Renewal

The eagle is soaring, or is at least in my mind. After a near disaster with the Krylon fixative applied at too low a temperature, I was able to save my three weeks of work on this painting. I let a night pass and started rebuilding the color that was so dulled by the fixative. I had to completely redo the sky and clouds. I was not sure if it was going to work because it was very difficult to get the blue to cover evenly. I also decided to blend in a lighter Winsor & Newton, Cerulean Blue Hue at the bottom at the skyline, and a slightly darker Cerulean Blue at the top of the painting to give a more realistic color change in the sky. I gradually reworked the clouds and added a white edge to the final clouds that one sees when the sun highlights them.

Next on my rework list was the Bald Eagle since he is the focal point of this piece. I needed to completely rework the head, eyes and beak to bring it back into the correct intensity with the proper shading. Then I tackled the feathers beginning at the top and gradually working down to the tail feathers. I was fresh with a good night's sleep and so this phase went well. By afternoon, I was starting to relax and realize that my painting was recoverable, and if I was patient, I could make it even better. God works in mysterious ways, he stretches us and teaches us with each challenge if we just use the gifts He has given us with patience.

Once the Eagle looked regal and alive, it was time to begin work on the background. The whole mountain section and forest from the skyline to the bottom had been dulled, and much of the original shading I had painted in the piece was gone, and some parts even appeared to show the surface underneath as if the pastel had been pulled off and clumped. I worked each section slowly and carefully, from the mountain peaks to each valley, and gradually highlighted trees, and brought the piece back to life. The fall colors in the Black Oaks had been dulled, but once I finished touching up the color and adding additional shading, they looked more natural than before. When I was finally finished I stood back and re-examined my painting and realized that this was a good lesson, and definitely worthwhile one. The piece looked better than it had originally. Perhaps in my haste to get done, I had overlooked some details that make a difference. The need to carefully examine the damage to the various parts and restoration had made me more attentive. More sensitive to the effect of light and shadow.

Once I had carefully resigned my piece, I set my camera up in a well lighted room (Natural light from a skylight helped) and took several shots. I cropped it to size in PhotoShop and voila, the finished piece was ready for posting.  I hope you enjoy the finished piece I have entitled, "Where Eagles Soar."

An Artists Meltdown Over Use of Fixative!

There is nothing more frustrating after spending weeks of work on something really special to ruin it oneself through not thinking. I have been working on my largest pastel painting to date and have spent several weeks of intensive work on it to paint something very different and very special.

My younger brother Martin in Canada sent me a beautiful closeup picture of a Bald Eagle up in a tree some weeks ago. He was a regal looking creature, and one could understand the strength that flows from his eyes. They are gorgeous birds in flight, and an intelligent predator. I thought it would make a wonderful subject for a painting, but the photo was just the eagle on an old dead tree branch and a lot of sky around it. It needed a suitable background.

Three weeks ago Cindy and I went up in the mountains on one of our exploratory photo trips to see what we could find. We were having great fun exploring old stage coach roads, driving over old suspension bridges and roaming around on the back roads in the Sierras between Colfax and Forest Hill.  We were near the end of our journey when we turned off the highway that leads to Forest Hill to explore a dirt road that looked interesting. It had an interesting name also, "Chicken Hawk Road", and was probably given that namesake during the gold rush. The road took us right up to the top of the ridge over looking miles of forest land to the east. It was late in the day so I stopped a number of times and took photographs from several vantage points that looked promising, and they offered marvelous see forever views. Unfortunately there were no clouds at all in the sky to break up the beautiful blue. 

Once we got home and I had time to transfer my shots to the computer, I found one that would be a perfect backdrop for my eagle painting. I printed out an 8 X 10 as a reference photo and sketched out the scene I wanted. Then I sketched the eagle in the middle of the picture, making adjustments until I felt it was the right place. Once my rough sketch was in I could begin my painting.

I began by doing the background and filled in a rough of the eagle.  I gradually worked through the process over the weeks and redesigned the eagle because the perspective was off. Once he looked right, I continued with finishing the background. It was a long and tedious process with so many trees, and so much fall color on the mountains and valleys. The foreground presented a challenge, because it was going to be in the shade, and getting the right values was perplexing. I finally did the whole color scheme on the lower painting completely over until I was satisfied with the result. Now my painting was almost complete, but it lacked something.

I consulted with a knowledgeable artist friend, Toni Callahan and she gave me some good honest input as to what was missing. Feather detail, it needed more. My picture didn't show much detail so I went surfing on the web until I could find a good eagle photo in the same stance as the one I had. I found several and did find one with excellent feather detail. Once that detail was added, my painting came alive. I was so pleased to get it to this point and kept working the painting areas to see what needed tweaking a little more. 

I finished the painting this morning.  I had one more thing to do, and that was add a light blue haze over a portion of the mountains.  Before I could do that however; I needed to protect the existing pastel. with a fixative. Once the fixative dried, I could add a blue on a portion of the mountains to give them a hazy look and push them farther away. This had been a terrific challenge, I was so pleased with the end result.

I signed it, and took it out to the garage to spray. Once I had some covering over my bench I took out the Krylon fixative and sprayed the pastel with a back and forth motion giving no thought to how cold the can of Krylon was or how cold it was in the garage. Obviously the cold made the Krylon finish thicker, because the whole painting darkened considerably, and it appeared that it pulled pastel away from several areas.

I stopped the fixative but it was already too late. I quickly took the painting back into the warmer house in hopes that the fixative would dry and everything would be fine.  After several hours I went back to the easel and was horrified with what I saw. The painting was much darker and blander than before. I would have to redo the entire painting and re-shade the eagle because all of the highlights were muted and indistinguishable from the rest of the body. The sky was mottled and a darker blue. I could have screamed, but what good would that do?  Fortunately we were going out for Thanksgiving dinner and I would not have to look at it for a while. Maybe when I cooled down and gave it some time, I could get back to it.

We arrived home this evening and I surveyed the painting. It is as bad as I feared and will take a lot of work to fix, but I know I can do it. I have attached a picture of the painting that I took before the fixative was applied in the paragraphs above, and the second one is after the fixative darkened the painting, and flattened all the detail to the right of this paragraph. If you look closely, you can see the sky color I have tried to fix that is the lighter blue, and how much darker the fixative has made the sky and rest of the painting. Wish me patience, I have my work cut out for me!






       

Awakening to the Pitter Patter of Rain Drops

We have had nicer weather this past week in the high eighties, such a relief from the high nineties of the week before.  Yesterday was so cool when I woke up, it was mid fifties which is such a temperature drop for this time of year. A very welcome change when one could actually snuggle in the blankets to stay warm. Today was  an even bigger surprise, for when I awakened, I could hear the pitter patter of raindrops. Who would believe here in the foothills of northern California that it was raining in August?

What a wonderful soft soothing sound the rain brings as the rain drops plink off anything metal, and patter on the deck and patio cover. One can hear the water shushing through the gutters and running down the down spouts. The rain drops gently swish through the trees falling from leaf to leaf, and gathering in bigger more random drops with a splat. The air is fresh and clean... that wonderful washed by God smell one has after a rain that brings the scent of wet grass, and damp ground. It is like a prescription for the senses that soothes every pore in ones body. Ah....breathe deeply, smell it through you nose as you take it in.

Everything seems cleaner and brighter when it rains, and every green lawn and tree displays a brighter green. Perhaps because the layer of dust on the leaves was just washed away. Perhaps because our sense are so awakened to this wonderful marvel we call rain. It is so nice to walk in when it is just a gentle light shower. To feel the rain drops on one's hair, and skin. One just feels like the air is flavored with all the scents of the garden. To see those beautiful water droplets bead on the colorful flowers and to be able to drink in the perfume and bright color of the fragrant roses. A perfume no cosmetic lab can match. God's special blend to remind us of his creativity.

