Creative Tuesdays - Voyage

Hi all at Creative Tuesday!

what better homage to Voyage than a wonderful ocean landscape sketch?

I am here continuing my studies for the large painting that it seems, at this time, will never actually be started, am having so much fun with the preliminaries!

This is a sketch I made of an oil painting by the British born painter THomas Somerscales who, by a weird twist of fate, spent virtually all of his career in little-known Chile, south America. As such, he is no doubt not nearly as famous as he probably deserves to be. Here is a wiki link in English, which says practically nothing. The Wiki entry in Spanish is more forthcoming.

The circumstance of Voyage is, of course, represented by the boats. As well, it is represented in the life of a British painter, through some random voyage, having come to inhabit and belong to as different a place as you can, if you're from England (probably). At least a handful of British artists and other sorts decided to migrate to Chile, though, so it can't have been that lonely.

original by Somerscales

Speaking of voyage, Chile is actually sort of rife with it. Heaps of people either coming and going - Chile has, bizarrely enough, the 3rd largest population of Croatians in the world - Chile also has a huge percentage of expat Greeks. Also a large collection of Palestinians, Armenians, Swiss, Italians, Hungarians, Russians, Spaniards, British, as well as any number of native Amerindians and travellers from other places. From the 1840s on, a large percentage of Germans went over, and this group has largely contributed to the cultural & ethnic genotype of what one might call Chilean society ever since. During WWII you get the curious phenomenom of Jews fleeing Hitler, and some 10 or 20 years later you get the phenomenom of ex Nazis fleeing a post Nurenberg Trial Europe. What a confused mishmash! I wonder if they all ever met in the streets of Valdivia and if so, what did they say to each other....

Same thing happened in Sweden and nearby countries. Elite CHileans fled the communist elected president Allende in 1970, and 3 years later, Allende's advocates fled when the wheels of history turned against them. What did a 'facho' anti Allende say to an Allende advocate whenever they happened to meet at the market somewhere in Östermalm?
Here, an art critic's rendition of Somerscales' contribution to ocean landscapes:

Nos instalan en alta mar. Ahí respiramos ráfagas de humedad salada, en tanto que consiguiéndose así el acorde cromático preciso con los azules intensos del abismo acuático. Están "Fuera de Valparaíso";"Homeward Bound", el gran lienzo del Congreso Nacional, etc. Para sus versiones de "El Estrecho de Magallanes" cambia la paleta: verdes y azulosos se contraponen a picachos nevados y a cielos henchidos de nubes lluviosas. Unos y otros rescates del mar nuestro, por supuesto, transmiten la circunstancia climática de latitudes diferentes.

a rough translation would be:

The best moments of Somerscales take us to the high seas. There we breathe bursts of salty moisture, insomuch as the winds blow up voluminous quantities of orange, managing thus the correct chromatic precision with the intense blues of the aquatic abyss. There are "Outside Valparaiso", "Homeward Bound", the great canvas at the National Congress, etc. For his version of "THe Strait of Magellan' he changes his pallete: greens and blues are counterpoint to snowy peaks and skies swollen with rain-soaked clouds. One or another rendition of our ocean, of course, transmit the climactic circumstance of different latitudes.
I really like Somerscales work in general, from what I've seen. Doesn't have quite the scope of Turner (but then, who does) but he does make some magnificent, dramatic seascapes.
Hope all y'all having a good one!

ppf - studies of oceans and waterways various

Hi all at PPF!

Here I am continuing on beachy themes, all which I have mostly developed already on charcoal. THe one here is a beach in the northern town of Iquique in Chile - an interesting place way up north, near Peru, and very near one of the dryest deserts in the world, the Atacama. It's oil on some crazy oil painting paper I got for Xmas which seems to work out OK though is somewhat drying.

This one is the oil painting rendition of a sketch I had already composed in charcoal, and which I had posted for Creative Tuesdays and can be seen - in terms of info on the piece and the town it represents - here. BTW, Creative Tuesdays is a greatly fun blogging co-op! Biweekly challenges/prompts are given and we are then prompted to channel all our ideas into a common theme. Visit here for more. The piece is done on oils on a gessoed wood panel, reministent of my last year's painting project.

Hope all are having a great weekend! Will strive to look at everyone by end of Sunday.

Sunday Sketches - Last Fiverr piece

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!!

