'Salida February' - QS#368

A little over two hours. 8" X 16", acrylic on canvas. Friends house in Salida Colorado. Photo from which the painting was done, taken Feb. 2013.
Greens came out a little bright in the photo of the painting, but you get the idea. . .

I love the internet. . .

Those of you who had a hard time getting me to get my first computer, . . . thank you.
I did hold out, fearing of giving my life away to computers, and I guess if you ask my wife at the right time, she may say I did.
Actually I don't get as much time on it as I would like, but I am grateful for the time I do get.
I wish I was artistically more creative on them, but I do OK. I am no johnny bling, but I do OK.

It at once makes life easier and at the same time lazier. We can find out information a lot quicker, but fail, sometimes to do the leg work to validate our research. But I will let historians worry about that.

But anyway, back to my point.
Since being on line, and especially writing blogs and doing research I have discovered wonderful things and 'met' great people.

I communicate on a regular bases with favorite artists, Hollywood stunt women and cartoonist/illustrators I really admire. I have made friends with people in Yorkshire that I hope will buy me a pint next time I go over. I have found people who have shown me photos of my family I didn't even know existed.
That one was while doing research on my dads old RAF unit.

And this trend seems to be continuing. While doing research this week on one of my uncle's war record, I communicated with the historian of his old division. The 4th and 7th royal tank corp of WWII.

And after that research I can now say I have communicated with a 'Sir'. A real person who has Sir in front of his name. Not the same kind of sir I get when I go into the International House of Pancakes. You know the kind of sir I mean; "Sir, would you like to see the senior menu?" No, not that kind.

I mean the kind like Laurence Olivier has in front of his name,Sir, but for something different. Tank related.

My uncle was in the tank corp. during the war and was captured in a battle in Tobruk and was held prisoner by the Germans for the rest of the war. I only got to meet him once or twice, so never got to know much about him. He had no kids, so I have no leads there. He didn't talk about his experience to my mom or dad, and we moved away before I got to know him. I am trying to fix that.

Well, anyway. I had a response back from the historian and he had a Sir in front of his name.
That doesn't happen to me everyday. The kind of sir that starts with a capital 'S'. You know the kid I mean.

Sir Laurence New, real person. Go here to see.  That is so cool, don't you think?
He hasn't been able to help me with information,  . . .  yet, but he did respond. How many Sirs do you know who would do that. I mean, come on, he has probably met the Queen. I think that is cool.

Isn't the Internet amazing?

Stumped

Yesterday, Sunday, I took my first autumnal trip for this year out to the cabin. Perfect weather.

Sky was clear, temp. in the upper 50's, color just starting to change.

Well, while hard at work. . . I had an artistic brain storm, if that's possible.

While walking around the woods I had an idea for an artistic photography project that I was sure would be the next trend setting art thingy.

In the course of re-building log building and then heating them with a stove you end up with lots of stumps.
Tree stumps. All made of wood. Different sizes. And over a few years, in different stages of decay.

Each one unique in pattern. Just like the human ear lob, none are alike.

So I started walking around taking pictures.
I could almost recall why each tree gave itself to something I used it for.

Some became tables for forest creatures to dine on.
Some became homes.
Some just became resting places for other decaying matter. But each one was unique.
So, here are a few I took photos of.

This first one has started to form a hole down the middle and it is getting harder to count the rings.

 

 This one, splitting but still intact.

 You can tell I did an uneven job of sawing this one by the two different levels of cuts.
But the green is assume.

 This one has started growing green hair, and where it is still bald, it is wearing a hat of leaves.

 This one a perfect holder for a newly fallen nut.

 A resting spot for limbs.

 All browns, no greens.

 Uneven cut, and split.

You could still count most of the rings.

While ones that fall naturally are uneven and jagged. And are usually much quicker to decay.

 Sharing space with other plants.















Of course there are other things going on also.
The color of the moss.

 And this incredible beauty growing in the hollow under a live tree.

