallace Method Practitioner; 322 222-4119