The birds sing more gaily, even they seem to have their spirits lifted. They flit from tree to tree, fluttering from branch to branch as if to celebrate this heaven sent shower. Calling to one another, across the meadows. The squirrels chatter, and run up and down the trees playing like the little scamps that they are. They can fly through the trees and leap from branch to branch like acrobats.

Our hearing seems enhanced when it rains, but traffic noises seem muffled and far away. Listen to the rain, that wonderful pitter patter, the gentle sound of dripping water and for just a moment let it wash your troubles away. Listen to the rain, do you hear it?

Damage Estimates

Well its been weeks since my last blog. The damage estimates are in, all of the wet and mouldy stuff has been removed and the wet wood dried out and cleaned. The removal by Servepro was a slow process and cost a thousand dollars. They were neat, efficient and very good at what they do. I have no complaints with their response and their diligence in removing any harmful mold and sanitizing everything.

Estimates to repair the drywall, replace the carpeting, repaint, and repair the roof are in. Cost is well over $4,000. The insurance company said the roof was improperly designed so they will not pay to repair it, the furniture that was damaged is not covered either because the leak was not caused by wind damage to the roof. Oh well, the insurance company did give me a settlement that will allow me to repair the damage to the dry wall, repaint and recarpet less the 1,000 deductible.

I made a decision to buy the materials at Home Depot and replace the drywall, insulation and moldings myself. I will pay a tradesman to mud and texture the wall, but I will paint it. Fortunately I know how to do this work, and the drywall is all done as of yesterday and the guy will come Monday to mud and texture the drywall.  Boy I was tired after all that work!  I will have to get some paint mixed and will have to buy a couple of gallons since there are two different colored walls in the bedroom to repaint, and one in the garage. That is the easy part.

There should be enough money hopefully to pay a professional to fix and repair the roof so it does not leak again. I had a good estimate from Haas Maintenance and remodeling so just have to get on their repair schedule. So that is the saga of the big leak.

Can anything else go wrong?

I know owning a home gives one satisfaction. Owning a home is also or can be having your own personal money pit. Two years ago it was the deck that needed replacing. Tearing it all out, getting down to just the support beams and rebuilding it completely inclusing adding a patio cover over our bedroom to block the sun. The old deck was a maintenance monster with redwood that needed resealing every year because of temperature extremes. The new deck is for the most part maintenance free. I rebuilt the deck with treated support joists on 16" centers and used two colors of TREX, a wonderful sawdust and plastic bags  combination that even has wood grain. It requires no staining, just washing down. I replaced all the wood railing with trex covered treated posts with wrought iron in between. No more painting to worry about, yea! One difficult job that looks very nice was screwing all of the decking from underneath with special hardware so no screws show anywhere. Just masterials cost for the replacement deck was over $11,800, but I saved thousands of dollars on labor by doing it myself. I was fortunate to get some help from my son-in-law when he could, and also from my brother for the final touches.

Last year it was the central heating and air that went out right toward the end of summer. We struggled through a few warm months but fortunately have ceiling fans that kept the air moving and only few days of triple digit heat. Replacing the HVAC was a big job, and required a third of the ducting to also be replaced because it was leaking and the duct material was breaking down. We managed to get it done by Thanksgiving, and that cost us another $4,600.00. We now have a more efficient unit that has actually lowered our heating and cooling bills. Some definite good came from that fix!

Well this year it is a water leak from our roof.  Cindy and Amber were gone last week to visit her Mom  and Dad in Pico Rivera. Amber wasn't too sure when she would get to see her grand parents again because she and Eric are bound for Germany when his training is done in July and he has a few weeks off to ship their household goods over to Manheim. 

While they were in southern California we had a big rainstorm for several days and it dumped an inch and a half of rain. Unbeknownst to me, the roof was leaking due to a faulty design in one of the valleys between the house and garage. Amber's bedroom toook the brunt of the water down a wall behind a bookcase computer desk combo. The carpet got soaked, and the furniture wicked up the water in the legs. The wall in the garage also suffered similar damage but of course there was no carpet to get wet there, and the leak was hidden by a cabinet on that wall that is floor to ceiling. Amber discovered the damage after she got home. She said, "Uh Dad, come to my room, we have a major problem."  Major problem was an understatement!

The evidence was her weights that were stacked on a piece of carboard were rusty and the carpet was soaked along with the furniture's legs. The following morning I emptied all the books from the book shelves, pulled all the furniture out and saw the mold on the floor and wall. I cleaned all the furniture with bleach to kill any mold on the wooden support legs. I let it dry in the sun on the deck. I pulled the carpet back and it was like a huge wet sponge as was all of the padding. I cut an eight foot by 6 1/2 foot piece of carpet out in order to get all the wet stuff outside. The wood floor under the carpet was soaked as were the baseboards and tack strips. I washed the ceiling, walls and floor with bleach once the carpet was out and set a fan in there to help dry things out. I filed a claim with my insurance because the damage is covered, although I have a thousand dollar deductable. Gee terrible timing, I just raised it last year from $500 to 1000 to save money on premiums! Ha, I didn't save anything, it cost me a bunch more.

I took phtos of all the damage with my digital camera. Then I emailed the photos to my insurance person and they called me back and sent an adjuster out to survey the damage. He recommended Servpro, a special mold and water damge company to come out and remove all of the affected wet drywall and insulation and mold. I asked him to get them rolling and they started yesterday. I still have not seen a damage estimate for the cost of removal of everything but they are very thorough and very efficient. They do an excellent job of keeping one informed of each step and thorughly clean up everything and remove all of the nasty affected materials. They finished taking out the ceiling drywall and a wall in the garage today, as well as removing the 4X8' storage cabinet after I unloaded all the stuff in it. The heat fans and dehumidifier are running round the clock to dry the walls 2X4's and flooring. 

I am hoping to get a contractor in soon to get the walls replaced, the roof repaired, and the room repainted and recarpeted. I know it will cost me $1,000 for the deductiable but won't know for a few days what the total cost for the project will be. Owning a home is nice, especially when nothing goes wrong. When it begins to get older and expensive repairs occur it becomes a bit of a money pit! Thank good ness my garden doesn't break down, just the dang sprinklers!  

Mother's Day Garden Tour

Wow, who would know that we are going to be receiving rain showers today? The sun is shining, there are beautiful clouds in the sky and it is wonderfully cool and breezy. The birds are chirping happily, and the garden is like a lush park. Even the Koi in the pond seem to be enjoying the day flashing their bright colors as they swim around, and around in our little pond Perhaps they are looking for the exit sign to a bigger pond.

Well it has been weeks since I wrote a blog, and several weeks since the garden tour. I don't know when I have felt more exhausted preparing for something. Because I am anal in my desire to have everything neat and tidy, and look beautiful, and have everything neatly pruned, trimmed, weeded, and to have fresh blooms, I just about wore myself out.

A big thanks to my older brother Michael, a master gardener himself, who traveled up here from Fresno to work with me for two days. He helped me finish pulling all of the old bark (12 years worth) from around all of the roses in the upper rose garden, redistribute it to other locals with no bark, and then recover the area with a finer looser fresh ruby red bark material that makes the roses pop. Michael also spent quite a few hours dressing up the roses and cutting any deadwood or spent blooms so they looked super.

I had to go down to Robinson's Sand and Gravel and get a load of decomposed granite so I could top up all my paths and make them look fresh and neat. That is the heavier stuff and rather than have Michael help with that I asked him to neat up the flower beds. Unfortunately I have the remains of thousands of daffodils that bloomed a few months ago messing up my flower beds and it is still too early to cut off the greenery since that is what replenishes the bulbs for next years bloom. Mike did some trimming, and rearranging and made it all look a lot neater.

The actual tour on Mother's Day started at 10:00 Am in the morning, and I was surprised to see folks here right on the starting dot. Fortunately Placer County Master Gardeners were here staffing the garden to answer questions for people about our plants trees or flowers. I had spent a number of hours the night before tagging all the roses and a lot of less common plants to make it easier. Yes, that was me with the flashlight in the rose garden at 10:30 PM!

