Power of Prayer

The puppy in my older posts below came from a breeder in Rimforest, next door to Lake Arrowhead, which is still under seige from a terrible wildfire. I have great concern for the breeder of this dog and their dogs. The area was under evacuation orders I believe yesterday. I also have friends in Arrowhead and Arrowbear, Malibu, Topanga Canyon, family in San Diego, Frazier Park, and in more of the affected fire areas. I know I don't get much in the way of readers of this blog, it's mostly for myself to see my work in a different format. The best comments are from bloggers who aren't in the arts, or who are in the arts but not blogging.. ;D
I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, not so much to get "stuff" but to move and shift the great and small currents of the universe to create best possible outcomes for the greater good or to open doors. If you read this and believe or not, please say prayers for the brave firefighters out there now with 3 days of exhausting work behind them, more ahead of them, and not enough equipment to do the job. Pray for all the people in SoCal who are now homeless, who may have lost everything, or who don't yet even know, and for the people displaced from the comforts of whatever home they may have to evacuation centers. Also please pray for the wildlife in these forests. I'm a Buddhist but my Christian roots have no conflict with that, and Buddhists pray as well. Look at it as a way to improve your conscious contact with God, while sending some positive energy to your fellow man. Photos are off the 'net and are top to bottom near Fallbrook (Photo: GETTY IMAGES/David McNew), another unID'd image, the Witch fire (Photo GETTY IMAGES/Sandy Huffaker), and an Arrowhead neighborhood (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times).

Oct OH! ber! A work in progress...

No pics yet but I'm working on an oil portrait commission and have small paintings to put up for auction. I have not been inspired so much to sit in front of the easel lately, but I have been making progress in other areas that are important to me. It will all circle back around soon enough. I have been putting a lot of time into my favorite project though, which is my pup! I groom him myself, which is a way to practice the sculpture I did for 25 years. He is full of ocean and beach in the photos, which made his coat curl, but he is a lot of fun to fuss with. He had a blast on this day! His joy is always contagious. I love seeing the fire of youth in him, and sometimes wish I had more of it left in myself, but I wouldn't trade my hard earned wisdom for it.

Making A Living and Fixing Mistakes

I dunno how I could lose 6 weeks to raising a puppy and taking care of family and making a living without turning out a new canvas. I have managed to paint the edges on all my canvases that were literally hanging around so that they can be hung without a frame, which is my minimalist preference, so at least I got to practice mixing. I also finally learned that I absolutely MUST wear my nifty "painting shirt" or I WILL get paint on my good shirts and possibly my jeans as well, no matter how careful I think I am! I honestly don't think it's a lack of motor skills on my part, but more the confined area in which I work. I place most of the blame on my brush caddy, which mounts precariously onto my small box easel. It wants to position my long handled brushes across the air space in front of my small canvases, because the work space is so narrow that the brush handles hit the side of a bookcase. Many of the brushes I favor for their quality and paint handling are long handled oil brushes, made for standing back from the canvas, not so much for sitting closer to a small sized study. I sometimes leave color on them when I am working different colors or textures at one time. (Note that the photo of my shirt includes three of my favorite makes and models of brushes mentioned in my previous posts on bushes below.) I didn't have so much trouble with wayward paint when I had a bigger studio, though I'm honestly quite grateful for the space I do have now.

Thus recently I have gone back to practicing my old trick of taking the stained "good" shirt and touching up the stain with even more paint (after cleaning it up as much as possible with turps and laundering it), in effect practicing my skills by painting out the marks of my carelessness. I did that years ago in my youth in college when finances dictated that I wear my clothes completely out, and then later on when I was doing my own paintings and commissioned portraits in acrylics, and didn't really think anything about it. A few months ago I came across a thread on Wet Canvas! on the actual subject of painting out accidents on one's clothing, so it seems fairly common.