This is the last installment on the Fiverr Sherlock Holmes story. As seen, an elderly woman on a bed is supposed to be lying on a bed sleeping while an empty bottle of wine lies at her side. The doctor and our spying friends look on, puzzled.

These were all completely done at the 'client's' behest and, as stated earlier, I do not know fully the whole story behind it all. All I DO know is that, after this, I am taking that gig down. It gets a bit too much to handle after a while!

I want to know if anyone had any New Year's Resolution? I don't know if I officially had one, but I have been becoming fitter, All really since Jan 13th vs Jan 1st - all just in time for that Saturn Venus transit as it turns out! Doing it by exercising once a day for a 1/2 hour, looking at Jillian Michaels videos on YouTube.  Ha ha, I never though I would resort to that but the weather does not allow for long walks. And it's been neat I mean, I had never managed to do real bloody push-ups in my life--- till right now!! Got to count for something..... have also given up most carbs, something which has been easy - except for right this second. For some reason. We'll see how it goes.....

Hope all are well!

Creative Tuesday - Lighthouse

Hi all at Creative Tuesdays! Nice to be back!

It's always hard for me to calibrate everything between one year and the next, which is why I'm so pleased that this week's theme is in alignment with my current project!

This is a sketch of Viña del Mar, one of the most famous and popular balnearios in Chile. It is home to a fairly popular international Latin American music festival we all like to make fun of, a casino, and a couple of castles and lighthouses.

Yes, I used to hang out a lot there back in the day, but if I remember correctly, all people ever did was gripe about how "all those Argentines" came up over the mountains to take over all the good stuff. Ungrateful beneficiaries of a tourist economy, I say! What would Walt Disney say!?!

Anyway below the tall tree is a place called Wolff Castle with its lighthouse which is some sort of museum, and somewhere beyond that is the aformentioned Casino where, it is said, ruined gamblers would on occasion take their lives by casting themselves into the surf.

Lately I like to listen to Magical Mystery Tour whenever working (for whatever reason) so I leave everyone with this great little Busby Berkeley inspired number:

have a great week y'all!

Sunday Sketches - Fiverr Holmes piece

Hello all at Sunday Sketches!

THis is another of the fiverr installment pieces - another piece for the Sherlock Holmes.

It's not exactly a collaboration - an author contacted me via the site fiverr to see if I would do these few illustrations for her book which I assume she's going to self-publish. I have been asked to do 5 in total, and this is the 3rd.

As can be seen here, the indefatigable friends are wandering through a cemetery, and see a mausoleum with the statue of a fellow with an outstretched arm on top.

While making this I had a chance to view a fun old movie by the Beatles - you can see the whole thing elsewhere but meanwhile, here's  a segment -

Hope all are having a great Sunday!

PPF - painting binge

Greetings PPFers!

I undertook the 4 above oil paintings within less than 48 hours. That's almost 3 times my painting level during my Epic Painting Project of last year!

They are all the ocean, as can be seen, very specifically, the same wave, as seen here (last image on page). What I was seeking was to see how the colours showed up, regarding choice. 

So the bottom one is made with only blues, the one above that adds greens, the one above that adds yellows to blues and greens, and the last one adds purple, oranges, yellow, greens and blues. This last one is probably the weakest - but that's why I do this now, so as not to get stuck with some ugly-ass thing when the time comes to do it for reals. (this is still referring to a painting commission I received almost 6 months ago... wow!)

hope all have a groovy day!

Sunday Sketches - Fiverr, Holmes playing Violin

Hi everyone at Sunday Sketches!!

This week I wanted to share one of my Fiverr pieces. Every once in a while the gig is dormant, but every once in a while I will still get them in.

These are apparently to go towards a book about Sherlock Holmes - have already done 2 and possibly will do more.

As can be seen, this scene shows a standard view of Sherlock playing the violin while his sidekick Watson reads a paper nearby.

Speaking of which, does anyone know the relationship or deal with Watson and Holmes? How did they get to be friends? What do they do aside from solve random mysteries? What's the back story there? I have never actually read any of the books - maybe I will someday.

have a great weekend!

Firmoo: New Glasses... Free Glasses! For you and me!

Got new glasses today.

 That in itself might not be worth writing about, but I got them for free! And you can too!