The tour was a rocking success. Although it rained a little off and on, droves of people continued to come through the garden. Some carried cameras in addition to their umbrellas and were busy taking pictures of various areas that interested them. At days end when the tour shut down at 4:00 PM, 437 people had come through the garden.

I was amazed at the number but very pleased that it was a success and there were so many nice comments about the garden. You can look at my photos and see for yourself. 

Almost there!

The garden tour is this Sunday and I am satisfied that I will be ready. My brother Michael drove up from Fresno to help work with me on some of the major make overs. He spent two days cutting, dead heading, cleaning up rose bushes, and helping me replace all the bark I was pulling out from around the roses. They really look great. We also added decomposed granite to all the pathways and also redid all of the flagstone patio by the garden shed. Flowers are blooming in a number of places and the roses are starting their first bloom of the season. It should be really pretty.  

Gardener's Gathering

Well today Cindy and I are off to the Master Gardeners gathering at the Blue Goose Fruit Sheds in Loomis. Since we are on the tour next month, they compted two tickets for us. It should be an interesting day. I'll let you know later. Have a good one.

Gee what was I thinking?

When the Placer County Master Gardeners showed up at my home and asked if I would like to put our garden on the tour, I willingly said yes. A week later I looked at the garden and saw all the mess from the afterbloom of thousands of daffodils, I wondered what I could do to make it look better and make sure I had color in the garden. The daffodil leaves cannot be cut off until they turn yellow, because they require the sun and nutrients to replenish the bulb for next season.

Since that time I have been working feverishly to clean up ever inch of our property to make sure it looks well cared for, neat and pretty. Weeds seem to know this and I whenever I clear a flowerbed and move on to another area, during the night they send up new shoots to make me think I didn't weed the bed. I know some of it is due to the frequent rain showers that are helping the weed seeds in the soil to germinate, but wow, there must be centuries of accumulation!  Either that or the neigbors trolls are spreading new seeds in the dark of night.

I have been systematically cleaning out leaves, weeds, dead branches, old growth in all the flower beds and rearranging and planting new flower varieties that should be in bloom in May. Unfortunately, whenever I distrurb the soil, new weeds sprout because I gave their seeds the right conditions to germinate. I should mulch the beds when I finish, and that would slow down the weeds and also capture the moisture for my new plantings.

One of the biggest jobs was finishing a 130 foot drainage line from the front of the house to the back, inorder to divert all the water that pours into our property from the street. This project took a week, but it did work well when everything was put back and the pipe was in. A good torrential rain was a good test for it. Another  huge job was digging out the stumps of an 18 year old Oleander and a Lelandia Cypress that I had to cut down. Relandscaping and cleaning everything up took several days. The new look is a lot more pleasing, but I was sore for several days after.

I still have to finish taking all the bark out of the rose garden and reusing it in other parts of the garden, and then putting out new redwood mulch that is finer and more appropriate to dress it all back up. Fortunately I stopped the spread of Blackspot, and hopefully I can keep the aphids at bay until they begin to bloom in a few weeks.  Lets hope the weather holds and I can stay on track to assure that the garden is pristine for Mother's Day.  Oh well, so much for the break, time to get back to work!

When is a Painting Finished?

Sometimes I struggle with when to stop adding to my paintings. It is a question of when is enough detail or color enough? I have learned so much about the values of colors and how important it is to have differences and graduations between the darks and the lights in a painting.  But I still struggle at times with areas in a painting to make them look believeably real. I am a realist in my style of painting, and so am a stickler for detail and accuracy. My mentor however, does not waste a lot of time on detail, he paints beautifully and lets the viewer fill in the details he has not bothered to paint.

My instructor,  Reif Erickson, of Auburn is a master pastelist. He has written four books on the subject of painting and he has been a very successful pastel artist for many years. He is amazing to watch as he uses an photo as our object lesson of the day. He begins his sketch and then begins to apply the darker undertonesof color in various areas of the painting.

It is a treat to watch him start a painting from its early sketch with a darker pastel to its completion. He studies the photo and decides what he will include, and what he will leave out. Sometimes he will take a portion of a landscape photo and turn it into a portrait style of painting.  He takes time to sketch the details and scale of the painting. He can complete a 9" X 13" landscape pastel painting in about 30 minutes. He takes a drab photo, with washed out colors and within a short time creates a beautiful painting that has all of the undertones and colors lacking in the photo. What had been and unremarkable photo, becomes a painting that stimulates our eyes because the scene is so alive. He is a master in the use of color. When one stands six feet away, the painting looks so complete and beautiful, however, when one gets close, it is amazing how little detail is really there. Our eyes fill any voids, and blend colors to complete the painting.

I paint detail because I want to be able to show my viewer the beauty of something I see. I want them to experience every nuance and color that I found so interesting. I love to look paintings done by fellow artists who are as obsessed with detail as I am. I enjoy seeing their ability to show the grain of wood on a barn, the detail they have recreated in the bark of a tree, or the sheen of a horses coat from the sunlight. I marvel at their ability to paint life truly as they see it.  Looking at their paintings is like looking at a window of life for me. Perhaps that is why I am mired in detail, and not able to just splash color on a canvas and stop when I have a likeness. My goal is to recreate what I have seen so I can share what drove me to replicate it, not have you the viewer, fill in what I didn't paint and try and interpret what I was trying to communicate. I know my art may fascinate and please some who are wired like me. I also know that for those who think in the abstract, it will have no interest at all. That is okay too for there are other artists out there to please them. I on the other hand will continue to paint until it has reached my personal standard.  

The attached beach scene of a northern California Beach was one that I fussed over. I wanted to make sure that the surf looked real, so that the viewer could recall the way it breaks and spreads out on the sand and then recedes leaving a streamming of water as it flows back. I hope you enjoy my painting, and it brings back a memory for you.

Walking Two Large Male Dogs

Yeesh, I just got back from a frog marched walk/run with Amber and Eric's dogs. Ceasar, where are you, I could use a little help here! With these two, it does not help to whisper though. The minute you put the leashes on them, if they will sit still long enough for you to even get them hooked up they are ready to blast off into neverland. If I do not brace myself before I open the gate, I will be dragged through the flowers and across the lawn immediately. Hence the need to be very thorough about planting ones feet solidly, and leaning back as you flip the latch to open. While I have not lost it, I have left some skid marks in the grass and some scuff marks on the cement just trying to get up to the street.

These two, Murray a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix, and Jake a White Lab/Pitbull cross are typical male dogs.  They want to sniff every bush and tree, lampost and telephone pole, realestate sign and fence, and anything else high enough to pee on.  Several times tonight I felt like I was tied to a rack when the dogs chose different trees or bushes on either side of the sidewalk.  It is necessary to walk holding the leashed like I am about to do curls, because if I don't, I won't have the ability to stop their plunge or rush in a different direction. 

Anyone who sees me fast walking these two down the street takes on elook at Jake and recognizes the pitbull head and immediately crosses to the other side of the street. Really a shame. because if Jake had his way, he would lick them to death. He is fortunate to be heavy with Lab genes, and he just wants to be your friend.  Has his own mind, but is a loveable affectionate dog.  Murray on the other hand is schizophrenic when it comes to meeting new people along the way, unless they have a dog of their own. If they don't, he puts his head down, and bares his teeth and growls and barks. A nasty habit I am trying to gently break by quickly pulling up on his leash and saying stop, firmly. He seems to think that everyone but dog owners is going to hurt him or me. Dog owners are automatically accepted as good people because, well, in his mind they have a dog, and that makes them okay. They are safe because they are dog broke and he will sniff and let them pet him while he gets personal with their pet.