My own advice if you are using oils (as I am currently), is to mix the exact color with just a tiny touch of a quick flash point thinner if necessary for discreet handling (oil of spike is good, or English turps), and to put your dabs of perfectly matched mixed paint on a paper towel or paper plate first to take out as much oil as possible. This is because the carrier oil in your pigments can spread the paint beyond where you want it through the fabric's absorption, and may leave a yellow halo around the colored area. Then do the touch up with a fine pointed brush or toothpick or q-tip, whatever gives you the most control. Keep the paint rich but the application thin, you don't want blobs. Let it dry in a safe place, then wash. If you are using acrylics, remember that they dry DARKER! So compensate by mixing a bit lighter color, and mix under good bright light if possible. This is actually an extremely good practice in training your eye to mix color accurately, so consider it time well spent in studying your craft and improving your skills. BUT, it's better to keep paint off of your person wherever possible, especially your skin, as many pigments and thinners and mediums contain toxic elements, and you do NOT want that stuff on your skin, where it can be absorbed into your system.

Holy Mole', It's August Already!

I am trying to type a post one handed with a six month old puppy on my lap. I can't believe it's August already, over halfway through the year, where did it all go so fast?!
I planned to have this month to paint, but my to do list is juuust soooo loooong. I need to delete the word "but" from my life regarding painting and just get down to the dungeon and do it. Sidetracked by life is a constant, so all that other stuff will have to wait. I have two commissions to do this month, plus said pup is supposed to be a model. The only problem is that he is black, which reads in the camera like all shadow with just eyes and teeth showing (his nickname is "Mr. Mouth", as he is all mouth right now), and moves so fast that my only hope is good photos as a starting point.


I took that pic showing baby teeth last month, and they are all gone now (I have most of them in a little plastic box, the lot looks like some gruesome pocket piece of a bone collector). No, he's not growling, he's teething, and is a big smiler! I never saw a dog with his teeth always hanging out as much as this pup does. I think it's just the teething process in general. He has lots of chew stuff of different materials to soothe his gums, and gets ice cubes when he wants one. He is the sweetest thing, and currently is so proud of all his new big boy teeth! He is always smiling. Also, he has double upper canines: the permanents came in behind instead of on top of the milk teeth, so right now he has six fangs! I laughed myself silly when I heard about people putting braces on their pooches, but that was before this! He has a perfect bite, I'd hate to see it ruined, but his vet says when they get yanked in a week it will be okay. Whew, I thought I'd be trekking up to Brentwood to a doggy dentist there who does braces...



Sorry, I can't find the macro function, I did once before but already forgot how...
He will also be singing soprano after the teeth operation, better to do everything at once. And he gets an ID chip. DO chip your pets if they do not have this device already. If they are found and taken to a vet or the pound, the scanners there will get them back to you. Keep your info updated with the chip company as well.

Sadly for me, since that photo was taken I dropped my old Nikon digital on the bricks. So I went online to research new digitals, and finally jumped the brand ship a couple weeks after and got a nice Canon, an S3 IS. Quite nice actually, with excellent features, and a heckuva lot cheaper than another Nikon CP 4500. It takes fab photos, far superior video, and has an endless number of potential settings. I am afraid that it is much smarter than I am! My first real camera thirty years ago was a Canon, and it's been all Nikons since, but it's good to shop around, however much I love my old F4. Someday I will get the D80 or D200 so I can use the 8 or so lenses that belong to the F4.

The zoom is fabulous; I was able to get a decent but still not good enough to paint shot of the shadow puppy in low inside light and far across the room.


A striking study in black.

The Other Brush

Wow, I last posted on the brushes I like to use for oil painting, to 1) get back to posting about art if I'm not actually posting my paintings at the moment, 2) provide some useful feedback for other artists, and 3) to get the google ads back to art oriented stuff from the previous d-o-g stuff. So now it's all about b-l-o-g-s. Yeah, that makes sense! ;D
So continuing from my last posting, my other favorite brush is the Langnickel Royal Sable. I love these for fine detail or soft brushwork and glazing. I only have a few that I got from a friend who's brother was no longer painting, but I have hopes of getting a bigger set. Right now I just have smaller sizes, 0-2, in a short red handled brush that looks like a short headed standard filbert, which I don't see at the Jerry's link above. The filberts offered now are more like a cat's tongue style, with a sharper point. Mine are probably older.
One other thought I would like to add regarding brushes is to buy the best you can afford! More and cheaper is not as good as having less brushes and better quality. Take it from a compulsive brush buyer! I fondle brushes in the store, test the spring and shape, then buy one with a coupon to try it, and if I like it, I go buy more of them online in a small range of sizes. But I'll start with just that one, and only add a few at a time if it works well. I'd say you will absolutely feel the difference if you are painting with any finesse and need for control, and even if you are painting big abstract areas of color on big canvases rather than fine fussy realism, you will still feel a difference between quality bristle and the cheap stuff in the way the paint goes on the surface, and will appreciate a brush that doesn't shed, splay or lose it's edge after one painting. It's better to clean the brush to change colors and use a good brush, than have a lot of cheap ones that don't put color where you want it, in my opinion. In good technique, a brush should be wiped well if not cleaned in mineral spirits or Turpenoid after several strokes anyway whenever more than one color is used, or when applying one color over another wet in wet, to keep color clean. One brush can do a lot of work.
Yes, I know that really talented painters can paint with sticks, but I'd rather not!