 The old opinion that glasses are only necessities for people with vision problems has already gone. Glasses are increasingly becoming a fad and must-have accessories for celebs and fashionistas. Everyday we can spot millions of non prescription glasses wearers and we are constantly fascinated by many noted film stars’ signature non prescription glasses.They instantly upgrade your look of modern,sexy, vintage or geek by wearing different styles of frames.

OF course, some of us actually need the bloody things, so as to, well, see. That's where I come in on the issue. And so I was very excited when I was approached by a member of the Firmoo online glasses merchant regarding their First Pair Free Program.

I can't even begin to describe how timely this offer was for me! As a noble member of that class known as 'starving artist', even the expense of a pair of glasses is one that I will scrutinize out of existence. Thus, I had been wearing the same pair of semi-broken glasses from 6 years ago after my most recent pair went bust. All I had to do was unearth an old prescription and, presto, free glasses!

Firmoo is an online glasses company, where you can fill in the details of your prescription (if you have one) and get a brand new pair of glasses in the mail. Anyone who wears glasses knows that a decent pair, once you include the prescription cost, can run up above $100. Not so with the various existing online merchants, where, if you already have a prescription, you can get a decent pair for $20. Firmoo is no exception. One can find a very serviceable and fun pair of glasses for what amounts to chump change!

Their selection is quite vast, and I really like the intuitive, easy way the frames are organized - by size, shape, and materials. Also, a little photo uploader exists which allows one to 'try before you try', so as to make sure that the frames look good on your face.

Now a little something from their mission statement:

"Our Aim - Vision & Fashion the Frugal Way

• Vision - An ideal pair of prescription glasses as a half medical tool to correct vision should be made up of a quality frame and lenses with accurate prescription. We promise all our eyeglasses frames are of high quality. Besides, all eyewear provided by us goes through strict inspection by our experienced opticians before shipping to ensure the accuracy of lens prescription. That's why we keep the lowest return and exchange rate among all online optical stores worldwide.

• Fashion - We offer classic and fashion glasses frames for you to choose from. All of these frames which are quite popular in the world are elaborately picked by our staff from thousands of frames in the market.

• Frugal way - Our prescription eyeglasses are inexpensive even though with high quality, therefore, everyone can afford it.

Any hot glasses/sunglasses/goggles frames you want can be found on Firmoo, and all are available for both prescription lenses and non-prescription lenses. Are you desperate to have a new look? Now here is the chance, Firmoo has launched a First Pair Free Program to people  worldwide. You will absolutely fall in love with the excellent quality, affordable prices, fashionable designs, fast delivery and the good service after trying them with paying shipping only! You even can get a refund/exchange if you are not satisfied with them. It's totally Risk free, so why not have a try? 

Click here (http://www.firmoo.com/free-glasses.html) to get your free glasses now!"

I have had mine for about a week, and I am very pleased with them! The link for the pair I got was here. Yes - a $40 pair of glasses for free! I always had wanted to get a pair of somewhat larger and rounder ones, but I had never dared. I got stuck in the tiny-glasses rut a while ago, and had not been presented with the opportunity to try something radically new, and at no cost!

I love the way I can see very easily from every angle (instead of only having vision concentrated in the very front of my face like with the smaller glasses). I like how they look, too, which is a double plus! They are fun and look like I want them too.

The quality seems good.  I'm not a huge connoiseur of glasses mechanics, but these seem well-made. I have in the past put on glasses that feel like they are made out of paper, or that will begin sliding off your face after just a few days. Not so these!


Though I can't guarantee they're klutz-proof, I can see they will last a very long time, with a reasonable caring attitude towards them.

I have purchased online glasses through other merchants, and sadly have found them somewhat lacking in this department. These, however, seem solid & safe.

When I first put them on, I find that I'm having a bit of trouble with the prescription part in the left eye - it doesn't feel quite right- but I attribute that to the fact that I was wearing very old glasses for a good 12 months, in addition to having used a converted contact lenses prescription to get these. So, word to the wise -- if you do this, please make sure you have a 100% correct prescription!

So, go on then! If you really need a new pair, or if you've always wanted a snazzy pair of faux glasses or sunglasses just for the heck of it, now's your chance! For only shipping cost you will be well on your way to a new look. Remember, the  First Pair is Free.

PFF - Updates on previous piece

Hi all at paint party friday!

Here it is, then, the 2nd Friday in January. Hope the new year is being great for everyone!

Just wished to do a quick update on the woodpieces I posted last week. Our process here is that I do the drawings (as shown last week) and that Jim does all the colouring/painting - and that's what you see here.

