An old and a new one

Echoes, 11x14" oil on canvas.

The title is tentative and based on the repetition of elements, which at first I found unfortunate, but the longer I look at it the more sort of hypnotized I become, and that reflects pretty much the mood of the observer when this actually occurred, in my back yard during the same moon as "Last night She winked..."

That was two months ago, I think, and the fact I can only seem to paint on Sundays lately is why it took that long between vision and execution.

Hey, at least I can paint now. With one exception (also of the moon, Luna with a Beauty Mark), this is the first successful painting I've made in over a year. I tried, but the hep-c drugs I was on last year disabled my nervous system so badly, I actually couldn't do it. Tried and failed, finding that I couldn't concentrate long enough to mix paint. That's, for the most part, why I got so much into sketching with pencils and pens again, and going out to do it, which is always a good thing for a painter. So I guess something positive actually did come out of all that...well...harrowing, gruelling, chemical torture. Aside from being cured of hepatitis, that is. Yeah, there is that. Heh!Heh!

I took the picture myself with a film camera that doesn't work right, under incandescent lights and one small flourescent, and I'm no expert with my editing software, so the color's not 100% true here, but I think it still gives a pretty good idea.

Well, that's the new one.

Below is the old one. I don't have a title for it, but it's 14x10" oil on commercial canvas panel, from 1979. The image is from a book of photographs published by Walter Foster, who used to put out a lot of those oversized paperback books for aspiring artists, this one encouraging us to work from photos from around the world. So I did.

All I know about this one is, it shows the Swiss Alps. And that looks kinda like some kind of farm situation in the foothills. This is a pretty faithful depiction of the photo, so maybe some of you could tell me more about this scene than I know.

I actually remember working on this one; the grass in the farm yards gave me fits, as well as the evergreens on the first hill back from that. Both because I was so inexperienced at the time, I didn't know when to wait sometimes, and kept trying to paint in layers without letting the first layer dry enough. Gets kinda gooey that way. The tallest mountain peaks on the other hand, my accidental 'wet-in-wet' seemed to work easily there.

I gave it away back then, so I guess I was pleased enough with the results. Years later, life transpiring as it does, it recently made its way back to me.

Always interesting to see your own work from previous periods of development.

Handy Rear-view, again

The Quest

"The quest of real followers of the path is just to oppose birth and death; they do not look for it in the sayings found in various sources in ancient and modern books. They just step back into themselves and bring it to mind, coolly yet keenly, at the very root and stem.
Suddenly their hands slip, they lose their footing, and they're lost: this is graduation from the study of a lifetime. Perceiving independently, like a solitary lamp, for the first time they are manifestly empowered.
They are like mountains; how could the fears of life and death shake them any more?"

~Ying-an

That being said, my post "Blockhead" is included in the July edition of Carnival of Quotes, which of course has been out for about a month, but slow-ass me, I just found out about it. As usual, this interesting variety pack of posts is hosted by Thoughts On Quotes. Inspired by quotes being the only criterion (and hopefully quality of course), there's no telling what you might find...

It may be different beyond this...

White Rock Pump Station, by me, completed in 2006.

16x20" oil on canvas.

Yes, I've shown this one before, but that was in the bad ol' dinosaur monitor days, and the effect was kinda washed out, and not many of you were around at the time. I wanted you to see it.

And, ok, before anyone can accuse me of veiled commercialism, I'd still kinda like to sell the damn thing. So, instead of the $1,ooo I'm asking for it over at the HelloDallas website, I'm willing to negotiate with whatever a potential buyer may be willing to offer.

In other words, let's haggle!

There is more White Rock Lake material coming,

not likely to be quite the same.

Barring my demise, that's a promise.

That being said, below is a WIP (work in progress, for those who don't know),

followed by a few detail shots.

I know, all you gotta do on a computer is 'enlarge' the original, and you can see all the details you want, and not picked by me. Feel free!
But, they always (or, frequently, at least) do this kind of thing in hard-copy magazines,
which has, obviously, affected my mind in some kind of way I don't care to go into right now, sssooooo! I like these particular 'crops', anyway.

"Lo Maximo!"

Coffee Messiah bestowed this lovely prize upon me a few weeks back, and I was waiting until my energy level and time constraints permitted the best post in response I could come up with. Well, circumstances allow me to wait no longer, 'cause lo and behold, before I can acknowledge it, along comes Fancy Sweden and presents me with the same award!

The j-o-b is draining me, now a "summer cold" on top of that; ah, the 'perfect moment' continues to elude me. So here it is: The Arte Y Pico, which means, according to the website of the same name, the origin of this award:

"What is the meaning of the expression: And basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, “lo maximo.” LOL! It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, Wow. The Best Art. Over the top."

Coffee says, "Shares his sketches and interesting insight into other art work and life as well."

Fancy says, "I give you this confirmation - because you always do something unexpected. I have in you find a person who give with the heart. Your site is for me something where I can find really experimentally lust for creation with words and drawing."

I'm astonished folks. Honored, to say the least. All I can say is, from the bottom of my heart,

Thank You!

Thank You!

Thank You!

And I hope I can live up to deserving this. I do promise to have fun trying. ;-)

Sitemeter Done It!

Many thanks to those of you who responded to my post of puzzlement yesterday. Turns out it wasn't Blogger at all, but rather, as reported HERE, and elsewhere, Sitemeter's the one with some kind of problem. I guess they're working on it, 'cause yesterday I couldn't view my blog at all, from anywhere, nor several others as well. Today the blogs are back, but Sitemeter connections--from search results as well, not just mine--still ain't working.

Anyway, for those who noticed, the big terror (losing blog-connection, nooo!!!) seems to be over. Now, it's just up to Sitemeter to finish getting their act back together (Hey, anybody can have an off day now and then, right?)

The picture (courtesy of NASA) has nothing to do with any of this, unless it expresses my relief at regaining this amazing portal to the entire world.

Thank you, my friends.

More later.

BOO YAA!!!

I seem to be banned from viewing my own blog, and many of you as well. Please, email me if you know what's going on.