Back To Art Stuff: I Love Brushes!

Since I posted about my dogs I can't seem to get rid of the google ads about the recalls and safer alternatives and while I feel that's important, it's time google moved on! Especially since I don't seem to be getting paid for any click throughs, but it's probably mostly bogus as far as any income ever being generated anyway unless one owns a huge site.

So I thought I'd do a post on my favorite brushes. The world has moved forward in that area since I was last painting professionally in a serious way years ago. Synthetics have become more varied and in some cases actually fairly superior to natural fibers. I'm finding I now have definite favorites, even among the standard oil paint brush which is the bristle or "hog", as it's made from the bristly hair of hogs. Hog hair has a curve to it which can be used to shape a brush in a specific way for a desired effect, say to get a filbert (gently rounded inward corners on a flat brush), and has "flags" on the ends, which is sort of like a split end in our hair, the advantage of which is it holds onto more paint, so one can really load up a brush for a juicy, expressive stroke. Today pretty much all bristle brushes are Chinese made. (I will not get started on the long time standard Chinese mindset of profit over ethics, as it just incenses me).

The natural bristle brushes coming out of China range from abysmal craft brushes that shed hair like a cat to fairly well made and long lasting. I prefer Dick Blick Masterstroke brushes for my hogs, others prefer Grand Prix Silver Brush. Except for the handle colors they look identical, and are probably made by the same maker, or one copies the other, but the Masterstrokes seem to me to have the edge as far as holding their shape longer without splaying, and being just a bit fuller and softer. Prices are quite reasonable and comparable on both. Another recent favorite which I use for alla prima after I have laid paint down more broadly with a bristle is the Winsor & Newton Monarch Mongoose brush, which is a synthetic mongoose. It is a lovely brush, and being softer and finer than a bristle lays down a smoother stroke and has more finesse, while still having a slight stiffness. It has a nice edge and is a versatile brush in all its forms; flat, bright, filbert and round. I prefer filberts in most brushes, but I used to use mostly brights and some flats. Now it's mostly filberts and flats. Filberts seem more versatile to me. In synthetic mongoose I also love the Escoda Tadami Short Handle brush, but it is a bit pricier, so I only have two, which I waited until I got a 30% off coupon to buy (you'll note that most of my links are to Dick Blick, that's because the prices are very good online. Retail brick and mortar Blick is mostly ridiculous pricewise however, unless you have a coupon, which the website offers regularly, so go sign up!). The Escoda has a more unusual, cat's tongue type point to it, which is useful and intriguing. Another brush I love using is the Princeton Artist Brush 6300 Series synthetic bristle. (Blick is having a sale on Princeton, 50% off, check it out!). It's a bit softer than natural bristle and thus more responsive, and holds its shape really well. It's also more expensive than most natural bristle, but should be worth the extra cash. There is also a synthetic sable that I adore, and I have seen it referenced as others' absolute favorite, but it escapes me at the moment, and as all my brushes are downstairs in the dungeon and it's late, I'm calling it a night and will post about that one later. Can't give all my secrets away in one post...

"Small Pan, Big Egg" now for sale

SOLD

I really like this little 4"x6" oil on gallery profile canvas! I had a lot of fun with it, and it's a vibrant little painting. It was one of my "keepers", as I'm trying to get a small body of work together that will be available for exhibition, but the Poodle puppy in the posts below is all mouth and teeth at this age (5 months Tuesday) and he is at the vet's for eating Lord knows what along with the dirt and kitchen rug fibers already found in his leavings. We think he got some fertilizer, but will probably never know. SO I am having an emergency fund raiser for puppy vet bills, which are over $1,000 so far. Even though I am not a daily painter, and I put in hours over days and many layers on my canvases rather than popping one out in a couple of hours, I am putting them on at the standard daily painter's price of $100. to start. Now would be a good time to invest! I will be painting full time again in August and I hope part of September. This piece has the image continued around the sides, is wired and ready to hang. Click on the title above to go to the auction page. Good art, good price, good cause!