Can't wait to start on my painting project for reals! Feels like I've been working on these wooden relics and set aside painting for a while.

some very exciting news for anyone who likes to work with illustrator/photoshop, or would like to but hasn't been able to afford it:

Adobe is giving away free downloads of the entire Creative Suite, version CS2.

Amazing but true! Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, all for absolutely free. It's an old version, but it's one I still have on another machine (a mac) which I purchased in 2005 for like $700 (and that was the student version, LOL). I was excited to find this link through a friend who hangs out in Linked In forums. Now I have the creative suite on my PC as well as my Mac :D

I downloaded it - the Photoshop seems absolutely fine, the Illustrator makes my screen look odd but otherwise seems to work. Would be interested in knowing if others do download it, and what their experiences are.

No idea how long Adobe will feel generous for, but here's the link: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Paint Party Friday - Ponder Panel Wood Burning Drawings

this pic shows only 1/2 the length of the piece of wood

Hi all at PPF!!! Sorry to miss everyone last week - had to diagnose a broken chainsaw (long story...) Hope all had a good holiday, mine was stupendous!!!! Firstly, it is near my birthday so I received a double dose of gifts and greetings :D

Among these are things I have been really wanting, like a food Dehydrator and a Wheatgrass Juicer !! But for sure the most exciting one has been a new smartphone!! THe main reason I am so excited about this is that I can now take pictures and upload them to google all the time! It was always a big problem for me to find the space to take and upload photos with Jim's professional camera, and this generally meant I could or would not participate in these things, but now, though the image quality may be questionable, I can basically guarantee I can join up every single week. Funny how a small technology upgrade can make one's life so much better!

All the images posted are from one of the ponder panels we make - I have drawn all the illustrations on this piece of wood with a woodburning tool. A great thing we have had from  Colwood for a good 2 years but finally it broke - so a Xmas gift to ourselves was a new one ($80!)

In any event, the theme is varied and, due to the size of the wood piece, I had lots of room to do lots of different sorts of illustrations. The text that runs along the wood is about the dialectics between ruler and ruled, us v them - hence, some battle scenes and signs of nature encroaching on so called human progress.

Speaking of nature, this is my new favourite animal, the liger!! I find it incredibly cute and huge. Apparently a hybrid between a male lion and a female tiger, it somehow experiences unbounded growth due to weird genetic mishap. Our friend can grow to weight 900lbs and stand at 5 feet while on all fours!!!

here's the liger:

More images of my artwork below. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful new years!!!

Creative Tuesdays - Holiday Songs

Hello fine CT folks!

So... holiday songs it is, eh?
I must admit I am not a huge advocate of holiday songs, I have tended in life to favour Hitchens' opinion regarding the "tinny, maddening, repetitive ululations" that permeate the atmosphere this time of year though, like with most things, I have become more jolly and tolerant with age, even about that.



So saying, there are not a lot of holiday songs I can either conjure up in their entirety nor express anything about, though while I was looking at this riddle the absurd song 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer' came to mind. If I'm ever going to advocate for a holiday song, it would have to be one to so gleefully NOT take itself - or the season - seriously.



Meanwhile, I learned a few things about reindeers:

The reindeer is actually another name for the caribou, as it is known in the US. It is a species of deer native to Arctic and Subarctic regions. This includes both resident and migratory populations.


Reindeer have specialized noses featuring nasal turbinate bones that dramatically increase the surface area within the nostrils. Incoming cold air is warmed by the animal's body heat before entering the lungs, and water is condensed from the expired air and captured before the deer's breath is exhaled, used to moisten dry incoming air and possibly absorbed into the blood through the mucous membranes.

Reindeer hooves adapt to the season: in the summer, when the tundra is soft and wet, the footpads become sponge-like and provide extra traction. In the winter, the pads shrink and tighten, exposing the rim of the hoof, which cuts into the ice and crusted snow to keep it from slipping. This also enables them to dig down (an activity known as "cratering")^[19][20] through the snow to their favorite food, a lichen known as reindeer moss. The knees of many species of reindeer are adapted to produce a clicking sound as they walk.^{[21] This is why they are such successful winter animals!}
 

Balla, Giacomo Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash 1912 Oil on canvas 35 3/8 x 43 1/4 (89.9 x 109.9)

Balla, Giacomo
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
1912
Oil on canvas
35 3/8 x 43 1/4 (89.9 x 109.9)

As far as the piece itself, before I finally read the words of the song, I had decided on a narrative where Grandma was walking across the frozen tundra to hand Santa some cookies and milk in a glass. The reindeer, seeing Grandma approach, reacts in a fit of pique, attacks grandma, and causes the carnage of cookies & milk.