I try to be a good dog owner/care person and pick up after these two. They can crap like a 1000 pound steer without effort. One has to be ready with plastic bags to pick up their leavings quickly and carefully.  Again, one must brace oneself, make the dogs sit keeping one eye on the dogs and one eye on the hand that is trying to pick up their excrement with a doggie bag.  One does not want to be dragged over their leavings at that point. Yes I know, too much detail, but at least you were spared the smell!  Fortunately they both seem to know that they must hold their bowels until we get down to the park. They can pee to their hearts content on the way there, but they dare not lay any turds along the way. I try to keep them on a short leash until they get to the park for this very reason. 

I have to be ever on the look-out for cats or squirrels as we walk. If I am day dreaming, I will be snapped awake as they suddenly veer in the direction of some snotty taunting pussy cat who just loves to watch dog owners get dragged around. We have had several close calls, and some of these cats have no idea what they are playing with when it comes to these two died in the wool cat haters. I think they must have been teased by cats when in their back yard in Lincoln, because they just detest cats. The same goes for squirrels of course, and we have several in residence here that like to climb up a tree and scold them.

I made it down to the pond in Deer Ridge in record time tonight. The way back was just as exciting, and I certainly got my walk/run for the day. Stay tuned for more doggy tales.  

Busy Day, Workin Away

Today was another beautiful day in Auburn. We are enjoying this rain free period with bright sun and warm temperatures in the low seventies. I bought all the materials on Monday to be able to install some drains to collect the water that flows down from the improperly graded street, into our front yard and then pools by the North side of the house, and then flows under the house to exit on the South East side.  That much water under the house is too much even though I installed a drain. It makes too much dampness beneath the house and I do not want mold to take over.

Monday after coming back from Home depot and unloading 130 feet of 4 inch corex drain piping I began digging a trench along the sidewalk that goes around the front of the house to the small deck. The first twenty feet were not too bad, the ground was pretty soft and saturated with moisture. The next twenty feet were murder because I hit granite lava cap at 25 feet and so for the next 15 feet I had to use a pick to break the rock up. That really slowed me down, and I am sore tonight, and probably will take a day off of it tomorrow.

This afternoon after a shower and lunch, I thought I would try out my new (used) C&H mat cutter.  I had finished another pastel painting of "No Hands Bridge", that crosses the American River just below Auburn. The bridge was built for the Quarry Mountain Railroad line to haul gypsum from the mine further up the river. The old bridge was well built and has stood through many flood surges when newer bridges have been inundated and collapsed. 

I decided to double mat the picture, and used a reddish brown inside mat to compliment the painting and a antique white matting on the outside.  Before I could do that, I had to mount the pastel picture on some acid free  foam core and then take exact measurements so that my mats would look decent.  I cut the reddish brown one without any problems, but messed up the antique white one. The second try produced an acceptable mat and I was able to frame the picture in one of the 14X18 frames I purchased yesterday at Aaron Brothers art marts.  The picture is now sitting on a wall scounce shelf that I put up in my office today.

I also reframed and matted a picture Cindy had bought me of the Old Auburn Courthouse, and the color will now look a lot better when it is hung in the hallway. A busy day, but one in which I accomplished a lot.

Unusual Weather Day

Today was cool overcast and damp to start out. Such a huge change from Sunday when it felt like spring and flowers and trees were opening their blooms to the sunshine. Since it was so nice Saturday without rain, and not a cloud in the sky. I had decided to tackle felling a Lelandia Cypress tree that had been blown at a 40 degree angle into our flowering Japanes Plum tree during one of the recent storms. It looked like the plum tree was actually holding it up, since the root ball was rising and the ground was cracked open several feet back from the trunk of the cypress.

I lopped off a few large branches that were in amongst the plum tree branches so it wouldn't get too badly damaged when I dropped the cypress. I began cutting a notch in the trunk of the tree on the south side just back of the direction it was leaning. Unfortunately the wood there was very hard and my saw started smoking. I had put a new handle on my Pulaski and decided I would use it to cut the notch the rest of the way. After a few good whacks, I managed to cut a pretty decent notch in the tree and so I could begin sawing a new cut on the opposite side, just a little higher up.  It didn't take too long before the tree started to crack and begin its fall. For a minute I thought it was going to stay hung up in the plum tree, but it pulled free thanks to gravity and thumped to the ground across a sprawl of juniper bushes on the bank below right where I planned it. The plum tree branches just sprange back, I didn't lose a one.

Well needless to say, cutting up a 35 foot tree and loping all the branches took a considerable number of hours. Once I had cut everything from the top I stacked it up by the road, off my neigbors peoperty and then raked up the loose needles and small branches. I had quite a stack of firewood and several loads of slash branches to haul down to the bottom of the garden to burn.  I also cut down an Oleander and trimmed all the sucker branches out of the plum tree before I quit. I was plum tuckered out by then, and decided that I would clean the rest up the following day.

Well yesterday I managed to get my recalcitrant garden tractor going, and hitched the wagon behind it and drove it up to the front yard after cutting the backyard grass. I had loaded the wagon behind the tractor from a huge pile I'd stacked in our driveway. When it was time to go unload, I couldn't get the tractor going again. I hooked up my battery charger to the tractor battery and left it all night. I would tackle the rest tomorrow.

Well wouldn't you know, tomorrow is today and it was cool 45 degrees. My tractor still wouldn't start and it took some time to find I had a little water in the carbuerator bowl, and the battery terminals were probably too corroded to take a charge. After disasembling the connections and cleaning them, installing new bolts and tightening them up I was able to jump the battery and get the old tractor going. It took two full loads to carry all the slash to the bottom of our property. I also had a lot of firewood cut up and it made full wagon load to hall around to stack for next seasons firewood.  

I finished at 11:30 and came in the house after parking and covering up the tractor, as it seemed colder and was dark and threatening. Cindy made me a sandwich for lunch and then she looked outside and said its hailing!  The hail didn't last long, but was soon followed by rain. The rest of the day went from blustery to dark and stormy with sudden downpours. We made a Costco run down the hill to Roseville and ran into more hail just as we got to the store. After getting theessentials we needed we decided to have dinner out and had a wonderful Mexican food dinner in Lincoln at Casa Ramos. As we ate our dinner we were treated to a gloriously beuatiful sunset with pinks, mauves and orange tinges in the clouds. A nice close to a blustery day. Then it was time to go back home and unload the groceries and relax. Sorry if I bored you to death!

Pastel of Sedona

I decided to do a second pastel of Sedona Arizona, especially since my brother Michael sent me a really great shot that had an interesting view and lots of color. It seemed perfect to paint a pastel picture. I began with one of my standard 9X13" LaCarte pastel cards and sketched out a few details that would guide me, and make me stay in perspective. I went through the routine of putting in darker colors so I could overlay the lighter ones.  It was for some reason a lot more difficult than I had expected. The mountains or buttes had a lot of detail. Not only that, there were all these trees and bushes and prickly pear cactus that lined the pathway. I was not sure if I had enough different greens to show both shading and different bushes. The other element was the late afternoon suns rays that dappled the trees and bushes and left sunlight patches and shadow on the pathway.

It took some work, and a lot of detail to get the picture the way I wanted it. Once I was finished I was pleased with the end result. I posted it on my Flickr account and immediately started getting a lot of feedback from fellow artists. They sure help to give one confidence. When I took the painting to class, my teacher really liked it, as did my peer students. I hope you like it.

The UPS Delivery is Finally Here!

I had been hoping I would see the UPS truck stopping at my home this week. My C&H Deluxe, used professional mat cutter finally arrived from the framing store store I bought it from in Minnesota. Wow, it was a heavy package and rather ungainly to carry.  It was four feet long, and almost two feet wide and weighed fifty pounds.  I carried the big wrapped box into the house along with a smaller package that came for Cindy. It was a challenge getting through the door sideways holding the box and not bumping into anything on the way through.

