My art studio

At least for now...
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first cave tour

 Here we go on our first cave tour at Mammoth Cave.  It was a beautiful morning as we waited outside the historical entrance by the visitors center. Then when we came out it was pouring rain, and it just kept on raining.

 

leaf

I love this photo.  She found this at our camp site.  It was the only leaf in the entire place that looked like that, and it matched her shirt perfectly.
 

 

Setting up camp

Here are some photos from our camping trip the weekend before last.  These first three are from the first hour or two we were there.
 

 

Walnut ink lunch break sketch 6-23-2011

Black walnut ink on paper, about 11 x 15 inches.

 

I did this one today, again over at  E. P. Sawyer State Park.  Most of this was done with my homemade bamboo pens, but I also used a large brush to roughly darken a few areas, and I did a little bit of shading/drawing with a fine metal nib, too.

 

I sat in a small gazebo, and it was very nice out.  Nearby, five women gathered under a big tree and discussed plans for an upcoming wedding in that spot.
 

 

Mammoth Cave National Park camping

 

We camped at Mammoth Cave over the weekend, from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Kim's dad put up a tent next to ours, and my parents got a cottage nearby and planned to hang out with us for a couple of days, too.

 

The campground near the visitors' center, Mammoth Cave Campground, is large and nice.  There are 105 sites on loops of road, and the campground can be pretty busy, but it was woodsy and pleasant.  I think the campground can get filled up most weekends in the summer, but it wasn't full while we were there, probably because of the weather.  The restroom facilities were well-kept and appeared to have been remodeled within the past few months, and the whole place was surprisingly litter-free.  I liked it.

 

About that weather…it was nice when we got there, partly cloudy and it felt good out.  After Kim and the girls put up the tent (while I took pictures of them and spectated), we went on a 1 ½ cave tour. When we came back out--surprise!--it was pouring rain. It kept raining, and didn't stop until the next afternoon.  By then, the inside of Kim's dad's tent was wet (he had slept more or less in a puddle on Friday night).  Since the rain didn't appear to be nearing an end, he decided to cut his losses and head home.  My parents did the same.  Why stay when all the activities (apart from cave tours) are outside, and it's raining?

 

Well, my daughters voted to stay, saying that they would still have fun in the tent even if there was nothing else to do.  Fortunately, the weather cleared for Saturday afternoon and evening, so we got to fix campfire pizzas and corn-on-the-cob.  We took a drive and crossed the Green River on the ferry, and went on a short hike with a park ranger, who talked about the cave systems, springs, the river, etc.

 

Before Kim's dad left, we went on a fun (and only slightly rainy) hike around Sloan's Crossing Pond, which was full of pond lilies and singing frogs.  We all went on two cave tours, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

 

I dozed off late Saturday night, sitting by the fire.  It was gorgeous out.  I finally went to bed in the tent, but was awakened a few hours later by more rain and thunderstorms.  It rained all night.  Then, around 8:00 a.m., a real bad storm hit.  We quickly got the girls into the minivan because large limbs were falling around the campground, and Kim and I packed everything up in a downpour.  Then we drove home; it rained the whole way.

 

These photos are from my phone.  I didn't take any photos with our camera, but I think Kim took a few.  I'll try to put some more up later.

 

Despite the weather, I had fun.  A lot of the fun is retrospective; it was sort of annoying or uncomfortable while it was happening, but not toooo bad, and it makes for good stories afterwards.  We only found one tick and, amazingly, I never saw a single mosquito.  I want to go again.

 

Lunch break drawing 6-16-11

Here's a black walnut ink drawing I made at lunch today.  This was over at E. P. Sawyer State Park. I like drawing trees, but I wish I could find something else that interests me.  I wish there were some more older houses close by.

 

This was on 14 x 17 inch paper, with one of my homemade bamboo pens and a brush (the brush was much easier to use than my finger.)
 

 

Noodling

There are noodlers around here, but I don't know any personally. I see or hear it discussed from time to time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling

However, noodling is one of those things I just can't quite get my head around. I almost get it. I almost think it would be fun. I almost think it would be safe. I almost think it would work. However, the act of sticking my hand into underwater holes/overhangs/hiding spots, waiting for something big to bite me, and then pulling it out...that just strikes me as a little too crazy to be enjoyable. If I were starving and I really wanted to catch a fish, I'd try it. But until then, maybe I'll just watch.

Lunch break 6-15-11, Haunz Lane Park

I did this one in about half an hour, and it sort of looks like it.  It's 14 x 17 inches, and I used my homemade bamboo pens and my fingers to smear the ink over large areas (finger painting!).  It's the creek that runs through the park.  Not very successful; I think it looks sort of like the woods are on fire, but it was fun messing around. 