About the size of a big dinner plate, I had never seen anything like it before.

Some sort of fungus, and I am researching the name.

It was just beautiful.

Our conservationist Ombudsman said this about it:
'It is a fungus called chicken of the woods or sometimes called sulfur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus). It is an edible species'









 Another great day out at the cabin.

This is the view of the two cabins together, which I don't show very much.
No reason, it just doesn't happen.

The new Log Blog post made it to . . .. .

Cabin Porn

New post on Log Blog

Log Blog

As if he isn't busy enough, he has time to paint. . .

Paintings by Prince Charles.

What's it mean when they are this color and this woolly?

Did you know. . . ?

Two of the last surviving WWI soldiers were Missouri natives?

Harry Richard Landis

Frank Buckles

QS# 367 -'Near Palmyra Mo.'

Acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14, taken from my photo, near Palymyra Mo. Picture of painting taken with an IPAD. About two hours.

.

Participating in Sepia Sat. #200 - so this is a link to a re-post with update.

Sepia Saturday is celebrating 200 posts, so they have asked for favorite re-posts. So here is a link to mine.
I have also included an update on the photo with the name of the pilot added, thanks to Mehdi from that post.

I don't go for 57 years, now I have been four times - Disney once again.

This time we planned it around daughters fall break, and got to see Disney's Halloween.
First day we played at a water park, 'Blizzard Beach'.

Yeah! Mickey!















Second day Animal Kingdom.

 This year she had a friend to do a lot of things with.

Looks like the real thing.




















Day three, Hollywood Studios.

 Where she really wanted these stunt drivers autographs.

And we ate at the Italian restaurant that had cupcakes as big as her head.



















Fourth day, Epcot.

 Where we got to visit Mary in England and

. . . make merry in Germany.

We even made a stop in Scotland for veggie haggis (which I didn't know was possible).




















Day five would be Magic Kingdom to celebrate Halloween.

Where it seems Disney was even able to pull off a foggy morning to make the castle look scary.

 Pumpkin Mickey's.

Crowd getting ready for the parade.

(The light show on the castle was fantastic)

Even got to meet her twin.















Back to the water front and Typhoon Lagoon for our next stop. . .

 Where we snorkeled with sharks and. . .

 . .  rays.

And played in the waves.















Last evening after all the water sports we ended in Downtown Disney for toy buying and an Irish Meal

Raglan Road was the place.

 Fish and Chips and a pint for me.

Along with some Irish music and dance.

Again, Disney is in the detail, and there was a great deal of that.

Treat from out West. Michael Haynes art work

Heard from Michael just before we went on vacation, so will catch up here with his latest. (in his words)

I have! Bryan was out here for a few days and we went painting. About an hour apiece. I've attached a couple and a photo Bryan took of me painting one of them.

I was recently awarded a huge contract for doing about 20-25 large paintings of Indian life along the Natchez Trace by the National Park Serv but you know where we are on that. Dead in the water. This is a multi year project that is one of the most significant bodies of work of my career. Those stupid Tea party idiots had no idea what effects their posturing has on all kind of contractors, etc… Of course they don't seem to have any legitimate ideas  regarding what the rest of us might call reality. 

Also had some of my Lewis and Clark paintings open at the Woolaroc Museum ( http://woolaroc.org/) in Oklahoma and, closer to home, an exhibit of 8 paintings I did of the tribes native to Missouri opened at the Mercantile Library 2 weeks ago. Each painting has an associated artifact featured in the painting that is on display beside the painting. I hope to make it home to check that out before it closes.

Mike at work.

(It's gotta be hard going into work with this kind of 'office')

The works. (For my artist friends, Mike said they each took about an hour, remember.)

Mike's brother, Bryan, has had a lot of great stuff going on with his work lately, check it out here.

Bryan at work.

Final harvest

Fall is here, and after a very late start, the plants are about done.
Lots of pumpkins and watermelons. The melons, though small, are very sweet.
We also got some more green beans and tomatoes.
Time to hibernate.