Once I had given Cindy her package, I took my coveted box into my office and quickly saw that with all the heavy tape, that I would need a box knife to cut through the nylon stands in the tape. I retrieved one from the garage and then carefully cut the tape that was securing the ends and then slit open the box at each end. Sliding out the mat cutter was awkward mainly because it is heavy and doesn't slide well. I saw that it was wrapped with bubllewrap in several places to protect more sensitive parts. Way to go Ginny Ward, and thank you. Once I got all of the taped bubble wrap off, I could see I had a heavy duty mat cutting piece of equipment that was almost all in one piece. United Parcel had managed to bang up the box in transit and the top of one adjustment knob broke off, but I glued it back on with super glue.  I will probably end up sending for a new one since it is not likely to hold for long.

I cleared off my big 4'X8'drafting table that is set up in the garage and set the mat cutter up perpendicular to the table so that one end rested on a half inch stop to hold it in place. It was easy enough to attach the squaring arm and the stops that came with the cutter. It was also great to get almost a full box of mat cutter blades and also some long scraps of mat that Ginny sent for me to practice on. Before I could get started it was important to secure the cutter to the table and then read the instruction book that came with it so that I can minimize material waste and mistakes.  This is really neat stuff, because now I can begin matting my paintings professionally to properly preserve them and get them ready for framing.

Stay tuned for my mat cutter trials as I begin experimenting with my new toy!

He's Off to the Army

The days virtually flew by since Eric announced that he had enlisted in the US Army. When he broke the news to us, we were apprehensive for him, but also understood the decision he was making. He enlisted for a four year hitch as an MP. He is hoping that his four years military service and comprehensive training will help him land a job as a police officer when he gets out. Right now that field is seeing layoffs and any openings that occur are being filled by experienced officers.

These are tough times for folks with the high jobless rate, and the slowdown in our economy. They are even tougher for a newly wed couple starting out and trying to establish a home, and be comfortable. We are proud of Eric, and we know he will do well in the service. He has a good work ethic, and good bearing, and will work hard, and that will mean a lot in that environment. He and Amber have a good relationship, and we know she supports him and would have gone in the Army as well if she could.

As Sunday progressed and we had that great meal that Cindy made of Enchiladas, it was soon time for Eric to leave. He had packed his small army issue knapsack of toiletries, phone, stationary, stamps and a bag of great chocolate chip cookies that Amber made for him. It was time to meet the recruiter at the US Army recruiting station in Citrus Heights. As Eric and Amber walked out I snapped a picture for them to remember this day.  Eric quipped, oh, oh, the paparazzi!

As we dropped them off and he was told that he will spend the night at the Radisson hotel and fly out Monday to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri.  They call it Ft lost in the woods, and it is very cold there right now! He and Amber had that last embrace for a long while and he rode off with the recruiter. Amber will certainly be missing him over the next months.  Since Eric was gojng to be staying at the Radisson, we drove Amber down so they could have a little more time together before he leaves. When we got there, we learned that he is already under orders as to what to do, and where to go or not go since there will be other recruits arriving at the hotel.  So off we went for home, and perhaps Amber will get to say one more goodbye today before he leaves.

In the next months Amber will live with us while she continues on with her college and the job she recently landed as a personal trainer at a fitness center in Lincoln, while Eric goes through his basic and advanced training. She won't see him until July, and that is a long time to wait.

It makes me remember how I felt when I was drafted and reported to the US Army induction center in Los Angeles in 1966. Before I knew it I was whisked through the lines, proddded, examined, and interviewed and on a plane to Ft. Bliss Texas for basic training. Then I was off to Ft Ord for advanced training and then Kansas as the Ninth Division was formed up and trained so we could all be shipped to Viet Nam.

I'm hoping Eric receives a good assignment so that he and Amber can be in the US for awhile before he is deployed to some far off place. Keep him in your prayers will you, he will appreciate that very much and so will we!.   

A Beautiful Sunny Day to Garden!

How nice to wake up to blue skys and sunshine! We had a hard frost last night after yesterday's rain so everything is white and frozen.  My daffodils don't seem to mind and they are brightly turning their faces to the sun and showing off their finery. There are mostly all yellow or white daffodils with frilly white centers out at the moment, but we are still about a week to two weeks away from full bloom.  By then we will have a golden carpet of yellow flowering through the yard and many of the other varities will begin blooming.

Whyen I went to get the morning paper the thermometer said 32 degrees. My pickip was bathed in a coating of ice and frost. All of the water droplets from yesterdays rain were frozen on the body of the truck like little pebbles.  Thank goodness I did not need to go anywhere early today, I would need a scraper to clear the windows!

It should be a good day to finish pruning the nectarine tree and the three apple trees. Then I will respray since I have a day or so before the next rain comes through. I had an unexpected surprise on Saturday morning. Two ladies came knocking on the front door, and no they weren't from Watchtower (phew), they were Placer County Master Gardeners.  They asked if they could tour our garden, we had been recommended to be a part of their May 9th tour and they wanted to have a look.

I gladly took them on a tour of the garden to show them the various features we have landscaped. There are many flower beds filled with different varities of flowering bushes or flowers and crushed granite pathways take one to different places through the garden and under a couple of rose pergolas.  We have 54 different rose varities, which are just beginning to sprout new growth, many different Day Lilys, a variety of Peonies and our little pond with prety goldfish and a waterfall.

The ladies were very pleased with what they saw, and said they would like to put us on the tour along with our next door neighbors Al and Kay. They said it would be great to have two houses side by side that people could wander from one to the other to enjoy the gardens. They asked if I would participate and I said yes, thinking about the work I must do to make sure that the garden is worthy of people's time to visit. Since it is May, I have several months to whip it into shape. Guess I had better get started!

The Neccessity of a Mat Cutter

Since I began pastel painting in ernest I have completed 24 paintings. I have framed three of them, one for my brother Michael, one for my daughter Amber and one is hanging in our entryway. That leaves twenty-one paintings that are sitting in my portfolio case that Amber and Eric bought me for Christmas. Just the cost of matting 21 paintings is mind boggling.  After spending $50,00 just to frame one of my paintings before Christmas I found how expensive it is to have mats cut at retail or cutom outfits. Just having mats cut at Arron Brothers or Michaels is pricey, there is no such thing as a deal. Most pictures today have an inner and outer mat and a 9X13" picture fits in a 14X18 stock frame. I have had a couple of mats cut for me at Michaels and they cost $26.00. If I were to mat all of my pictures with two mats I would be looking at an out of pocket expense of $546.00! The cost of frames would run at least another $500.00 or more. Needless to say, I will not likely mat and frame a couple of my early pictures, but the bulk of them will be matted and then I will have to choose which ones to frame for a show.

I began looking on the Internet for mat cutters and found that a reasonably priced better quality cheap mat cutter was going to run my $349.00 so that is no small investment. Then I began looking at chat sessions on mat cutters and found that most  people that had purchased the one I was thinking of buying were having fits with it and some said it was a piece of junk. Oops, this required some closer scrutiny and more research and more visits to discussions by artists and photographers about mat cutters. I found several good sessions and the two mat cutters that received the most praise were the C&H brand and the Fletcher brand mat cutters.  Of course I began checking prices on this equipment and found that the Fletcher cutters ran in the thousands of dollars, and the C&H mat cutters were in the $850.00 to $1600 range!

Wow, it is obvious I do not want a troublesome piece of equipment, and I can't afford a cadillac either. With that in mind, I began looking for used mat cutters and found a company back east that sold mat cutters from frame shops that went out of business. Those expensive cutters were still very pricey and close to $1,000 used but after checking week after week, I found a used C&H cutter that originally sold for over $1300.00  for $395.00. I quickly bid on the cutter and found out the next day that I had won the cutter for the $395.00 bid. Well that was exciting, and they asked me to deal directly with the seller, a lady in Minnesota who was selling some of her framing equipment to make room for things that sold more readily. We chatted on the phone and closed the deal and the mat cutter will be shipped this week.  I received an email from the lady saying she had found the original instruction book and also the stops for the cutter and  extra baldes. I was pleased to hear that, and asked if it was possible to get some matting material thrown in with the deal.  She and I spoke on the phone again and she said she will send some matting material and foam core to mount the pictures on. She will use the materials to pack the cutter in a box. It will be great to get some supplies, but even better to get the cutter. That will be something to look forward to setting up in my workshop.

