Damn Cold, or ... as My Dad Used to Say ...

It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. [why a monkey, I don't know] 

Some locals on a little farm down the street

You guessed it - a close-up

Very wooly right now

From High Point, with mountain view

Pat, my inspirational walking buddy

   Pat and I , and her two dogs went out for a good hour and a half tromp through the park and up the hill into High Point. It was quite lovely in the sun, where protected, but very cold in the shade with the wind blowing. The weather is forecast to get even colder next week, with a fair bit of snow to be dumped on Wednesday. Yeah, I can HARDLY wait! I'll have to turn Bruno into the Michelin horse, with extra blankets. And I'll have to start carrying buckets of hot water from the house to the barn. But it does look lovely, so I thought I'd post some photos, and hopefully a painting post tonight or tomorrow.

More Feathers

This is the one from the previous post

This photo I took on overcast day, in natural light, i.e. gloomy

   I've been having the devil of a time trying to get the photos to look as much as possible as the paintings. The lighting makes SUCH an unbelievable difference, especially with the browns and greys, I suppose because they are such a mix of hues. Anyway, I had to do the comparison.  If anyone reading this post has thoughts on photographing paintings for computer presentation, please let me know.

Chickens Today ... Feathers the Next ...

Original photo

Ist all-in-one glaze [aureolin, quin. burnt orange, quin. violet,and feet are quin. bt. orange and quin. pink]  Still wet.

          

Comb in alizarin crimson and quin. bt. orange

Adding depth all over, using same palette with indanthrone blue for darks

HEY! It's starting to look a bit like a rooster.

Very soft, wet background of quin. bt. orange, quin. violet and indanthrone  blue

His Imperial Poultry-ness

  "Chickens today, feathers the next" was one of my best high school/university friends' sayings. Another one I liked was "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit". I still remember rockin' out to UBC for an 8:30 physics lecture, [ WHO scheduled that one??] with smoke of various legal and not-so-legal varieties billowing out the car windows. Hey ... it was the '60's. And all of us in the car-pool made it through university, and  now have decent, respectable professions.

YAY ... Another Rose Process

Another gorgeous rose from Pat's garden

For a change, I did the background 1st - phthalo. green and quin. violet

Start playing with leaves, wet in wet

More depth to rose and leaves

Decided I didn't like leaves in green, went to quin. violet

Finished

     As I sit here typing, I'm "entertained" by the pitter-patter of little rodent-like feet under my roof. The little bugger has been running a marathon up there! I'm hoping he's here only as long as the cold snap lasts; it should be warming up in a day or so. Anyway, here is another floral painting. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

New Year's Eve Day

   I just got in from a good 1 1/2 hour walk in a huge development up the street, designed for horse owners. The area is surrounded by a beautiful well-maintained riding/walking trail, and has other shorter trails running through the homes and acreage. It is too lovely not to share.   

This, and the 2 below, are of my favorite home at High Point.  Its design gives the impression of a French chateau.

I took the next 4 photos to show the views of the mountains, visible from the higher areas of the development.

  

A Most Happy and Healthy New Year ... and the Chinchillas Made Me Do It

FB enjoying a moment

   First and foremost, I would like to heartily wish all of you the very Best of New Year's wishes. It is a time for a bit more thought and reflection, and hope. I will also take this opportunity to thank my new "followers", who have helped make this enterprise worth pursuing.
   Secondly, I fear I must do a little rant and rave, and foam at the mouth. My rant was spurred by reading a blog I follow, by Mark Kohler - markkohler.blogspot.com. I found his article to very strongly echo what I have felt for years. And it does reflect the increasing antipathy I have felt towards the manner in which Christmas has come to be celebrated in the western world. This period of pre-Christmas spending is, however, only the most apparent manifestation of our mindless and senseless greed. Yes, it sounds brutal, but I think it's true. A largely predominant proportion of the  civilized human race has come to believe that mass consumption is the way to go.
   I encourage you to take a step back to see how you are spending your time, your energy, your self. Most certainly, I am not advocating a "sackcloth and ashes and begging bowl" type of change. Nor an idealistic, 1960's "return to the earth" style of life. With the world population as it is, these modes of life are neither viable nor desirable.
   As an example, on a personal level, my "change" slowly became manifest with my involvement with horses. I lied; it wasn't the chinchillas. Most thankfully, this deep-seated passion led me along the way to changing my life-style. It also uncovered my long buried love of art, of sketching and painting. For this, I am deeply grateful.

The Brunz and me

   So GO AHEAD!!! be wild and weird and wonderful. Give some deep thought to that about which you feel passionate. And in whatever small way, start breathing some life into it.

I HAD to Do It

   Yes, I had disappeared off the face of the planet, the art portion of it anyway. I've been focussing my energy on Bruno, who I was rapidly turning into 3/4 ton of spoiled horse. I suffer from a severe case of "Black Beauty" syndrome, and I blame that on the fact that my parents would not buy me a horse when I was young. I studied the piano for 15 years instead of riding. I don't regret the lessons, as I have a great love of music, but a horse would have been great. Consequently, I had to wait till I was 30, and then buy my own.
   However, the result of this delayed gratification of my passion for The Horse, is a very strong tendency to spoil them rotten. A spoiled horse is a dangerous horse, with little or no respect for their person. Add to this, the fact that I do not have quite the intestinal fortitude [guts] at this time of year to be as disciplined as I need to be, and you have the beginning of a rebellion on the part of the horse.

Bruno, being a good lad

"What the ... ?"

   Yesterday was THE day. I steeled myself for the confrontation, and worked hard to maintain a calm and non-reactive bearing. Bruno was a bit of a turd, and there were some scary moments, but I won the upper hand, or "hoof".  I was NOT brutal; I could never be that way ... just firm in my demands. And I am pleasantly surprised at how his quieter, better-behaved manner has affected ALL his interactions with me.

Cindy Redux

Bee in asters

   I am painting. Working on a re-do of Cindy [I just don't like the green background] and a close-up of a bee in some asters. They are both in warm colors; I seem to need that right now.