"Friesian Afternoon" now for sale

SOLD

I've decided to start putting stuff up on auction on eBay. I've been painting on and off, mostly off since the puppy's arrival, but that's okay! He's the light of my life right now. He's settling in just fine, so I'll be getting back to painting full time when I get a break from work in August. In the meantime I'll be reposting some of my earlier work as it will be going on auction. This is a 6" x 8" oil on gallery wrap canvas with the sides painted in a matching sand color to the background, so that it doesn't need a frame, and is ready to hang. Click on the title to go to the auction page!

The Puppy Has Landed!

I have sitting on my lap as I type a most charming, delightful and stunning little black Miniature Poodle puppy. (The flash makes him look like a silver, but he is black.) I am delighted with him; actually, I am falling madly in love! So are his Papa and Grandma. He is four months and one week old, 11 inches at the shoulder, and has a lovely regal classic Poodle head and face, and the unique "Poodley" persona. He came home later this afternoon, and rode like a champ from way up in the San Bernardino mountains all the way home, with several stops. He is well bred from good healthy lineage, and wonderfully socialized, and he already sits (mostly), retrieves (superbly), walks on a leash (pretty much), and comes when called. He is friendly and very well mannered, and inquisitive and quite brilliant! His dam's call name is Jasmine, same as the dog I lost. His sire's call name is Toad, a nickname of someone I love dearly. It looks like his name is going to be Bogart, and he's simply beautiful. I'll have to paint him. We saw the dam and grandsire and other relatives, all wonderful dogs, all raised in a home environment. There are more puppies from this breeder if anyone is looking for a very fine Poodle. There is no other dog (in my own opinion of course) in this world like a good Poodle. Check out all the "Poodle" links in this post to find out just how versatile and intelligent these dogs truly are.

"Blue Bottle Rocket"

Well, I'm currently having fun with antique bottles and ink wells. This is a small 3 inch long cobalt blue medicine bottle which I gave comparatively heroic proportions in oil on the 6"x8" inch canvas. I loved how playing with the light source did wonderful things to the reflected light. The glass bottle becomes, with a bit of imagination, a blunt nosed little rocket with jets firing small bursts of color as it rises against an ochre sky into the clouds.

"Hen And Chick"

I love the images this group of huge rock formations in the Jumbo Rocks area of Joshua Tree National Park made in my camera's image finder. I remarked in an earlier post about these marvellous geologic formations how the human mind is wired to look for symbols. At first I just saw a rooster lying stretched out along the skyline, and to myself called it "Dead Rooster Rock", which though morbid was nicely alliterative. Then I looked a little longer at the formation to the right, and there was a nicely stylized profile of a chick's head. So it had to be a hen and her chick, which is a much more heart warming image overall, don't you think? Trying to capture it in oil paint was a bit elusive for me however. I'm posting this 6x8 inch oil on canvas, even though I don't really see it as fully finished. I may, however, be done with it.

I Miss My Dog

I am painting again for a few days this week. I have a portrait of a Golden Retriever to finish, and when I'm done doing some antique glass ink well and bottle studies I will be working on "Gary" for his owner, and on Jazz, the dog I gave my heart to below. She lives on deep in my heart, and is still my comfort; I still feel her presence once in awhile now, though not as often. Her toy basket is still where she left it, neatly arranged; and her box of ashes is in a tonsu next to my bed, where she always slept, with her collar and kerchief and the silly but stylish muffler I knitted for her a year ago for cold days, all inside her memory box. Her pink piggy stuffed toy is safe on top of her box. That was her favorite.

I am looking for a Poodle. I said I would get one when Jazzie was no longer here, but I certainly didn't expect one for years yet, and was never in any hurry. I will know if it's right, I asked Jazzie to help pick. She inherited her lifestyle and a lot of good things from a wonderful Poodle, so the circle is going back around, and she will pass along some of her good stuff to another deserving dog.

The Power of the Dog

The Power of the Dog

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passsion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair--
But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long--
So why in--Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

Rudyard Kipling

For Jazz, because we both know why.