When it arrives and I will install it on my 4'X8' drafting table, thenI can begin cutting mats for my paintings. That will be the first phase, and the next phase will be to search the web for deals onframes!  

Pt Arena Lighthouse.

Have you ever been to Pt Arena Lighthouse?  It is a really beautiful spot on the Pt Arena headland of the Mendocino coast. It is a windy fresh air filled spot on one of the most beautiful coasts of north America. Rugged coastline, pounding surf, barking seals, sea gulls crying and whirling with the wind and California Brown Pelicans diving into the sea to catch their breakfast lunch or dinner.  I am sure that 100 years ago these were treacherous waters for the ships that would sail to the town of Mendocino to load up logs and lumber.

The lighhouse was first built in the 1870's but was damaged by the 1906 earthquake and susbequently rebuilt out of concrete and steel.  The lighthouse is 115 feet tall, so it is a good climb up a lot of steps for a great view. The windswept headland provides tremendous views of rocky steep cliffs and off shore rocks that are constantly battered by the sea.

When Cindy and I visited this beautiful spot, it was a beautiful clear day with no clouds at all. We were able to take a number of photos of the lighthouse and the coastline while we were there sightseeing.  Theis lighthouse is maintained by the Friends of the Lighthouse and has a museum packed with old photos and history of this site. There is also a gift shop with many interesting gifts.

I decided that this lighthouse would be a great subject for a pastel painting and so I began searching through our photographs for the pictures we took. I finally found a series of photos and found one that would be a good reference for me. I was not daunted by the difficult rock formations and busy sea scape that provided a great challenge for me to paint. I did note that the photos were devoid of clouds but this grand lighthouse needed clouds to set it off.  Ever the artist, I added some great cumulous clouds to frame it. Hope you enjoy the finished painting. Hopefully it will inspire you to visit theis gorgeous coast to see it for yourself.

Good Grief its Saturday!

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't written anything since Tuesday. I have tried to play catch up this week, getting chores done around our acre yard.  The constant rain has put me way behind schedule in the garden department. The weeds are growing rampantly everywhere, sucking up as much mositure as they can. Wherever they have managed to poke through mulch, they are four times as big as those on bare ground. Did you catch that? Yep mulch, the garden's natural fertilizer made of grass clippings and decomposing leaves makes things grow really well especially when you compost it and break it down further. Well I had best not digress from my ramblings and keep going with what must be done.

I managed to round-up my decomposed granite paths throughout the garden, and all of the gravel areas out front.  Had I waited any longer they would have been covered by weeds. I still have to clear a lot of broken limbs on trees that were weighted down by snow last December, or have blown down in the high winds. I have large piles of trimming gowing in several places in the bottom of the yard.

There are over fifty five roses to be sprayed in our yard. Yep really that many, and while I managed to get the bush roses pruned there were still three climbing roses to prune back on Trellises. I love roses and am a sucker for some of the new beautiful roses with wonderful scents. They just light up a garden from early spring on. I love the fact that they flower all summer and into the fall until the heavy frost. There are always many different blooms to chose from to make a bouquet for my wife. Three years ago our roses and flowering garden featured in the Auburn Journal. Rose care is a big issue when you have that many to feed, water and prune.

Yep, I'm a flower nut, and another one of my loves is Daffodils.  I have naturalized many different varities all over our yard in various flower beds, under trees, in the orchard, just wherever I can find a spot that needs brightening.  As a result, the daffodil bloom is stunning once it really gets under way. It has already started, and within a few weeks should be really showy. Two years ago our Daffodil bloom was also featured in the Auburn Journal, since we have thousnads of the littler beauties of many different varities growing everywhere.

Geesh I'm digressing horribly, I still have trees to prune in the orchard. Okay so its a small orchard, I did manage to prune the Pluot, the Santa Rosa Plum, Bartlett Pear, Peach and start on the Nectarine tree this week in between rain showers. I still have two apple trees to go. I also managed to spray the Pluot, Peach and Nectarine against Peach leaf curl which would eventually weaken and kill the tree if not treated.

I have been weeding like crazy, trying to get the little blighters out before their seed heads mature and scatter the next generation of nasties all over my garden. That is a chore since I have so many flower beds. While they are a lot of work, they are a labor of love, and there is no more satisfying feeling than strolling through a flowering garden on a warm day, smelling the many fragrances, viewing the many colors and listening to the chatter of birds everywhere.

So there you have it, my lame excuse for not blogging. Oh, I was also distratced by painting. No not the house, new paintings, I'll talk more about those later or tomorrow. See ya.

We Are a Household Again

Amber and Eric got here late last night after another round of moving and cleaning. It appeared when I was there yesterday that most everything had been packed, and the furniture was gone. We had a warm clean furnished room for them to sleep in last night, and had put most of Amber's stuff away so she didn't have to unpack when she got here. They both were tired, and hit the sack early.

It is chaos with three dogs, we have our own big dog, Chica a Shepherd, Golden Retriever cross and she is fifteen years old. We had taken Murray ambers three-year old rambunctious male Australian Sheherd, Border Collie, and Lab cross several weeks ago and have spent weeks just loving him and getting him to settle down into a routine of walks, playtime and rest time.  He is adapting well and minds me, as well as follows me everywhere.  Wherever I decide to sit, he lays down at my feet, if I move, he moves. Sometimes I move because he has fouled the air with his gas, but he is completely oblivious.

Well last night, Jake a three year old rambunctious male Labrador and Pit Bull cross came with Ercic and Amber.  They have been trying to find a home for him, but have had no luck so far. Three big dogs is three too many, and while Jake is loveable and friendly. (He'll lick you to death.) he being male, wants to run and play with Murray. Add the fact that this is Chica's domain, and she is the alpha female, and we have to make sure we separate them in different rooms so as not to have a clash. This is Chica's house and she is used to being the loving protector and no one, no matter how young and strong, is going to usurp that.

Chica sleeps in our bedroom on her own dog bed, and we put Jake and Murray in the Laundry room for the night. Murray had been sleeping in the laundry room for the past few weeks and is quite happy with that space.  Walking three dogs is more than I can handle, two is a challenge I have mastered and Murray and Chica with no problems. They are both fine on leash. Jake is fine on a leash, he just has not had the discipline so it will take a while to work with him until we can find him a home.  I cannot put up with three dogs in the house, especially when two of them want to run and play from room to room. They both shed white hair wherever they go and that is giving Cindy and the vaacuum fits. It has already plugged up with hair once this week.

Well as we get used to having Eric and Amber in the house it will be a fun change. It is much quieter with just Cindy and I so the disruption will be a good change for awhile.  Eric's stay is actually much shorter because he leaves for his training in lesss than three weeks.  Stay tuned!

Well its Moving Day

Sorry my blog has been a little spotty this week. In anticipation of our daughter Amber and her husband moving in with us, we have been doing our own moving and cleaning to make room for them.  Our son's old bedroom had been converted to a guest room, but the closet was stuffed with Cindy's craft supplies and large boxes of pictures taken through our life. Which means, we have to go through them and organize them someday!

Cindy worked hard and cleaned out the hall closet so that she could move most of her craft supplies and the photographs there. Old games, puzzles with missing pieces, and other unneccessary items from many years accumulation began to emerge and get placed in the save pile or tossed in the discard pile.

