Night fishing, Kentucky River

These first two pictures are from early morning, as the sun was rising, right before we left:

These next four are evening photos, as it was getting dark, shortly after we arrived.

Towards the bank:

Looking downriver:

Across the river:

Looking upriver:

I fished the Kentucky River for the first time this past weekend, going out with a friend to a spot near Campbellsburg in Henry County. This is property belonging to a co-worker’s father. We got there later than I wanted (I knew we would), but we still had a little daylight left to get set up and start fishing.

It was around 8:00 when we arrived, and I gave the owner a small bottle of E&J brandy as a token of appreciation. He then led us back through the property and showed us how to get down to the rock bar on the river. When he found out that we had 8- and 10-pound test line, he told us we might be challenged. “And if you’re after catfish,” he said, “they’ll start biting around 3:00.”

The river bank was not just treacherously steep, but the only reasonable path down also led through a bed of poison ivy, so I was extra careful going up and down (and now two days have passed and I haven’t broken out, so I must have been successful).

It was a very beautiful spot. The weather was calm and pleasant. Daylight was quickly leaving and I spent a little while casting around with a beetle spinner, but nothing chased it but some little fish close to shore.

When it got so dark that it was getting hard to see my footing clearly, I baited some circle hooks with chunks of bluegill and started fishing the bottom of the deeper water upstream from the rock bar. My friend used a spinner bait and an artificial worm for a while before switching to a nightcrawler straight out in the river.

We had a few nibbles early in the night. The mosquitoes were a nuisance, but around 10:00 or so they all went away; I think it got too cool for them. Bats swooped around us all night long. Once or twice they bumped my fishing line, which I think has happened every time I have fished at night.

The moon was full and so bright that we could see around out pretty well. Not well enough to tie a knot in fishing line, but well enough to walk over the large uneven rocks.

Right about midnight my friend caught a freshwater drum. We didn’t measure it, but I’d say it was 14-15 inches. I caught one about the same size a short while later, and then he caught another smaller one. I can’t remember if he caught two or three in all, but I know I caught just one.

We heard various interesting bird calls. One that I heard I have since identified as the horse-whinny call of a screech owl.

Around 2:00, the first partial tank of propane ran out, and we sat just in the moonlight as we waited for the lantern to cool so we could put on a new tank. It was very quiet, then suddenly something went CRASH! in the underbrush along the riverbank nearby. I think it must have been a deer bounding up or down the bank through some bushes.

I had nibbles on my two lines all night. Finally, something took one of my hunks of bluegill, and I fought with it a couple minutes as I reeled it in. It didn’t feel big enough to be a monster, but I knew it was a decent size. I got it in close and could barely see its pale body thrash near the surface in the moonlight, but then my line broke. I examined the break in my line and saw that my other pole was twitching. Then I checked the time; 3:03 a.m.

I didn’t manage to set the hook in whatever was eating at my other line. It pulled off most of my bait. I had similar nibbles and near-hookings on-and-off until the sun came up.

With the full moon and haze and clouds, I didn’t see any meteors, but my friend saw one.

We left at 8:00 a.m. I wanted to stay longer, but we were pushing our limits.

Creek

 

Today is our office picnic at a nearby park.  A few minutes ago I was making a supply delivery to the park as part of set-up, and I walked past the small creek that flows through.  With the exception of during and after heavy rains, the creek is quite shallow.  I can see the bottom of it throughout the park, and in many places I could probably jump across it.

 

I dropped off my delivery and was leaving when I noticed a little boy and his mom walking up with fishing poles.  They studied one spot, then started moving along the edge, studying the water.

 

As they passed, I said, "I wondered if anyone ever tried fishing here."  I'd considered it and dismissed it because it's so small.  I've never seen anything bigger than a minnow there.

 

But the mom said, "He caught a catfish here recently, a big one."  That surprised me.  "Good to know," I answered.

 

I don't know what "a big one" would be.  Maybe not very big at all.  However, big fish do end up in surprising places.  I've seen two-foot carp in ridiculously shallow stretches of Beargrass Creek, and I've heard of similar sized catfish being caught in places like that, too.  I suppose they are more likely to be found after a period of really wet weather, such as this past spring and early summer, when water levels have been high and fish can swim far.  That particular section of creek is probably cleaner than most streams in Jefferson County, and that counts for a lot.

 

Or maybe the lady was crazy. A lot of them make it this far upstream, too.

 

Ancient Roman coin: Hadrian

 

This is a nice coin issued under Emperor Hadrian, who ruled the Roman Empire 117-138 AD.  It's a silver denarius, Rome mint, struck 118 AD.

 

Obverse: . IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate bust right, drapery on left shoulder.

 

Reverse: P M TR P COS II, CONCORD in exergue, Concordia seated left, holding patera in right hand, left elbow resting on head of Spes who stands facing left on a low base behind, cornucopia under seat.

 

(RIC II 39b; BMCRE 61; RSC 252a)

 

Master of Illusion

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More portrait stuff/Rockwell

 

 

Well, I wasn't done with the double portrait, after all. Not technically, anyway.  My customer loved it, but I noticed that a little paint was flaking off in the bottom left corner. Some of the green had flaked away, revealing the white-primed panel beneath. That absolutely should not happen!

 

I probed the area with an X-acto knife, and surmised that my thinned-down acrylic underpainting, with only a little thinned-down oil paint on top, was the problem there.  I decided to facilitate mechanical binding.

 

To that end, I scored the area with my knife, then applied another, slightly thicker layer of green paint with no medium or thinner added to it.