The Only Love Money Can Buy

I lost my second best buddy (second best only by a hair) a week ago last Thursday to metastatic lung cancer. She was such an exceptionally good dog that we called her our Angel Dog. Now she really is an angel dog. Her ashes came home tonight, and I knew they were here just before the delivery even sounded the doorbell, we were always that connected, even with death dividing us. I was so tuned to that dog and her to me that I could call her in my head and she'd show up. There was no pain, physical or other, that hugging her could not ease. She would not leave my side in the mornings until I got up to take her out. Not even for her "Dad". She was "daddy's dog" but she was my girl. It was so unthinkably fast. I thought we'd dodged a pretty big bullet with the pet food recalls, but did not expect to see her go from bouncy to tired so fast, and so seemingly innocuously, just apparently old dog stuff and finally showing her age.
Not so, it was cancer that probably came from her stomach or intestines, and to me that means a lousy diet in the form of what really goes into our pet's foods! A few months back my vet said why isn't she on a "senior diet? You have to watch out for her kidneys." When I said to my vet that I didn't like senior diets because the food quality was so low, being mostly grains, and that dogs are carnivores, she said no, they are omnivores. I love this vet, she's awesome, but I'm thinking to myself, bears are omnivores! I did a lot of study over the years on wolves. The only grains wolves eat is what is in the stomachs of mostly small animal prey, and that is wild grains and seeds and grasses, not the stuff that is so genetically modified through our cultivation that it's not even good for people anymore! Wolves eat some wild berries too, and some wild grasses occasionally on their own, and that's about it. They are true carnivores, and so are dogs. Even though they are domesticated, they have not been altered at a basic biological processes level to where they can thrive on highly processed poor quality grain extruded at high temperatures and sprayed with rendered grease and preservatives. Talk about brainwashing by the pet food industry! Wolves don't hunt in rice paddys or raid corn fields! Canids don't digest grains well, and even most humans don't digest grains well, that's why everyone is getting so fat and sick, it's the cheap grain based extruded, pressed, flaked and processed food plastered all over our tv commercials as "healthy" snacks and cereals. It causes leaky gut syndrome and irritable bowel and immune responses that lead to allegies, diseases and cancers. It also apparently aggravates kidney disease! That "gluten" that was contaminated that now we're told was actually only wheat flour, (which is why the Chinese added the melamine, to boost the illusion of "protein content" to make it test like gluten, and what can we expect from people that sell deadly fake baby formula to their own countrymen at home for a quick buck?) wreaks havoc with dog and cat kidneys by itself. When I started researching pet foods recently because of the contamination (and I always read labels), I found out that ingredients are listed by weight, not volume as generally assumed, so a small pile of lamb weighs as much as a huge pile of rice flour! So even though lamb is listed first in the ingredients, which supposedly means that there is more of it, I paid good money to actually feed my dog mostly poorly processed rice flour!
So I started cooking for her and she loved it. Simple slow cooked chicken breast or ground turkey, brown rice cooked in salt free natural organic chicken broth and water, peas and carrots, and a superfood supplement called Missing Link for dogs for her vitamins. It cost per day as much as a can of Nutro Senior dog food. She did really well, but we were about 11 years too late. I only had her for the last four of those years, and she had been a kibble only dog for at least 6 or 7 years. When I got her under my care, she always got good table scraps like small pieces of meat, chicken, fish, veggies, some pasta, home made green veggies soup (as a "gravy"), and a little hard cheese once in awhile, along with a "better" (is there such a thing?) canned food and kibble. I just read that dogs that get healthy scraps like that in Europe along with their "pet" food live an average of three to four years longer than our dogs in the US! Don't believe the hooey the pet food companies feed you about pet foods alone being a "balanced diet". They have to add vitamins because the food value they offer is so poor. I imagine this helps keep vets in business though. And guess who underwrites the "animal nutrition" books for vets in school? Pet food manufacturers.....
I read the ingredients on a can of Science Diet special formula cat food. Cats are pure carnivores, even more so than dogs. The primary ingredients included soy, wheat and corn. Meat meal was at the bottom. Go read up on "meat meal"! The thought of feeding a pure carnivore all that crud just curled my toes. But because it says "Science Diet" and the vets sell it, we think it must be best for our dear companions.