While Cindy was feverishly working in the house, I was trying to bring some order to our packed and messy garage. Two years ago, Amber lugged many bags and boxes of her brother and her toys down form the attic. She planned to have a big garage sale to make some money, but it never materialized. As a result one of the parking stalls in my garage became a heap of miscellaneous dusty saw dust covered junk. The sawdust came from my work on rebuilding our back deck, since my chop saw was used outside the garage, but a lot of sawdust drifted in.

All of the boxes of our sons' things that were cleaned out of his room some months back by Amber had also found refuge in the garage. I began going through garbage bags of toys of every description and age era. Anything damaged, broken or badly soiled or worn was tossed, and any toys that looked new or relatively so were packed in boxes with similar items. I tried also to separate things by age appropriateness.  I managed to fill our large trash can pretty full with discarded items from the hall closet and also the garage. However; there were a number of "saved" items from the hall closet that also had to find refuge in the garage.

I also managed to clean out everything from one area and began stacking labeled boxes one on top of another to organize the former chaos into a tolerable heap. I did make some good progress, and did clear some space, but there is still more work to do. I even have a whole room of Amber's former wicker furniture stacked and cleaned in the agarage. Obviously when the weather improves, we have to have a big garage sale. It would be so nice to be able to see the floor again!

Well now I have to be off to Lincoln to get another load of Amber and Eric's things that are coming to our home. Tonight we will be a family of four again. In three weeks, Eric goes off to his Army basic and MP training at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. My littlepick up is coming in handy already. Fortunately most of their furniture and belongings are going into storage in Lincoln because there just isn't room in the garage. I'll let you know how the day pans out, wish me luck!

A Trial for My Pastel Painting Experience

This has been a fulfilling week of pastel painting. I had started a pastel of Sedona, Arizona on Tuesday evening and then worked on it some more on Wednesday evening. While I didn't finsih, I had a comfortable start to a very difficult piece.

Thursday in class Reif Erickson had a new challenge for us to paint, a solitary grizzeled old pine growing right out of rocks on a mountain peak. Watching Reif paint the picture was really fascinating because he is so deliberate and so steady with everything he does.  I guess if I had been doing it for twenty five years I might have the same steadiness, but since I am a newbie, I take my time.  Reif finished his painting and said okay, now its your turn. We were all marveling at what he had started and finished in about twenty five minutes.

I carefully sketched my pastel painting outlines using a light blue pastel so that I would not have any dark colors to worry about. I have gotten in the habit of starting at the top and working down so that I don't smudge my painting. I put the sky in first and then began painting in the trunk of the tree, the branches. Then I roughed in the rocks on either side and on the bottom.  I got a pretty good start in class during the hour plus we worked and got it roughed in with foundation color. On Friday since it was raining off and on, I worked on the pastel later in the day and finished it that evening. I usually use a fixative on my pastels so that they don't smudge easily. For some reason, I didn't use the Krylon fixative I usually us and decided to use the Sennelier, fixative which I have used as a final fix. I sprayed it on the pastel in the garage, because the stuff has a pretty strong odor, and then left it to dry.  I came back about a half hour later and to my shock, the fixative had separated the pastel in the sky and really made a mess of the painting. Ye gads, I was shocked and hoped I could fix the painting. This is the second time Ihave had trouble with the Sennelier brand of fixative.

Once it was dry, I repainted the entire sky carefully working around the tree and its branches. In some places I had to go back in and touch up the trunk or branches because I had overpainted them with blue. The I began putting the clouds back in and got  the sky back to where it should be with a little darker blue at the corners. I added some shading and color to the rocks and finally had it done. This time I used the Krylon Fixative on the pastel and everything worked out just fine. I photographed it and posted it on Flickr with my other pastels and called this painting, "The Sentinel.".

The following morning when I logged on, I was surprised to see that I had been invited to add several of my pastels to an invitation only painting art and photography group. I filled out the application on line, it was approved and I moved the paintings they had requested I submit. To my surprise, one of the paintings was soon listed as a favorite with a Florida artist.  When I added this painting to the new group it was immediately commented on and listed as a favorite by another artist. So as you can see, this has been a good week for me and pastel painting. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the Sedona painting.

Well I am Definitely Hooked!

I don't think I have ever been as passionate about anything in my life as pastel painting. Okay, well lets recast that, I haven't been as passionate since I began courting Cindy, and wouldn't quit hounding her until she said yes. Yes, I know, a different kind of passion, but we won't go into that! That kind of passion turns you inside out and upside down in a wonderful way. The great part is we have been married thrity years and this year makes thirty-one.

Thanks to my sweetie, who jump started me in this passion for pastels and continues to encourage me as I continue to find new subjects to paint. It is very relaxing to be able to sit down and sketch out a subject that will become another painting. It isn't work, and when the creative juices are charged and a painting begins to come to life with each new additional color or line, it provides the artist, moi, with a great deal of satisfaction. To date I have painted 21 paintings and am going strong thinking of new subjects and challenegs I want to try.

I started a new pastel last night that will be a recreation of a beautiful photograph that my brother sent me.  He took the photo on his recent trip to Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, Arizona.  The buttes in the photo are an orange, red, and mauve color, with many other colors thrown in as well. There is a weathered barn in the photo and a lot of bright green trees, that look a lot like cottonwoods.  It should make a beautiful painting if I can get the colors just right. The only flat part was the sky, but a few days ago I was out taking pictures of the beautiful clouds that filled the air in every direction, and I found a much more intense sky to use with this painting. It is so much fun to play withy nature, and make eye pleasing adjustments in a painting that will bring everything together.  Often when we take pictures, or begin a sketch of something, not all the elements are quite perfect. The fun part is making them perfect by adjusting colors, removing detracting objects or adding a point of interest. Professional photographers use this techinque by using Photoshop to enhance colors or remove offending obects.

Since pastel painting has become such a passion I decided to join the Placer Arts Group here in Auburn. My goal is to be able to participate in the art walk this coming April. If you have never participated, tickets are $10.00 per person. Ticket holders can walk or drive to the various restaurant and coffee house venues to look at the paintings on display and also get a glass of wine at the various stops.

I already have sufficient paintings to be a participant in the artwalk, but I need to decide on the best ones and get them matted and framed for the show. That will be a costly endeavor and I am already thinking about ways to reduce the costs of both the matting and framing process. Stay tuned for my solutions to this dilema. 

Firey Sky

Today was a beautiful cool day with some sun and a lot of clouds.  Several times it looked as if it would rain. It was one of those days that allowed me some time to work in the garden. Later in the day after Cindy and I had gone shopping down the hill to Trader Joe's and Costco to replenish our groceries.  We drove home in dark overcast skies.  It seemed as if rain was surely going to fall at any minute.

The dogs could care less if it poured, so I decided to take them on their walk.  Just in case I put on a hat and coat, because I don't care to get wetter than necessary. Fortunately the rain held off, while I was excercising the dogs. As  we started back home I was amazed at the rich orange colors in the sky.  Of all days not to have my camera with me!  I hurried along hoping to get past the homes that were blocking the view and came out next too the woods. The sky was fantastic, and almost looked as if it were on fire.  Bright yellow at the horizon, giving way to orange and the red.  The clouds above this first band wer dark grey to black on the bottom and lighter grey on top. Then there was another band of almost reddish orange sky, and above that more intense clouds that looked like thunderheads. Those clouds gave way to a grey layer above that was tinged with greys and pinks. I got home  too late to phtograph it, but I had studied the colors because I wanted to paint what I had just seen.

Dinner was ready when I got home, and so I had time to relax and eat with Cindy.  After dinner and clean-up, I went over to my pastels and grabbed a piece of paper and began to sketch the clouds. My neigborhood would not have added anything to this sunset I had seen with its intense clouds so I drew in far distant mountains.  The colors seemed to flow, and I had no reference other than my memory to produce them.  I looked at some pictures of New Mexico and thought that some of the elemnts would make a believable foreground. I especially liked on that had  a dry river bed and abandoned run down corral like ones I have seen on the open range. The finished pastel painting is the one accompanying this blog tonight.  Hope you enjoy it.