 

Black walnut ink lunch break sketch

Nice weather today.  I went over to E. P. Sawyer State Park and sketched a tree on my lunch break.  I used my homemade black walnut ink and my recently fashioned homemade bamboo dip pens.
 

 

Portrait work-in-progress

I still have quite a way to go before I'm finished with this, and I just got some good suggestions, too.  Here are the first two stages of the double portrait (8 x 10 inches, oil on panel.)

 

 

Ceiling Emergency

Last night I decided to stow our large cooler in the attic space above the garage. I pulled open the overhead trapdoor, but the edge of the door, which is rickety and shuts crooked, got caught on the edge of the drywall ceiling panel next to it.

The ceiling panels in our garage look like they were put up by morons.  They are chipped and sagging in spots, and I always figured I'd have to do some fix-it work with them some day.  I always put it off, because it was never pressing—until that trap door got caught on that edge.

The corner of the panel finally ripped clear (some of the nails had already been torn loose years ago, probably in the same way).  Half of the panel started to crack down the middle, so a 4 x 4 foot section of it was sagging, and attic insulation was falling into the garage.

I quickly (as quickly as I could, in our crowded garage) grabbed a hammer and nails and climbed up to nail it back in place.  However, it was very heavy, and I discovered that hammering on it was making it shake loose and tear even more quickly.

I could hear other parts of the panel creaking, and I knew that if it all gave way, it would be a heck of a mess to clean up.

I also forgot to mention that it was about 100 degrees in the garage, and even hotter in the attic, and the hot air in the attic was blowing down in my face.

Knowing I had very little time, I dashed into the house and grabbed the bare remains of a roll of duct tape.  I climbed back up the ladder and, hoping I had enough tape to work with, I wrapped a loop of tape around the corner of the drywall and then wrapped the other end around one of the cross-beams in the ceiling.  It worked!  I had temporarily slowed the collapse.

This gave me time to get out the drill and extension cord and screws.  As I assembled the materials I could see the strip of duct tape being stretched out like gray taffy by the heavy, splitting panel. 

I used pine lattice strip scraps as braces (see, this is why I don't like getting rid of wood scraps!) and screwed the ceiling panel back into place.  It's now probably more secure than it was when we first moved into the house.

I was summoned back into the house, coated in sweat and a layer of gritty dust and insulation, to fix dinner for the girls.  I felt heroic, but I think we all know who the real hero is.  Duct tape.

Explosion on the Sun

This is an attempt to embed a video URL via email. I don't know if it will work, but I hope it does, because the video is really cool.

 

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LpkXhlPIINQ?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LpkXhlPIINQ?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>
 

 

Lunch break sketch from a month ago

This is one from early May, in charcoal.
 

 

Lunch break sketch

This is a charcoal sketch from early April.  I did this in the woods behind my office building.
 

 

Freshwater Drum/Fishing Report

Here's the fish I caught Friday evening down below the Falls. This is a freshwater drum, about which I've been reading a little bit (I had to do a little reading after I caught one.) They aren't a popular fish, perhaps due to their homely resemblance to carp, but there are those who esteem them for the good fight they put up (this one had a good pull) and for a good flavor (some people don't think they're that great, but those who seem to be "in the know" say that they key is to get them on ice quickly; they're delicious, though if you don't ice them down the flavor and texture suffer.)

They get their name from the drumming sound the males make. They are also known for their otoliths, which are rounded stone-like mineral formations in their ear regions that were used as jewelry and trade items by Native Americans.

This is the second drum I've caught; they first time was about ten years ago, in Otter Creek.

I was down at Shippingport Island for two or three hours. I started by the dam, where I saw small fish jumping but didn't catch anything on an artificial minnow or on a worm beneath a bobber. The current there was very strong.

Much of the shoreline was inaccessible because the mud was too soft. I found another rocky area farther from the dam that was easy to walk on, but where the current was still fast. That's where I caught the drum. There were a few other people fishing on shore, and a number of fishing boats out—looking for sauger or striped bass, I assume. Way across the river, at a boat ramp on the New Albany side, I could see other anglers.

It was a very pretty evening, and very peaceful, and I'd like to go back there to paint.

Fishing this evening at Shippingport Island

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Bamboo pens

I cut down two pieces of bamboo into homemade bamboo pens. They work pretty well; this is them with some marks made using my homemade black walnut ink.

Sorry it's not a great photo. This was taken with the Blackberry.

Art & Garden

Art:

I am making progress on my double-portrait commission. I'll try to post a photo of it soon.