I grew inspired by contemplating the dizzying portrayals of motion of the Futurists in general, and Balla's 'Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash' (1912) in particular.

Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 1912. Oil on canvas. 57 7/8" x 35 1/8"

Thanks to new technological advances in photography and the cultural/moral landscape of the 'modern era' (abstract art, etc), a certain group of artists set about creating an accepted visual language of motion in art. Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" is a good first example of that style - a painting which bended the minds of many incredulous and impressionable witnesses at the 1913 New York Armory show.


According to Tom Lubbock, upon discussing the above painting,  Balla's painting is particularly striking because:

Their legs have multiple positions, indicating brisk walking. They should be tripping along the pavement. Their bodies, on the other hand, have only one position in the picture, so their bodies are not advancing accordingly. If they're moving at all, it's much slower than the speed at which their feet would seem to be carrying them.

It's an awkward sense of movement that results. The lady's bunch of hard heels, scrumming under her skirts, promises a general trip-up. (An apparently unnecessary group of four kick out in front). The dog, meanwhile, gives the impression of frantic scampering. Its legs thrash beneath a body that makes no progress at all.

In my silly sketch I managed to also show the pathos of the attack, the fall, and the descent of the milk jug and glass, to its final conclusion. Yet the bodies are mostly stationary, albeit holding dynamic, awkward poses that portray a narrative of subjugation and domination - beast against (wo)man.



Hope all have had great holidays!

Sunday Sketches - Drawing Update

Hi all at Sunday Sketches! Nice to see everyone again!

This is an update on the large Epic Drawing I was mentioning earlier. As can be seen, this section got a bit crazy and chaotic! I am actually pretty ashamed because I was supposed to finish this drawing literally 6 months ago, and cut it up and send it to different people (those affiliated with my Epic Painting Project - wow, what a long time ago that was!!!!) I have had trouble finishing it (an understatement!!!!) but hopefully when I finally finish it and send of the pieces, everyone will understand.

Well, the holidays are approaching, and along it, a birthday for some of us. My birthday this year will be particularly eventful, as it also will fall on the alleged Mayan Doomsday Event (that's right.... Dec 21st). So.... we'll see, won't we? Would love anyone to post their opinions on this epoch changing event (LOL!!!)

Wood Creations - Hand

Hi all at PPF! Just wanted to do the rounds this week if I had the chance, so I thought I'd post a small update re. a recent painting wood creation!

This wooden staff has a hand drawn on it. That was fun. The act is as if a hand were grabbing the stick. I grabbed it, then traced the fingers round the stick (who remembers doing that in grade school?)

Wonder how everyone is doing for the holidays? always an interesting time. How many of you are gifting others you creations? I personally love giving/receiving art. Speaking of which...


Wanted to say thanks so much to the wonderful Elisa Choi!!!!!!! I received the awesome lovely thoughtful painting/gift!!! It made me so happy :D I think my fave thing about this piece is how peaceful, yet thoughtful it makes me feel. It is basically to me reflective. Also causes in me something like flashbacks - since at one pt I lived fairly near the ocean. I havent been to a beach since 2009 so.... I love looking at this piece-- its actually I think what first made really love it, when I first commented to Elisa, months ago, hoe much I loved it - I could see myself at the beach looking out.....

Ocean Meditations - Elisa Choi

Anyway, hope all are having great holidays! I know its not upon us yet but... lets face it... it might as well already be Christmas

Also did want to mention my condolences and sadness for anyone touched by the tragedy in CT today. I cannot fathom why someone would do something like that. Hope everyone involved finds something to help them carry on.

Creative Tuesday - Starry Night

Hello friends at Creative Tuesday!

I am as fond as anyone of a starry night, but for the life of me today I could not get inspired! So I offer two possibly not so inspired offerings for CT Starry Night theme.

The theme reminded me of the van Gogh tribute 'Vincent' by Don McLean - a song probably worth listening to at least once. 