The Garden is Awakening from Winter's Slumber

Those of you who garden know that winter is a time to relax, and not worry about the myriad number of things that have to be done to care for a garden. Here in Auburn we do have fours seasons, occasional snow and lots of cold temperatures that end any blooming periods or annuals lives. Folks in the midwest and east coast get a much longer rest, for many of their gardens are still buried in snow. At this time of year many folks are looking through seed catalogs while others are drawing  plans for their new garden or gathering information on new plants to make changes in their various garden areas. Its planning and preparation time. 

Winter for some of us is a time to prune dead wood off trees, or perhaps prune fruit trees, berry bushes or roses.  I have all of those to work on in our heavily cultivated acre with a small orchard and over fifty roses. It is also a time to cut back dead foliage and mulch the garden to provide new nutrients and inhibit weed growth.  Since I made some changes in the garden after the frosts put it to sleep, I am beginning to see the furits of my labor already popping up through the soil. I put in two new tulip beds with fiftty tulips, ringed by daffodils and daffodils ringed by Blue Hyacinth. The eleven plus inches of rain we have had this month are generating a lot of growth in the various varieties of bulbs.  It is amazing to see large clumps of daffodils already pushing up six inches above the ground.  Tulips too are pushing their shoots through the soil, and dutch Iris bulbs have a head start on their foliage. It appears that the daffodil and tulip bloom will be early this year, probably in the next three weeks we will have some glorious colors bursting forth in the garden.  

I made the decision to put our Satsuma Mandarin Orange tree in the ground this year since its pot is crumbling. I dug a hole for it yesterday but unfortunately I saw today that it was full of water, so its obviously too wet a location.  I don't want it to drown, so tomorrow I will choose a new site. I prepared the ground today for our first seedless purple grape vine and put metal stakes in to support the vines when they grow.  I planted our first vine in freshly dug well mulched soil.  Tomorrow I will string the support wires to train the the vine to spread out on.  Another four days of rain will give it a good start.

It was great to get outside today in the sunshine and get some preliminary work done.  The soil is still really too wet for extensive work, but its easy to dig and I successfully uprooted some wild blackberries that were spreading. There is still a great deal to do, but tomorrow I will pick an easier challenge!

Storm Clouds

Today's clouds were absolutely a ten on a ten scale. They billowed high and lofty thousands of feet into the air pushed by strong wind currents. Some looked like beautiful fluffy white cotton, while others looked dark and menacing.  They were like eye candy for an artist or a cloud watcher, so majestic. I can remember laying on my back in the grass when I was a kid and just watching the clouds go by.  A friend and I would call out what we could see in their contours. It was a fun game, one that tickled the imagination.

I couldn't just walk the dogs and admire these clouds. They were too awe inspiring, because they were the very kinds of clouds one wants to set off a special place, or a panoramic vista.  Where are these clouds when I am out shooting photographs of places like Yosemite?

As soon as I got back home, I unleashed the dogs in their fenced area, and went back into the house and grabbed my camera. I hopped in my truck and was off to find a high point.  A hill is where I could get the best of views without obstructing these beautiful creations.

I believe I succeeded, for I now have a dozen or more different slides that will give me ideas to enhance future paintings. Hope you enjoy the view. Don't forget to pay attention to the clouds out there.  

Dusk Settling Over the River

Yesterday I spoke of my realization that there is a lot more colors in things than first meets the eye. My challenge yesterday was to paint a pastel from a pretty lifeless photo. I cheated as artists often do and added some clouds, because there were none and I used a plethora of color to bring the painting alive. I titled this finished piece "Dusk Settling Over the River." 

This pastel reminded me of the times when I have sat by a river as the sun is setting.  Shadows lengthen, the light mutes and a soft pink light comes into the sky. The reflection in the river also changes as the water begins to tutn a darker blue with rose colored highlights. It is always quieter, birds are still flying and twittering, and because of the coolness, swallows are dancing over the water catching the bugs that are starting to fill the night air. The hills or mountains still in full sun take on a golden glow as the suns receding rays play over them. Crickets chirp, and frogs begin a cacaphony of noise as if to celebrate the coolness of the evening. Fish rise to the surface and here and there you hear their splash as they leap up to catch an insect that is close to the water. The air cools and you can feel the dampness, and smell the scent of fresh grass. Sometimes you will hear the soft whoo, whoo of an owl, rousing itself to begin the nights hunt.

Perhaps you can think of times when you sat by a river, and that time and place are in your thoughts as a pleasant memory. I hope you can go back in time. I just did.

  

The light Goes On!

Painting with pastels has become a passion, a huge enjoyment and also greatly satisfying to me. I have been going to the home of one of our terrific local Auburn pastel artist's, Reif Erickson on most Thursdays since November of last year. Reif always has a challenge for us, and he shows us his technique in his paintings as we watch him produce a 9X13" painting in about 30 minutes.  He talks as he paints to underscore things that he wants us to learn about painting with pastels. Once he is done, he takes a copy of the picture he used as his model, and hands it to each of us and says, now its your turn.

We go back to our easels or pastel boards shaking our heads.  We have been amazed at how quickly Reif can produce a finished painting, that is more attractive than the photo he used as the idea for the painting. His paintings don't duplicate the photo, he crops them or realigns the photo so that it is more interesting or more in scale, or some unsightly item is eliminated in his finished product.  Yes, he has an artist's eye.  He successfully does this treatment with his paintings because he has a highly developed sense of color, and seems to be able to see all of the underlying colors in  a scene that don't appear to the average novice. Each week, he has pointed out colors that are not dominant in a photo, that he accentuates in his painting to give it warmth and color. Those nuances that separate the finished product from okay to pleasing to the eye.

I have been painting with pastels now for almost three months and have completed about 19 paintings since I started.  Half of those are subjects I have chosen outside his studio setting, just to challenege myself and get a feel for the medium and what I can do with it.  I have chosen some subjects with a great deal of color challenges so that I could beging to blend and highlight them for effect. I know I haven't learned everything there is to know by a long shot, but today was a breakthrough for me. I watched Reif take a very flat looking unintersting rather dark photo taken in late afternoon of mountains and a river near Clear Lake and turn it into a beautiful colorful vista. He never dithered over color choices once while executing his painting.  I remarked when he finished that it was far better than the photo, and much more interesting. He said yes, today is about creativity, and what you can do with this drab photo. Today's excercise is to stimulate the imagination.

Reif's words really hit me at that point, because I finally realized that as an artist he could turn the mundane into something beautiful, the lifeless photo into something that was alive and immediately drew your eye to its color.  That is what any really good artist can do. Take your eye away from the imperfections and show you the beauty. I thought to myself, if I applied myself with that thought, I could do the same thing! So instead of looking at what Reif had done and the colors he chose, I examined the drab photo and decided to highlight the colors I saw that would bring this picture alive.  I thought, I would even add some that weren't there just to give it punch. That was really a defining moment for me, because it released any inhibition I may have had, and made me want to use as much color as I could to charge my picture with interest and life.  I was experimenting, blending, shading, overlaying and infusing color into my painting like I knew what I wanted and what I was doing. Reif watched me from across the table or over my shoulder a few times but never said anything.  He walked around the room as he always does, giving people suggestions, complimenting their progress and showing some of the newer students how to get a particular affect or color.

As my painting began to come together, and my colors and formations were dappled with different colors I could tell that he knew I had made a departure from what he had done.  He watched as I leaned back to look at it and said, "that is really coming together nicely Paul." I smiled and thanked him, and said I am having fun just using a lot of color. "So, I can see, he said, and it looks good." After all the weeks of instruction, I think the light when on today, I am beginning to feel the colors!  I am realizing the subtleties that make a difference to the eye.