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.

Marsh monsters

This is a cormorant on the Horicon Marsh giving a good imitation of the Loch Ness Monster. There were lots of them roosting in trees too, looking very eerie as well, like an ominous cross between a crow and a duck.