Anyway, painting has not seemed very important these last couple of weeks, but I did do a plein air in Big Bear last weekend, and it was good practice. Both in working under less than ideal conditions, with wind blowing dirt and debris into my palette, and in moving forward, which right now is often hard without that comfort that only that dog could give.
Pat your resident fur ball for me if you have one!

"Ruffled Raven"

When in Joshua Tree I got to study one of my favorite subjects, ravens. They are wickedly smart and wonderfully playful, and joyously acrobatic daredevils. At the top of Keys View there was one raven that was playing in the strong currents of wind, and watching visitors for possible snack leavings. I think he was mostly there to play though. I was able to get fairly close to him, but not as close as I would have liked. He posed for a long time on a small rock at the cliffs edge, the wind blowing through the ruff of feathers around his neck. This is a 6"x6" inch oil on canvas.

"Crocodile Rock"

I went to Joshua Tree National Park last weekend for a quick camping trip with my best buddy. We camped at Jumbo Rocks and did some bouldering and general hiking around the west end of the park. I did a small plein air study the first evening from the camp site, and it was a lot of fun, but it was mostly color notation. But I did take lots of photos, as the park has some magnificent geologic formations. I think it's really fascinating how the human brain is hardwired to see symbols and objects, like saints in tortillas, and animals in clouds, for example. I found I started seeing some neat things in the rocks when I really began to look. It's an interesting exercise to just pay attention, and then to see how the mind can make the boulders "become" symbols which are visible at certain angles, and as one moves around or away from them, disappear as the contours and light and shadow change one's perspective. I was charmed, and I thought it would be fun to use the effect to do a series of studies of the rock and boulder formations. All the paintings are of actual formations, and though the colors are tweaked just a bit for more visual interest, they are all there to some extent. If you go to Joshua Tree you may stumble upon these "creatures" yourself. I'm sure they aren't going anywhere for another few hundred thousand years or so at least.
This is the second study I did since I got back, the first needs a bit more work. This is a 6"x8" oil on canvas.

Never Polish The Good Furniture When Tired.

Well, I got some painting done Tuesday night. Emergency painting! I'd cleaned house for 12 hours with a few breaks, trying to get it all "knocked out" quickly but still thoroughly as my other half seemed to think was possible. But that's easy to think, since it's my job. I wanted to go to bed, but first decided to put a little (yes I know, but it's usually Howard's instead) spray wax on my 1927 solid oak table; a big, massive, gorgeous piece with a Craftsman style top, combination turned and blocky legs in a heavier older style, wirh burl inlaid chair backs. I reached under the sink for the yellow aerosol can, thought it looked a bit fatter, thought somewhere in the recesses of what was passing for my brain at 1a.m. that it must be new, shook it and sprayed it liberally in circles at one end of the table. It seemed a little thin for a light wax. That's because it was bleach. Lovely, convenient, Chlorox in a spray can, the bastards!
I started to spread it around, dimly realized it was going on funny and there was no obnoxious "lemon fresh" scent, and looked at the can. I wasn't too tired to read! Aghast, I ran to get a wet sponge and a towel. I slopped on water and wiped in a flurry of desperate action that belied my fatigue. Three trips with water, sponge, more towelling. Then stood back and watched the bleach at it's insistent, resolute work; watched the spots of gray turning lighter, closer to white. Prayed that there was still some varnish in most of those areas, as this table has some original varnish left and some areas that are now oil finish, and that it was just the varnish and not the wood underneath. Resigned, I just let it happen. Tried to be a good Buddhist and remember it was just an object, an object to which I have some serious attachment. Stayed calm and observed my attachment, observed my ego calling me an idiot, observed the frantic efforts of my ego based mind to twist at and tweak the laws of the Universe to warp just a small bit of the fabric of space and time so that I could rewind, step through, stop myself from pushing the spray button. Wonder how long it would take me to learn to accept and love the white blistered scars on my once lovely table. Remember that I had thought how nice it looked earlier in the day, hear my inner critic tell me that's what I got for having the sin of pride.
Then I got mad. I refused to accept it. Yes, I bleached my Stickley rocker that had been in a house fire, but that was different. I did the best restoration finish anyone could have done on it short of replacing whole parts. But this table had been lovely, dry but lovely. So I went downstairs to the dungeon where I paint, looking for stain. There it was in the tool box, one marvellous single distinctive yellow can and for a few moments hope soared. What was the color; was it cherry, summer oak, mission oak, any of my Stickley standards? No, ebony. Great. I would never have bought ebony, it wasn't mine, mine was in storage 50 miles away. I looked over at my paint box, flipped the lid and started uncapping the Vasari earths. Surely one of these gorgeous tubes or even two mixed could heal my table! What are stains but oxides etc. in an oil base? And what was my paint? Oxides and oil, of course! In a linseed base, perfect for oak. I took three tubes upstairs, grabbed a paper towel and smeared a small test sample over a big bubbly patch. Hmm, too red. Next color, a possible, but too thick. Went and got some Howard's orange oil for the cutting and penetrating power, squirted it out, and smeared that around. Ooo, it was working! But would it stick? I rubbed and smeared and squirted and rubbed, and imagined the wood fibers absorbing the glorious color and becoming radiant and vibrant with rich, luminous earths; healing and becoming saturated with the brilliance and light of lovingly polished wood. I oiled the whole table, then put a liberal dose of Feed N Wax over it as well, sort of like the equivalent of Neosporin for oak. Apologized profusely, said a prayer over it, went to bed. Rubbed it out the next afternoon, and holy guacamole, I was forgiven, and it has never looked better! But I would recommend skipping the bleach part if you ever try this at home.

