Hoping to get an answer to this question - Looking for art but have ??

Good.questions and i too will look for.the answers from otbers. You are right that a souvenir shop wont be the right place. Lets hope someone else is more knowledgeable.

There is a sort of art colony at Altos de Chavon, which is a beautiful place worthy of a visit in any case.

So thank you guys and my luck has turned as I found a young Dominican waitress who use to live in Miami and speaks very good English who was happy to explain... She stated that the purpose of NO FACES,is that all Dominicans are made of so many different races, Taiain Indian, many blacks with different countries of origin in Latin Americas, that the meaning of no faces is to say 'We are all One of many different ethnicities"

In a somewhat clumsy attempt to further understand, I asked what may sound silly but I get the "no features" point of the painter that blacks out the faces, but it seems to me to be more accurate to blank out the faces and have them be brown as there are very light skinned Dominicans to Dark Skinned and genetic tests of Dominicans versus Haitians show that most if many Haitians are from African descent brought here by the French while DR persons genetically trace back more to the original Taiian indians as well as to many European Armenians  (please note Armenians originally from Perisa thousands of years ago are,are the original  Aryians  if that isn't ironic... I don't think Aryians want that known but it is fact.  The theory is that when migrating to Europe, Armenians of darker colored skin over time, became what (sadly) Aryian peoples now claim as their whiteness. Yet, Armenians from Persia mgrating to the DR, of kept their color.

It is clear that the origins of two many peoples and two different countries on one island are very different,.  In my case, it is only of interest to understand the origins of the local art..and  applaud the artistic point of view to state that Dominican's come from many different genetic backgrounds  I found the genetic information when trying to educate myself on the Dominicans versus the Haitian people and why there would be resentment from two (of what I thought were the same peoples from the same island).....different groups.

I realize the genetic and "origins" issues is an ongoing debate but found it a wonderful statement on race and ethnicity, especially when told to me so proudly by the dominican young lady, that features don't matter, color doesn't matter as we are all dominicans.... Most importantly to me, the art is wonderful.

I tend to think that the featureless faces things is less philosophical. Faces take more effort to paint, and it you get a face wrong, it spoils the entire work. The key to making money in a place where you sell a lot of works to tourists, the key is to paint MANY works. Many years ago, I supported myself as a poor student by selling the classic paintings on velvet I bought in Juarez to Americans in Albuquerque. I had a lot of painter pals in Juarez who sold me their paintings.
You would not believe how little time it takes to crank out a nice landscape. A typical Elvis in a jumpsuit took three times as long, and to do a portrait from a photo took ten times as long a landscape.

Experience made Elvis easier to do, but facial features take time to get right. Draw some sketches and you will see what I mean.

I am not saying that you cannot be philosophical about this. But none of the guys who painted the stuff I sold was a starving artist. One guy had been painting on velvet for 30 years.

http://erinbtaylor.com/markets-as-cultu … paintings/

For those of you who are interested:

So last update to my own question and then I'll close as I found an interesting article (LINK Above).. Being fascinated by the Dominican culture, knowing that it is very different than that of Haiti sharing the same island.... I have now found an article which I believe answers all of my art and painting questions. And even though a friendly young Dominican woman associated her culture as being represented by the paintings that I asked about; I still wondered as you may have noted...

One person I believe noted that many of these very colorful scenic paintings with the featureless faces might all be duplicates and it appears indeed they are, if the writer is correct, in many cases simply templates.  I happen to love the colors but as an art lover, I also wanted to know the meaning...

This article also shows what a typical Dominican painting would be and what it more likely would represent..
. The writer of the article ties both types of paintings back to the heritage of each group.... Haitian paintings with their African ties, and Dominican paintings (many of landscapes, homes, etc ) with ties to Catholicism and Europe. 

Very good cultural and economic (as far as Haitians in Dominican Republic) article....