The first one is a photo of my backyard right after the sun has gone down, with some contrasting filters added as well as some stars. Not the most inspired of representations as I said but, at least the photo is worth looking at!

The second piece is done with pastels. The idea was a moon, some stars and a city scape of some sort. It came out looking sort of angry to me I wonder why?

Hope all are having a great Tuesday!

Sunday Sketching - Naval Scene

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!

The fall and Thanksgiving season wraps up apace. Hope all here in US had a jolly THanksgiving break? I know those in Canada had it earlier than that, a month or so!

I had a good time with family, etc. They are moving up here and we have spent time doing the Thanksgiving thing, but also the visiting thing. Overall, nice to have them close by again. Completed these drawings there, once again affiliated with my drawing project.

 I did have something hysterical happen today though... a local innkeeper whom we have some affection for as being the fellow whose place we got married at, was someone I visited a few days before the holiday, since we go sell art in the town where he lives.

Just to make conversation (as so many do this time of year) I asked if he/they had any THanksgiving plans. Now, since i already had THanksgiving plans and since I didn't particularly feel OWED anything by this individual, I am pretty certain I asked with a straight face. But I got a weird shifty eyed "no, nothing special, nothing much happening." I was surprised since it seemed a bit odd & sad. "Really? wow, OK. Am surprised, no guests, anything etc" since I can still remember not many years ago spending some money to have a Thanksgiving meal at this person's inn, thus I know it's nothing for which there is no antecedent, both in terms of expectation or curiosity. But no, apparently not this year.

And then today at our art booth we had a conversation with someone who works at this inn - someone we've also known for some years - and he started out saying "how was your Thanksgiving, etc" and we "oh, you know, with my parents and y'all?"

And then he states that they all, at this Inn, had a potluck, a big nice THanksgiving potluck, with 18 or 19 people, most of whom we know and are either friendly with or at least civil with (sometimes it's more than enough LOL)

So I am thinking all of this is pretty funny because it can only mean one of 3 things:

1) I came across as weirdly desperate, or in general come across as weirdly desperate for free dinners in this community - scratch that, not free, it was a potluck - and thus have to wildly edit my entire conversational approach - God forbid, for instance, random men to whom I ask the time really end up thinking I am wanting to go to bed with them

2) everyone hates the food we cook - maybe the yummy spongy cornbread we make is nowhere near as yummy or spongy as we think it is.

3) a corollary to #1, maybe poor Elmer thinks we are too woebegone to have something to actually DO on Thanksgiving, as in, something that we might actually prefer doing than, say, hanging out in the back porch snapping at the scraps thrown our way by the uber elite & uber exclusive enclave of folks from Dinky Mountain Town, NC.... yeah, it's possible, but... probably not

My only response to all of this is... get a grip, man. You should never (unless you're Sigourney Weaver or Barack Obama or someone actually possibly 'important' or 'famous' like that) think that you are so... solicited that you have to shield your every activity from the common hordes of unwashed humanity or whatnot. The steps are quite simple

1. answer honestly "yes, I am having a thing"
2. push back only if pushed "no, you are not invited"

simple!

hope all liked my little tale. 

PPF - Round Wood

Hi all!! Glad to be back in PFF! Some technology updates are allowing me to blog once again now that I am away from home more...

THis is a piece I have been particularly fond of, but which sold last weekend in Hot Springs. I was very happy it sold because it seemed to belong to someone, but also am sort of sorry to see it go!

 Speaking of Hot Springs, there actually was a Civil War reenactment! It was an amazing thing - men in costumes shooting at each other. I know that in the South where I live this sort of thing takes place, but I had never been even within shouting distance of one in the past, regardless of my curiousity about it. I mean, do they reenact battles just as they appear? Do they make wishful-thinking battles where the South really won?

Speaking of U.S. politics (after a fashion) today was the election and I, thus far at 1:07am Nov 7th, have no idea who became president of the U.S. Possibly nobody else does either --- but I certainly don't! I am playing a little game whereby I try to see how long I can go without finding out. I have told Jim not to tell me and am sort of eschewing YouTube, email, etc - anything that might tell me. For no good reason other than curiosity. How long can one go without knowing? Not terribly long, I expect...

Hope all are having a great day!

Creative Tuesdays - Bottle

Hi all at Creative Tuesdays!