"Sycamore Canyon Afternoon"

We love going up the coast to Sycamore Canyon, a ways north of Malibu. It has a beach on one side of Pacific Coast Highway, and a campground and a whole network of hiking and mountian biking trails on the other side. We took the mountain bikes up for the day and rode about 8 miles into the canyon, all uphill with a mostly gradual slope, then up the steeper hills at the end where the fire road climbs up into the mountains. Then we rested, and turned around and zoomed down for a few miles, then coasted a lot of the way back. It was hot, but a great ride, and we went down to the beach and watched the sunset. The hillsides are the typical California gold. This is a 6"x8" inch oil on canvas, and the darks are lighter than this and the colors brighter, but someday I will have a better camera.

"Alpha"

I mention on occasion my previous 20 plus years of sculpting. Here's another small bronze from the archives. This is the male wolf mate to the female wolf "Nocturne" posted earlier. I don't remember the dimensions exactly, maybe about 9" long. It's a foundry cast bronze, sculpted in the round, patinaed and polychromed lightly with acrylic. This piece is in a number of collections, and the edition is still open. Retails for $1250.00.

Fifty.

Okay, so I made it to and through the half century mark yesterday. Some gnashing of teeth was involved, but I layed low. Vacuumed. Walked the dog. Gently demanded that my SO order pizza and had a real beer, and watched some vintage footage of Aussie skateborders on Fuel. Watched National Geographic. I'm not a big tv watcher at all, I'd rather read, but I was indulging. Interesting show about Hogzilla. Worked on the pc, tried to order a lot of Michael Harding paint and some Winsor & Newton Monarch filberts (synthetic badger, lovely brushes) on the Italian Art Store website, and when I was ready to check out, they decided to go down for maintenance. But that's okay. I counted my blessings all day, and I'm still not done, and I don't plan to ever stop counting my blessings while I'm on this planet in this body of illusion. I saw a 100 year old woman on a commercial, she looked about 85, and I ruminated on what if I was only halfway done with my life? That's another 50 years to paint. I don't want to waste any of it! Even if it's only another week. Just to not waste the gift of life, I think that's a good overall goal for anyone.

Did I mention how peeved I was that AARP hit me up about 3 weeks early? ;D

Art Shows Revisited

I had a great time with the Art Show for which the flyer is posted below. It was with a truly wonderful group of people, it wasn't expensive, everyone involved contributed their time and effort as well as their work in a spirit of community, and it was a lovely venue, set up with care and class and a great spread of food! There was a cellist and a harpist, there was performance art and poetry and a lot of people showed up. It was generally a wonderful success. Create with all your heart in it, and your love will shine through in the work.

"Thorny Situation"

SOLD

I love macro photography because it helps us see things we would normally miss. This was from a luminous close up view of a lovely aloe type plant in the gardens near the monastery in Santa Barbara. It's not quite finished, but I'll replace the image when it is. 6"x8" inch oil on canvas.