I have to run some errands on my lunch break today, and I plan to stop by the railroad tracks on my way to cut some bamboo. Besides making good garden supports, I want to experiment further with making my own bamboo dip pens for drawing.

Someone inquired with me today about doing a very large aviation-themed mural. I'm interested, certainly, but I'll have to work on ideas; getting a solid concept is always the hardest part (though a close second, for me, has always been the middle part of the painting process, the part that comes between drawing/blocking in and the finishing-up towards the end.) I'll have to work on ideas.

Garden:

The garden is off to a spotty start for the summer. The fennel came back strong, and fennel volunteers have been a problem all over the place. It reseeds itself vigorously.

The mesclun greens are doing pretty well, especially one particular plant – I think it's the endive, but I'm not sure. Last night I picked a selection of these greens, a few fennel fronds, a few cilantro flowers, and a bee balm leaf, put them all in a bowl with homemade vinaigrette, and ate it for dinner. The sliced up bee balm almost overpowered the whole thing, and my dressing was far too strong also (it's only my third attempt in 20 years, do I don't feel too bad about it, and I didn't have anything but olive oil and balsamic vinegar, plus a little lemon juice concentrate). Otherwise, it was pretty good, and I'll eat more.

The spinach never came up, probably a victim of too much rain.

The broccoli is growing, but it won't do well in this heat; it'll bolt before there's anything worth picking, though it's still very small.

My tomatoes are still very small and probably won't have any fruit until far into July, although it might surprise me; this heat might really do it some good.

The garlic looks all right on top, but I don't know what it'll look like underneath.

The coreopsis is blooming, the glads are all green and happy looking, the mums have tiny buds, the three sunflowers I planted are up and running, the little blue flowers that Helga gave us look quite nice, and the Asiatic lilies have been blooming vividly for a couple of weeks. So with the flowers, I have no complaints.

Fishing Report

Saturday I picked up a friend and we headed out to Guist Creek Lake. I wanted to find some bank fishing spots. It turns out there is really just one public access location to the bank at Guist Creek. I had suspected that we'd find more if we hunted and were willing to hike – and I still believe that, if one is willing to hoof it through underbrush, there's a pretty big area of access. It's just hard to get to.

Anyway, we fished there for 2-3 hours. He caught a small bass, and I caught a small longear sunfish (photo 1) and three small striped bass. I'd have taken photos of the bass, but they were too small to show up on camera.

I also found a Shelby County High School class ring. It had a name on it, so it should be easy to return.

In the grass I found a wire creel basket, in very good shape – looked almost new.

I also found two channel catfish on a stringer. I looked around and didn't see anyone nearby to whom they might have belonged. I pulled the catfish out of the water a checked them out. One of them was under the 12 inch limit for channel catfish at that lake (both of them might have been, but I didn't measure. The second one looked to be about a foot long). So, after waiting around to make sure there wasn't someone close by about to claim them, I released them back into the wild.

After driving around a while looking for other access spots, we decided to go to Taylorsville Lake. We parked near the dam there, and hiked down to the water a decent way from the dam. The water there was still very high, up in the timber, so it was very difficult to fish (photos 2 and 3). There was no way to cast out more than ten feet in any direction. We fished a little and ate lunch. My friend very bravely tried a rooster tail spinner, and actually managed not to lose it.

Then we decided to try hiking around the shore of the lake to find someplace easier to fish. The walk was on a steep muddy slope with lots of undergrowth (photo 4); it was very slow going, and my friend ended up hurting his knee in a fall, so we decided to go to the Salt River tailwaters nearby instead.

The tailwater area was much more accessible and we spent the rest of the day there. While tying a hook on my line as I knelt in the grass, my friend walked over and pointed out a snake there was just a few feet away. (photo 5). It was holding very still, and was so close that we might have easily stepped on him. I got his photo and then shoed him away. I don't know what he was; maybe a black racer?

I caught a largemouth bass at the tailwaters (photos 6 and 7). He was much bigger in person, I swear!

Angling

I'm excited about fishing this weekend.  I'll be picking up Chet, with whom I used to go fishing pretty frequently, early Saturday morning.  We're planning on going out to Guist Creek Lake to explore bank fishing spots.

 

I've heard that there's not a lot of bank access at Guist Creek, but the state owns 50 foot easement around the lake and recently acquired three acres of land adjacent to the lake and the highway to provide more shore access.  I'd like to do some exploring.  I may end up doing as much walking around as fishing, but that's fine with me.

