6-day-old robins

pieces

lunchtime walk

Took a walk at lunch today;

Outpaced the negativi-tay.

It rained a bit, and it was gray,

But I ejoyed flowers. Yay.

Sessions: Pandemic and Monopoly

Pandemic:  I lost.  The black disease swept the Middle East on the same turn I found a cure for it, so I lost the game.

 Monopoly: We played "fast rules" which sped things up pretty well.  I came in second out of six.

Cemetery at Turkey Run

Oil landscape details

Metal detecting finds 4-1-17...

...a bunch of junk.  The best bits, in my opinion, are the three partial metal car toys, including the half of a light blue die cast car.

This was from an 80-year-old back yard.  I also found three pennies, all of them 1970s or later.

This was my first metal detecting excursion in a long time.  I guess it's been close to a year? I'm not sure.

Magic Labyrinth & Asparagus

Two days ago I picked the year's first three asparagus stalks.  They were sweet and tender; we ate them with sloppy joes and tater tots. mmm.

And tonight we played Magic Labyrinth.

Early spring landscape along Floyds Fork

"Early Spring, Floyds Fork at Seatonville Road," 16 x 20 inches.  I finished this today at home after starting it last Friday on site.

I used a limited palette: burnt sienna, ivory black, burnt umber, Naples yellow, red iron oxide, ultramarine blue, titanium white.

I am very happy with the finished product, though this photo didn't pick up some of the subtlety in the tones.

earthtone palette

Did some plein air painting last Friday. I used a limited earthtone palette like last time, with a slight change, substituting ultramarine blue for cerulean blue, and adding red iron oxide. The other colors are ivory black, titanium white, Naples yellow, burnt sienna, and burnt umber.

I didn't finish the painting on site, so worked more at home. I still want to work more. It's not resolved yet. Pictures forthcoming.

Red iron oxide is a monster, by the way. It walks up and punches other paint in the face kyst for laughs.

m s softball

It was a cold, windy night, but a fun game to watch.

Dinner

The dinner I fixed tonight was more elaborate than any I had fixed in a while.  Orange garlic chicken in the crock pot; bangers and mash with onion gravy; and irish soda bread.  I managed to have it all ready at pretty much the same time, too.

It all came out pretty good.  The bangers and mash were a little bland, but salt helped.  A Guinness would have gone great with it all, but I didn't want to spend money on beer.

knife painting - Germantown shotgun houses

Sylvia Street, Germantown

This is an oil painting I started about five years ago, and only had it at the underpainting stage before I put it on a shelf in the garage and forgot about it.  I didn't much like how it was coming along.  Finally, a few weeks ago, I pulled it out and used a painting knife to complete it.  It's one of my only knife paintings, and I like the result.  It was, for me, pretty experimental, since I don't have much experience with painting knives.  It was certainly different than the detailed pen and ink work I usually work on, and I want to do more soon.

Floyds Fork Winter Landscape (oil on panel)

This is a plein air (mostly...) that I just finished. The weather was cold on Friday morning, but forecast to warm quickly, so I got gear together and went out to the Parklands at about noon.  It was a great day to be out, though windy.

I used a limited palette: Ivory black, titanium white, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, burnt umber, and cerulean blue.

I finished most of this on-site, but did a little fine-tuning and touching up when I got home.

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clothes

"I can wear these nice clothes while I paint as long as I am careful." -- me, erroneously, on about a million different occasions.

walnut ink drawing: work-in-progress

negative trees

sketchbook - in a big bath robe

jump ball

House portrait, slowly progressing. ..

...and nearing the end, at last. I think I can finish it this weekend.

Pen and ink, late at night

I am trying to finish the first house portrait of the year. It's a combination of sumi ink and disposable technical pens.

Falls of the Ohio Pen and Ink Detail

 This is another closeup of a pen and ink drawing. This section is about 4 x 4 inches. I really like the closeups because I like seeing the pen strokes and the patterns in the lines. That border between the representation of the scene, and the abstraction of the marks on paper, is what I find most exciting about any art medium.

Landscape in oil, 16 x 20 inches

This was a commissioned work on panel.  I added a little more glazing after this photo was taken; I'll take more photos later, even though the difference is so small most people wouldn't notice.

Commissioned oil landscape work-in-progress

Getting near the end...just need to let it dry a few days so I can work over some corrections, refinements, etc.