This bottle is one I drew just in time! Spending time with folks in Tennessee this weekend, thanks to a fun arts festival that included old car shows. 'Sans y Penser' is one of my fave Edith Piaf songs- something I like to listen to when drinking wine after all the hectic things of the day have been put to rest.

Am sorry to hear folks are unhappy about the Elections - there's a lot to be unhappy about, no doubt. In my view it doesn't matter as much as it seems to for various reasons I don't care to go into because

1) this is not a political blog
2) nobody asked me
3) I still remember somebody telling me re 'the three things you never speak about in polite company' and I guess the benefit or stakes aren't high enough for me to break that rule ;)

So, am double sorry I have nothing else more interesting to share, save this sketch of this bottle.

Hope all are having a great Tuesday!

PPF - Waiting for Spring

Como Esperando Abril - epoxy resin, etc

Hi all at PPF!

Wanted to share a piece about springtime, now that it is actually leaving here. Am happy to have appeared in PPF's interview! It was fun & sthg I'd been wanting to do for a time. I notice the piece appears in the interview so I thought I'd discuss it more.

Autumn Photo - JH

This was one of many made with epoxy resin product, and one of my fave in that series - there were like 12 or 13 -  is it recently sold :D / :( good to sold, bad not to have it again!! It was made with almost a monoprint process with tempera paint on sheetrock or some nonsense, then bathed over with EnviroTek epoxy resin.  What is mysterious about this, is that less than a year after I made it, Jim took a photo which was weirdly the same = a mirror image of the above. When I first saw the photo I almost fell over backwards!!!


Speaking of photos,, I would love for folks to look at some photo contests I have here:Ducks - http://www2.thriftyfun.com/tf71771001.tip.html
Sunset - http://www2.thriftyfun.com/tf36647451.tip.html
Graffitti- http://www2.thriftyfun.com/tf30865107.tip.html

if I get plenty of thumbs up I win a prize :D isn't that neat? Also, TF is a fun community - why don't y'all go sometime and post your own contest and tell everyone about it? You can do recipes, photos, tips, etc.

Have a great time!

Creative Tuesday - Breaking New Ground

Yay!! Happy to be able to join everyone at Creative Tuesday again! Been busy selling arts and having ridiculous misadventures, - hopefully the former will go on for quite a while (weather being the variable) and the latter will cease.

Appropriate for Saturn's recent ingress into Scorpio (for those into that sort of thing), I really found the theme of today's CT very fitting. Scorpio's all about destroying the old so as to create the new, and what more approprite image than destroying the ground, upsetting everything, and planting a seed?

I had a moment to free-associate doodle on top of an existing image in an old sketchbook (the weird flower next to the giant face) sort of thinking about these and other astrological things and the result to me was very much the epitome of 'breaking new ground'. To me the image came out weird bc it's almost as if these things are uprooted and floating around the earth and looking for ground to plant themselves in! Sort of different from the habitual conception of things being born in the ground.

Hope all have had a great Fall so far!

SS - Vermeer & Friends

An oldie but goodie

I had to link this so as to send it to a possible art contact and since I'm oh so formal about doing everything I figured this was as good a day as any - possibly some of you at Sunday Sketches have seen it already

THis large 4-part painting was really in essence a school assignment - paint the same view (in this case the living room) 4 times in 2008, copying the styles of different painters.

So, from top left, clockwise - Vermeer, Chagall, Van Gogh, Bracque.

The most successful one (re. fulfilling similarities) I think is probably Chagall or Vermeer. Vermeer would win save it doesnt have enough layers - IE wrong colours. The most hopeless one is Van Gogh I'm afraid LOL... I love Van Gogh as much as the next guy but I could never get behind his aesthetic enough to really 'reproduce' it.

In other news, finally finished a book it took me practically 3 months to read just cuz it was so dang hard - no, it was not Tolstoy or Wittgenstein or anything crazy like that - it was simply How to Read & Understand the Financial News by Gerald Warfield. Even though it was written basically 20 years ago, it was a good primer in terms of understanding all the Wall Street stuff that happens. I always feel funny when I am completely ignorant re/ sthg that at some level affects every aspect of my life and that of those around me. Hence, the book.

The real interesting thing about this book (aside from the fractal-complexity subject matter) was the author: he was originally a classical music guy - a composer - and his first published books were music theory textbooks! Then he went on to publish finance books, and now is trying to publish fiction. Funny to think about what people end up doing with their lives.

Would love to know what books people are reading, if any.