 

I'm also very interested in fishing around the Falls of the Ohio, once the waters go down—whenever that will be.  I've only fished down there a little, while the water was sort of high, and never caught anything.  However, the talk among anglers is that it's a really good spot for striped bass, sauger, catfish, and more.  Also, I just learned that just a couple of years ago, the Louisville side (at Shippingport Island) was opened up to public access with a new bridge and footpaths.  One can fish there now, and do some bird watching.  It also might be a great spot for painting.  I'm very interested in checking it out.

 

I've restrung two poles and checked over my tackle box, and I even honed the hooks on a few of my lures last night.  As nerdy as it sounds, I spent a few minutes discussing knots on the phone with Chet last night.

 

Dad has also prepared his fishing gear, but I don't know if he wants to go fishing for fishing's sake, or if he really just wants to go to do it with his grand daughters, which we plan to take on their first fishing excursion soon.  I don't know where we'll go; I'm thinking either Long Run or McNeely Lake, but Miles Park out in Middletown might also be good. ("Good" being a relative term for these over-fished suburban lakes.)

 

The Office

Here's a Slate article I found interesting: it compares the British, U.S., French, and German versions of the TV show "The Office"

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2150015/
 

 

I just started watching a TV special version (a re-visit that aired after the original series had come and gone) of the British version. It's funny, but it really does have a different feel than the US version.  I enjoyed the BBC version immensely, but it does feel a little alien.

 

Swimming with the Fishes

 I've been wanting to go fishing lately. It sort of got out of hand at the Columbus Zoo on Saturday.  My desires overtook me, and I jumped into a fish tank. Fortunately, it was a warm day. Even more fortunately, my dad had a camera in his hand.

 

Polar bear exhibit

Kim and Julie watching the polar bears from below, at the Columbus Zoo.
 

 

Devoured by bears

At the Columbus Zoo, we ran afoul of a mother polar bear and her cubs.
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Had some face painting done at Moe's

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Practice

By her fourth cast, she was almost hitting the street.

Cans

I took my cans out to the recycling center this morning. 42 pounds; $31.50.

My original plan, when I started saving cans, was to use the money for my coin collection. Alas, there are other priorities that are higher now. I'll probably try to save it for art supplies or prints.
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Drawing

I made a small change to the horse and jockey drawing I did a couple of months ago;  probably, no one would notice if I didn't point it out.  I darkened the bottom of the jockey's shirt to produce more shadow where it's tucked in, as well as under his arm.

 

 

Another old sketch

This is another black walnut ink sketch from the same time. I'm posting it for the same reason. (I'm pretty sure I never posted either of these before, but maybe I did and I didn't find them when I went back to look for them.)

An old sketch

This is an old black walnut ink sketch I did on a lunch break in 2007. I never posted it because it's not really that good, but I looked at it recently and decided I liked it enough to scan it and put it up here. This was done with a brush and some twigs; there might be some metal nib work in there too, someplace. I was having some fun with the perspective.

Oil paint tube inventory

I just took an inventory of my oil paint tubes.  I've been acquiring paints slightly faster than I've been using them for 15 or 20 years, and I've often been focusing on non-oil-painting related art, so I now have a pretty good supply of paint.  I have no idea how this compares to other painters; how many other painters have this many tubes of paint lying around?  Maybe most of them; maybe very few. I don't know.

 

Many of these are purchases of opportunity; I got them off of sales or clearance tables, even though I didn't need them right away, since the price was good and I knew they'd keep pretty well.

 

Some of them were probably given to me at some point in time by someone or other.

 

Quite a few of them I actually don't know what they are or how they handle.  I thought the Rembrandt brand paints, very few of which I've used, were supposed to be student-grade, but I just read that they are actually be a little bit better in quality than I thought.

 

There are also some tubes that I didn't list because they were almost gone.  If I had only a tiny fraction of a tube (less than a quarter remaining), I didn't bother listing it.

 

I now have a short list of paints I need to get in the near future for a portrait I'm about to start: yellow ochre, venetian red—that's about it, I think.

 

The Liquitex oil paints are old, too: Liquitex stopped making oils in the early 90s, I think.  The tubes are in rough shape, and I might need to puncture them to get the paint out since the caps are stuck on so tight.

 

BLUES

-Grumbacher thalo blue

-W&N Prussian blue (small tube)

-Liquitex Prussian blue

-W&N French ultramarine

-Grum. Cobalt blue

-W&N cobalt blue

-W&N manganese blue hue – I'm not sure how this compares to the cerulean. It seems like it might be like thalo blue, but less powerful.

-Graham pthalo blue

-W&N cerulean blue

-Grum. permanent blue – I can't remember using this, so I don't know what it's like.

 

EARTH TONES

-W&N brown madder alizarin

-W&N burnt sienna

-Liquitex burnt umber (small tube)

-W&N raw sienna

-Rembrandt transparent oxide brown – I color I'm unfamiliar with. I haven't used this one.