 

 

 

Last night, just for fun, I set up my new French easel.  Mom and Dad found it at a yard sale--along with dozens of tubes of student-grade acrylics, lots of brushes, and five or six palette knives.  Very, very nice!  I've never had a French easel before.  It ought to be very useful for plein air painting.

 

 

Last Sunday, Kim's cousin Matt came to town for a brief visit.  We went to the Kentucky Derby Museum and to the Louisville Slugger Museum.

 

I'm not a baseball fan, but I think I actually enjoyed the Slugger Museum more.  It was just more interesting, and more engaging.  It also had a Norman Rockwell exhibit, which I really enjoyed.

 

As a child, I liked Norman Rockwell.  Then at some point (around the time I started college?) I started really disliking Norman Rockwell; I saw him as too hokey, cute, and sentimental.

 

In recent years, though, I've started appreciating him more, and now I like him again.  The exhibit at the Slugger Museum was great, including not just reproductions but also many original drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings.  They were a lot of fun to look at; Rockwell had a level of craftsmanship and skill that I can only dream of.

Handing it over today

 Here is a scan of the for-real finished portrait.  There are some minor changes since the last time I posted a photo of it, but you'd have to be very observant to spot the differences.  The person who commissioned it hasn't seen it yet; I hope he likes it.

 

This was a real learning experience for me, and it has whetted my appetite to do more portraits.  I have a lot to learn.

 

Pesto

I'm finally making some pesto, the first since last year. Step 1: rinse and let air-dry.
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Be a marrow donor

 This might be one of the easiest ways in the world to save someone's life:

 

 http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html?src=tabjoin

 

It would be nice to be a hero with so little effort.

Churchill Downs

This is about ten inches tall. I drew it pretty quickly; this was about 6 hours of work.
 

 

The most dangerous game: trotline version

As I've mentioned, I've recently become obsessed with fishing. However, I don't really have time to fish. One impediment is my regular office job.

It just occurred to me that I could incorporate some catfishing trotline techniques into my daily routine. Quite a few people--the majority, really--here are at least a little catfish-like in their eating habits (I am, too). By which I mean that if any edible substance is left sitting around, it'll eventually get nosed out and consumed. Many of us circle, circle, circle the office prowling for food, then retire to our little cubicles for shelter as conditions change, or to digest our food, or to hide from predators or bright light.

I might satisfy my desire for angling by hanging fishing line from the ceiling in a few spots around the office, enticing morsels dangling...doughnuts, carrots, little packs of cheese crackers, Twizzlers, strawberries. Then I'd sit back and wait for a bite.

I guess maybe I shouldn't use hooks. I can tie the food on, and tie the other end to a camera. Or maybe even just a bell.

Double oil portrait: Done, or nearly so

Well, a couple of days ago I started saying I was done, but now that I've photographed it and seen it enlarged on my computer screen, I more clearly see a few tiny areas I might touch up. I'm pretty pleased with it.

 

This is 8 x 10 inches, on wood panel.
 

 

Rough house sketch, rejected

This is part of the preparation of a new house portrait commission.  As part of getting ready, I often do some rough sketches, then forward them to the customer so they get a basic idea of what it will look like.  This is a quick sketch at an angle I liked, but the customer asked me for a more frontal view (the house is so broad across the front that I'll have to change the aspect ratio from what was planned, making it longer but not as tall.)  So this is the first sketch, done in black and white.  I have done a second one in walnut ink, which has been approved.  I'll try to get that posted soon.

Lunch break sketch

I always lag behind in posting lunch break sketches.  This one is from more than a month ago; it's the old Bellevoir estate (again!) in charcoal.  It's very quick and rough, but I sort of like it.
 

 

Oil paints and brushes

Per an earlier request, here is a photo of my paint tubes in my paint boxes. Sorry, I wasn't going to get them all out and line them up. Maybe I'll do that again later.
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Portrait progress

I am still working on the eyes, hair, and clothing.

First fishing trip (part 2)

 

 

First fishing trip (part 1)

 

 

Campfire

I'd rather be sitting in the rain by a campfire than sitting in a tent and dry. (And for those of you who wish to comment that you'd rather be sitting on your couch at home--spare me.)
 

 

More camping photos

 

 

2nd cave tour

 These are a couple of photos from our "Frozen Niagra" tour at Mammoth Cave.

 

Clouds after the storm tonight

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Weird fishing occurrence

I don't know if Brian remembers this.

 

I was fishing with Brian at Long Run Park quite a few years ago (late 80s, I guess) when he caught two fish at the same time.

 

He threw out a line (a worm under a bobber) and after a few minutes he his bobber went under and he reeled in.  As he pulled it out of the water, we saw that he had not one, but two bluegill!

 

It's hard to explain how the second one was hooked, so I have added a crude illustration.

 

I had to look at it hard to figure out how it happened.  At first, I thought that he had somehow cast out with two hooks on his line, or that he had cast out a baited hook with another snelled hook accidentally stuck to it, and had caught fish on both.  This, however, was not the case.

 

The only way I could think that this could have happened is that he threw out his line as normal.  A bluegill grabbed it and was hooked as normal, with the hook going through his lip.

 

Meanwhile, there was another bluegill nearby who had a snelled hook (complete with looped leader) sticking out of his mouth after escaping the clutches of another angler.  This fish swam close to the first struggling fish, and the leader from his hook got caught on the point of Brian's hook.  And there he remained until he reeled them up into the air on the bank.

 

 

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.

 

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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.