I'm moving - See you there

Moved to My Sketchbooks - effective 3/27/2009 - 

I'm reducing the number of blogs in order to better serve you.

Words of Wisdom

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy
out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another
person must work for without receiving.
The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to
work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when
the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because
somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend,
is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by
dividing it." ---- The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who
are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Thomas Jefferson

Sketches

 

Once in a while - a little humor.

What is an Artist?

An artist is 3 things: a collector of shapes and symbols, an illusionist, and an entertainer.

 It is impossible for an artist to paint a living tree (or a dead one); he can only represent the tree in a realistic or symbolic manner. He does this with shapes or symbols that say to the viewer: "it's a tree."   If the viewer agrees, then the artist has carried his message.  The artist goes and collects these symbols and places them into pleasing arrangements and with pleasing colors.  It is possible for the artist to do this in the positive or the negative, e.g., instead of painting the tree, he paints everything that is around the tree, and the tree shows, because the negative shapes share the same edge as the positive shapes (the tree.)

The artist is an illusionist, because he creates the illusions of atmospheric depth through the use of muted colors in the furthest parts of his painting, and through  the use of brighter and warmer colors for the parts of the painting up close.  In addition, he uses the techniques of linear perspective, overlapping shapes, and smaller shapes in the distance to produce the illusion of distance.

The artist is an entertainer.  By directing your eye to an area, through good composition and leading shapes, it is his responsibility to entertain you in that area.  This is especially true for the landscape painter, who once having you look at his focal area must now keep you there by providing entertaining shapes, details, calligraphy, or contrasting changes in color.

Below is a painting in which you can see some of these principles applied.

Finished portrait

I had been working on this for some time and have now finished it.  It will be for sale on my commercial site.  In keeping with my agreement with her parents, I can only publish the painting and no information about this lovely young lass.  I also did one of her brother which will be posted soon.

 

A Different Christmas Poem

 PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
 people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
 U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
 festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
 stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

   LCDR Jeff Giles, SC,  USN
 30th Naval Construction Regiment
 OIC, Logistics Cell One
 Al Taqqadum,  Iraq

"A Different Christmas Poem" 

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
 I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
  My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
 My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
 Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
 Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

 The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
 Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
  My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
 Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
 In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
 So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

 The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
 But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
  Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
 sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
 My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
 And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

 Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
 A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
  A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
 Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
 Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
 Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

 'What are you doing?' I asked without fear,
 'Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
  Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
 You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!'
 For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
 Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

 To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
 Then he sighed and he said 'Its really all right,
  I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night.'
 'It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
 That separates you from the darkest of times.

 No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
 I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
  My Gramps died at '  Pearl on a day in December,'
 Then he sighed, 'That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.'
 My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
  And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

 I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
 But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
  Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
 The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
 I can live through the cold and the being alone,
 Away from my family, my house and my home.

 I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
 I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
  I can carry the weight of killing another,
 Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
 Who stand at the front against any and all,
 To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.'

 '  So go back inside,' he said, 'harbor no fright,
 Your family is waiting and I'll be all right.'
 'But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
 'Give you money,' I asked, 'or prepare you a feast?
 It seems all too little for all that you've done,
  For being away from your wife and your son.'

 Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
 'Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
  To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
 To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
 For when we come home, either standing or dead,
 To know you remember we fought and we bled.
 Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
  That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.'

FRED D. SELF, MSgt, USAF
First Sergeant
332 EAMXS/Weasels and 64 EHMU/CSAR
Joint Base Balad, Iraq
Work: 94-318-443-7977
Home:  94-318-443-8816   POD:  F-50
Pager:  94-318-443-9001  x225

Latest work

This is from a background of texture onto which I laid in abstract shapes and came up with the forest-like abstract. I then painted in the negative shapes which created the positive shapes (the background color stands out - negative shapes are often the darks in a painting.  It's water media (combination of watercolor and acrylics.)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Thanksgiving

 

 

I AM THANKFUL FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT, BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBAND WHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO, BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME, NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED. 

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT. 

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE 

 FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THA T NEED FIXINGBECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT 
BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. ...

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY 
BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR. 

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR. 

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD. 

FOR THE A LARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

AND I AM THANKFUL FOR THE crazy people I work with 
BECAUSE they make work interesting and fun! 
     
AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL BECAUSE  IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME. 

SEND THIS TO SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT. I JUST DID.

Live well, Laugh often, and Love with all of your heart!

Red Riding Girl.

This is one of my 5"x7" paintings (8"x10") matted for sale on my site.  This work is watercolor, but on a plastic paper; it is then sprayed with clear plastic.  It is currently displayed for sale in my sales studio.  Click on the text.

Using New Acrylics

This picture used acrylics paint which are similar to both watercolor and oil paints.  They are creamy and will remain wet for at least two days.  This feature allowed me to use some of my watercolor techniques that produce the great clouds.  So I will be using these (only 4 colors - blue, yellow, red, and white.)

I can use these on ordinary canvas, paper, hardboard, or other surfaces.  It helps for the surface to be non absorbent.  Hence of absorbent surfaces, I will use some liquid that will prevent the acrylics from soaking thru the material.
 

Bavarian Landscape - four feet by eight feet

This painting was done for an October Fest Party at our clubhouse in Connestee Falls.  The party was great and we were treated to several classical songs on the "Alpin Horn" by a member of the Greenville (SC) Symphony Orchestre (who plays the French Horn.)

 

The painting is now displayed in our clubhouse.

Old House

My Front Porch

Month of Military Child

This is my son and grandson - currently in S. Korea and soon to be in Tuscon, AZ. Notice that all the children are dressed in the uniforms of their parents.

Sketchbook

Today, being Monday, the Connestee Art League met for creativity, coffee, and conversation.
This is the 2nd one of this topic that I've done. The sketch was freehand using only the watercolors and paint brush.

Elephant paints self-portrait

You will love this art.

Author unknown

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.



If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?



Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!



Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.



And why is it that writer's write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham.



If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?



If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.



In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?



You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.



So if Father is Pop, how come Mother isn't Mop?



And that is just the beginning--even though this is the end.

Today's Sketch book

One has to have a sketchbook -it's the artist's practice sheets. Just as a writer has a journal, or other notebook, this is where you put down your ideas, explore things about which you are reading or remember, or even fantasize. Below are three such examples.

Little Girl Growing Up

This is a great photo from which I did this sketch. It's done with watercolor pencils. - Sometimes, "Less is More."

From My Sketchbook

My Sketchbook is now being used as a planning device for my future work. In this book, I put down my thoughts, much in the same way that an author works with an outline.
In any endeavor, we must plan, compose, design with colors, with darks and lights, cool and warm. It matters not what our product is - a song, sonnet, saga, salacious soothing submersion, seacape or silence - we all follow this path towards our creations.

My Wild Irish Rose

I did this from an old background that I had in my "to be looked at before painting" pile. So the background was there - I just added the rose - in honor of St. Patrick's day, the rose is Pthalogreen (mostly a blue-green.)

My Latest Work

This work is on sale at my commercial site. This was from a picture I took while in DuPont State Forest, Little River, North Carolina. Just to the right of the covered bridge is the beginning of "High Falls" one of the largest drops of any falls in the U.S.

Some sketches

These sketches will have to hold you all till my wife and I return from Hawaii - We leave Thursday Nov 29th and will return December 16th - stopping in LA for a visit with friends. Looking forward to seeing our grandson, David. In previous posts you will see paintings of our grandsons, David and George. Happy Holidays to all.

---

Grandson, George and his dog Harley - Watercolors

Grandson David - Finished Portrait

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