 

GREENS

-W&N Winsor green

-Grumbacher permanent bright green (1/5 tube remaining)

-Grum. green earth hue

-Grum. sap green

-Liquitex permanent green light

 

YELLOWS

-Giant tube of Graham cadmium yellow medium, half used – walnut oil binder

-Grum. cadmium barium yellow light

-Grum. cadmium barium yellow pale

-W&N cadmium yellow pale

-W&N jaune brilliant (small tube) – I can't recall every using this and I don't know what it looks like.

-Rembrandt stil de grain jaune – a very pale whitish neutral yellow.  I never hear anyone mention this color.

-Rembrandt transparent oxide yellow – I don't know what this color looks like either; I've never opened the tube.

 

ORANGES

-Grum cad bar orange

-W&N cadmium orange

 

REDS

-Grum cad bar red deep

-Grum cad bar red med

-Grum rose madder hue

-Graham cadmium red (1/2 tube left) – walnut oil

-Grum geranium lake (small tube)– I might just throw this one away since I've picked up on the fact that geranium lake is extremely prone to fading

-W&N light red – It's been so long since I've touched this. I think it might be a brownish red?

-Grum thalo red rose – I don't remember every using this one.

-Rembrandt transparent oxide red – I don't know what this one looks like, either.

 

 

PURPLES

-Grum cobalt violet

-Grum dioxazine purple

 

One large partial tube of Permalba white, a couple of small tubes of titanium white, several tubes of zinc white

 

OTHER

-Gamblin torrit grey

 

-Liquitex ivory black

 

Cheap oils:

 

I also have 14 tubes of Shiva oil paints that some picked up at a yard sale for me sometime in the late 1990s.  They, as well as the Rembrandt brand tubes listed above, were old then, but I don't know what year they were made.  I would guess late '80s, but I really can't tell.  The tubes are sticky and hard to read, and the caps are stuck on them; I've hardly touched them.  I know this is a low-grade paint, but I might use them for experiments or sketches.  Maybe they would be OK for some underpaintings, too.

 

 

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Cave formerly used for storage

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Found while walking at lunch

self portrait in the woods

Lunchbreak walk

Falls of the Ohio - Finished

The Falls of the Ohio in black walnut ink

It's done.  This is 10 x 15 inches, drawn with black walnut ink on bristol paper.

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A find

During slightly trying times such as these (Kentucky Derby time), it helps to remember the good things that befall us. Yesterday I found a silver coin in circulation at work-- a 1942 S nickel. That's the first silver I've pulled from circulation in a year or two.
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Full double rainbow

A rare treat; wish I had something other than my phone camera.
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Falls of the Ohio - nearly complete

 

The walnut ink drawing is nearly done.  There are a few tiny problem areas I'm looking for a way to resolve; one of the easiest will be to make sure the bridge supports appear a little more vertical.  I might not be able to fix all of it, but I can live with it even if I can't.

 

I'm quite happy with the outcome.

 

I also need to erase the pencil lines (in case you are wondering why I have numbers written over the bridge, it's because I had to number the vertical support beams in order to keep track of them as I drew them and shaded them.  It was very easy to get confused as to which beam was which as I looked back and forth between my drawing and the reference photo.

 

One of the last things I did was lightly brush in the buildings of downtown Louisville in the background.  It took me a while to decide how to do it, but I'm very happy with how they came out.

 

20 worst recorded Ohio River floods

From the Army Corps of Engineers:

 

Historical Crests for Ohio River at McAlpine Upper

(1) 52.15 ft on 01/27/1937
(2) 42.10 ft on 03/08/1945
(3) 41.70 ft on 02/16/1884
(4) 41.20 ft on 03/12/1964
(5) 39.50 ft on 02/16/1883
(6) 39.40 ft on 04/02/1913
(7) 38.76 ft on 03/07/1997
(8) 36.40 ft on 01/22/1907
(9) 36.00 ft on 04/19/1948
(10) 34.10 ft on 03/23/1933
(11) 33.40 ft on 03/04/1962
(12) 33.00 ft on 05/10/1961
(13) 33.00 ft on 03/23/1943
(14) 32.40 ft on 02/22/1882
(15) 31.90 ft on 12/14/1978
(16) 31.80 ft on 03/10/1955
(17) 31.60 ft on 03/29/1936
(18) 31.50 ft on 03/13/1967
(19) 31.50 ft on 03/22/1963
(20) 31.40 ft on 02/07/1950

 

 

With a little more rain, we just might make it to the top ten this year.
 

 

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