Pansies part 2

Pansies part 2. Not done yet. I took some time off and went up to the BridgeBetween Retreat Center. It was cold here, but it was way colder there.

Pansies

A start for another still life. I am never sure any painting will be what I want it to be. I wonder if paintings are like the stories that authors claim write themselves and they don't even know how they will end. Maybe I should just start painting without any plan and see where I get to.

There was a huge storm, and now that its passed, its a simmering 3 degrees F.(-16C)outside. No more pansies until spring.

December 7, 1941

A picture of the beginning of the attack on Pearl Harbor as seen from a Japanese bomber.

The explosion is going off near the U.S.S. Oklahoma.

Somewhere down there, and I think it's on the Oklahoma, is my neighbor's son.

Its an odd feeling to sit at a computer 68 years later, and find a picture of the precise moment when the life of someone you met and knew suddenly changed forever.

Milkweed Pods, part 3

The latest version of this picture. I haven't compared it to the others as I am writing this, and to my eye, I might have gone too floofie with the milkweed fluff. When I post I'll be able to tell. Maybe I'll back it off a bit./// Now that I saw it, I am thinking just a little adjusting here and there and it'll be done. I like the floofie.

Milkweed, part two

This is the second stage this painting, and its coming along pretty well. Its all earth color, if I remember correctly. There is raw sienna, raw umber, trans. red oxide and white, and thats it. Its only about half done, and the challenge will be to get the fluffy milkweed seed painted fluffily enough.

Milkweed Ectoplasm

A start on a still life. Looks sorta like ectoplasm, not that I have ever seen ectoplasm, but if I did see it, I am sure it would look like this. Hope I can make it look like fluffy milkweed parachutes.

Snow (Fameuse) apple

A quick sketch of a Snow apple done this afternoon. I was working with edges, trying to get the illusion of depth. It's 4 x 5 inches and I like that size. Its easy to finish in a day.

Waterfall... better colors

OK, I have a newly calibrated monitor, new settings on Photoshop, and better results on my end. Still paler than it should be but better. Monitors are variable in their pictures so I am hoping for a happy averaged outcome.

Waterfall

The finished waterfall that I started earlier this week. But the question is : Why are these photos showing up with such bad color? Why? I am a good person and this shouldn't be happening to me. I assign the correct {as far as I know} color profile, I tweak the color so it will be more rich, and it still washes out. GAAaaaaahhhhh.

From the Civil War, too

One of the family that fought for the Union in the Civil War. I don't know who it is, but he is rather elegant. His uniform fits so well, it looks tailored. I *think* the rifle is a Springfield 1861.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day. They could do anything, including the impossible. In the United States, they were often first generation Americans, survivors of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, sons of immigrants and grandsons of pioneers. All were patriots. They confronted Evil, they overcame it. Now that they are almost all gone, we are so much the poorer for it. I miss them.

Swan

A Swan.

Bridge with Falls

A start for a plein aire painting.

Pastel Pear

A pear done with pastels, which are colored chalk. I did it really quickly, but it came out looking OK.

Fence

I heard something the other day on the radio... a man said something about portraying the real world that was created by God within the walls of Eden as opposed to the illusion of the real world created by people outside those walls. A poetic thought, but also one not so far away from some of the theories in quantum physics.

Apple and Squash Part2... almost finished

Almost done, this started as the painting below. After 354 revisions, painting the background

37 times and replacing the apple twice, it might, maybe kinda be almost done. I have to fiddle with a few edges and it'll be done.

No models were harmed in the production of this painting except for the squash that I am going to cook for dinner. And, ummm, the apples.

Happy Hallowe'en

Some Hallowe'en decorations around the neighborhood.
Louis the dog likes all the bones in the graveyard.
This is a classic, *less is more*, approach. I like it.
Happy Hallowe'en everybody.

Autumn

Farm land after the grain has been harvested.
Presbyterian Church in rural Wisconsin. Its got hickory trees, its the real deal.
Just the edge of a field up the coast of Lake Michigan.

Climate Change

If the climate changes, the seasons won't. It's so important to do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint.

Apple and Squash

Nothing ever photographs like it should. Ever.

A New Apple

A new painting that I finished about 15 minutes ago. I think I have advanced as a painter, even while working at the garden center. That job didn't leave much time for other things, but I managed to hang in there and am so glad about it. This was painted from life and I like working like that, it gives you a relationship with whatever you are painting. The colors in the real painting are a little more vibrant than the picture here. Somehow saving it for the web seems to mute the colors down. I'll have to experiment and see what to do about that. Anyway I'm thinking of putting it up for sale.... don't know where exactly.

Another da Vinci

This is Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks. I think there is a figure hidden in here.
Here it is reversed in color to make it easier to see.
Now its upside down.
Now I have masked around what seems to be a very sinister face. If it was anyone else but Leonardo I would say it was a coincidence. But, because its him, I'm not so sure......

Salmon run.

I went to look for a place to paint this morning, and noticed all the cars parked by the falls.

The salmon and brown trout are running! According to one fisherman they are averaging 20 to 30 lbs. a piece, that's a big fish. Didn't see any get caught, although I saw some swimming around. The fish swim upstream from Lake Michigan, which is about a mile from this location.

They are certainly tasty.

Leonardo and the Hidden Pictures

I've always been interested in visual puzzles and I've always been interested in Leonardo da Vinci. When I read Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" I began to wonder if maybe there really were things in da Vinci's work itself that were hidden in plain sight. I began to look at his work with the help of Photoshop. I found other images hidden in the pictures, a sort of "find the thirteen hidden squirrels" type of picture puzzle. I believe them to be deliberate images, placed by a dazzling genius and left waiting to be found. I'll leave it to you to make up your own mind whether they are deliberate or just mere chance.

Happy Summer

Happy Summer everybody.

Vortex of Evil

If it's worth money, he will chew on it.

Great White Egret

One more bird picture, and its definitely an Egret. They are so pretty and don't seem to mind posing for photos, either.

Onion

My new painting of an onion. I really think that all that work drawing and painting plaster casts in black and white has paid off. This is a rotten photo, my scanner isn't working so its the best I could do, but I am pretty happy with the way this turned out.

Goose and Caspian Tern

More Horicon Marsh pictures, this time of a Canada Goose sitting around and a Caspian Tern diving for dinner. These were taken just on the side of the road that runs through the marsh. There were also Great Blue Herons, and a Green Heron that flew up too fast for me to get a photo. I'd love to do a regular boat tour of the marsh, I've been through it all my life and never been on a boat tour.