Christmas Recovery

The Bridge Over the Gunpowder

Snow today. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get home from work. It was dark when I got home, so I can't tell if the snow looks nice. Maybe on a hot day I'll post a painting of a snow scene. But right now I would rather have warm weather.

This painting is another of the series I did on the odd paper I mentioned previously. The bridge can be found where Harford road crosses the Gunpowder river in Baltimore county.

It was warm when I was there.

Same Paper, New Painting, Autumn Colors

Another painting from northern Pennsylvania. Using another sheet of the same paper mentioned previously. Standing on the hill behind Scott and Cheryl's house, you can see for miles. Looking down on the neighbor's farm. A buzzard's-eye view.

Another Painting, On Odd, Old Paper

Back in December I mentioned finding an old pad of paper. I was able to successfully fill each page with a painting. But I forgot to tell you about it! My apologies.

This one is a scene from northern Pennsylvania, a common source for some of my favorite things to paint. I like how the paint ran down the page and mingled with other colors.

I'll be sure to add the others shortly.

Pencils First

Long before I started painting, I drew and drew and drew a lot. And after I started painting, I got into the habit of drawing first, to work out quickly what I wanted to paint. I have long admired the drawings of Ted Kautzky and Paul Calle. They both had a great technique of cross-hatching pencil strokes. More like ink drawings than softly blended pencil. It has been a long time since I did final work with just graphite. So I assigned myself a project to do a series. I think they turned out well. So I made a web page so you can see them! (This also gave me a chance to keep my front-end web skills sharp.)

I hope you like them!

Still here! Painting Fences.

Time slips away. I have been working, really. I've been doing a lot of studying, coding, and writing this year. And so I have neglected showing new pictures.

In my flat files I found a really old pad of watercolor paper. I inherited it from an old friend. It has an odd, artificial, cold-press pattern. The actual surface is very hard, almost like bristol. The pad had eight sheets in it. Instead of letting it collect even more dust, I decided to make a painting on each sheet. Despite the odd texture, it worked pretty well!

Interesting Jobs That I Don't Think Are Real

As far as I know, no one gets paid to mine apples for gold, silver, or any other precious metals or stones. Maybe he is looking for worms. Or seeds... Yes, seeds, that makes sense.

Making a lot of pictures, then showing them to you!

I mentioned recently my personal project of using up extra paint and paper. The first few were made with pink and black paint. I ran out of pink, but wanted to keep sketching and painting. And I wanted to finish my pad of paper, so I made a lot more.

Here is a page I put together to show the results of my labor. It was fun to do them. I hope you like looking at them!

Scraps of Paper, Extra Paint

Last year I did a painting for my granddaughter's room. I ended up with a lot of unused pink paint. So I found an old, unused sketch book and did some quick, silly pictures. (I still had my granddaughter in mind.)

Soon I was out of paint, but I still had many pages left in the sketchbook. I gave myself a new assignment. Fill all the pages of the sketchbook with quick illustrations of whatever was in my head.

Using old acrylic paint collected through the years, I set out a limited number of odd colors and worked until the color on the palette was gone. It took a few sessions, but soon the pages were filled.

Here are a couple more from the first batch, using pink and black paint. You can see a lot of them on this page.

Almost Christmas

Supply truck

It's good to take pride in your work.

And speaking of fishing...

Large Catfish

Many years ago I used to meet my friend Micah early in the morning so we could go fishing. We would drive up to the Susquehanna river, just above where the Chesapeake Bay begins. Wading out into the river we would bait our hooks with small perch and heave them downstream. If we were lucky, and our bait was lively we would haul in an occasional striped bass. If the bait got old and tired, large catfish would become interested.

One such morning I sent my tired bait downstream for one more try. After a bit of a wait I felt a good tug. I yanked back on my line and knew right away I had something huge. I wasn't at all sure what I had, but suspected it was a big, old catfish. I could tell by the slow steady fight. After a good bit of careful pulling and reeling I finally got him close. It was the biggest, ugliest catfish I had ever seen. His head was battle scarred and he looked mean.

I didn't have a wagon to haul him away.

Cows designing at night

Seems like some of the best design, music, painting, illustration...art in general is produced late in the evening.

Even the cows aren't afraid to jump over the moon at night.

Design is about cleaning up after yourself

Design, painting, illustration, and writing  is all about making a mess of a first draft, then cleaning it up later.

Apples

Spring is here. So last weekend I did some googling to see how I should trim my apple trees. After some clipping and chopping I think my orchard is ready for the summer. (All three small trees).

While I was at it, I took care of my vineyard (two vines).

Last year one of my grapevines did really well. (It produced about four bunches of grapes.) One Saturday afternoon I picked a sample to see if they were ready. Ellen and I both agreed that they needed a few more days. A couple more days passed and I checked again. Every single grape was gone. Critters...

I don't mind sharing, but hopefully this fall I'll be like this guy with some apples to inspect.

Baseball Season

I hear that some folks are playing preseason baseball in Florida.

When I was a young lad, I played baseball for two seasons on a pony league team. I think it was the summer after my seventh and eighth grade years.

I played in the right field (when I played), long before I knew why some kids were always put in the right field. I remember standing in the field, trying to say the chants that all real baseball players new how to say. Something like, "Come-batta-batta-batta." Seemed pretty silly to me.

When I wasn't sitting on the bench, or in the right field (trying to pay attention), I occasionally got a chance to bat. My batting average was consistent, and easy to remember...zero, 0, also know as .000.

Fortunately I learned to do other things with my life. But I do wish I could be in Florida for spring training. (I would skip the baseball.)

Walking a dog.

Walking a dog. I hear it’s good to do. If you have a dog.

We don’t have a dog. But we have been dog-sitters before. And at those times, I walked a dog.

Actually, my family had a dog when I was a kid. And sometimes we would take her for a walk. She was a beagle. She constantly wanted to tear off after every little distraction she saw. Not at all like the dog pictured here. The pup pictured here looks thrilled to be out and about, though it does not appear that the guy in the coat feels the same way.

Sipping coffee*

Drinking a cup of coffee. The screw-top lid not quite secure. A bit dribbles quickly down my chin and into my open collar. My cologne for the day.

 *Author's note. The cups in this picture do not have lids. I learned to make short hair dots on the sides of their heads from Joe Glorioso. Thanks Joe.

Gh Trucking

I suppose I could try a different career. Driving a moving truck for example. But that would mean lifting boxes and furniture. And probably a bit of packing up of other people's stuff.

I don't like to lift heaving things. Except maybe when I lift myself up from my chair to go home from work. But I was impressed when I saw some guys installing a new washing machine. They had these strap contraptions that went over their shoulders and down under the machine. They then just had to stand up from a slight crouching position and walk it into place. Cool invention.

Another thing I like is those disk things you can get at a hardware store. You put them under the legs of heavy furniture. Then, all you have to do is slide the piece to the new place you want it.

I think I will stick to drawing heavy things.