3's A CROWD

Hello Blog Buddies,

I did this painting yesterday- grabbing my trusty palette knife and with the vigor of "Mack the Knife" This is another painting for my ART4RVS Blog

 http://art4rvs.blogspot.com/

Although all my paintings are available to the entire world - I shun nobody!!! 

My most favorite fruit in the world to paint is the Pear!  I love the shape of pears and as far as taste/flavor they are my most favorite to munch on.  With that said---------I'm going to paint APPLES!!!!

Let's get started with this presentation as it's early - 8am - I've only had 3 cups of coffee thus far and I'm not quite awake yet.

AHHAAAAA VEE  are in luck I've found a blank 8x10 canvas

As always the first thing to do is cut down the glare of the white canvas.  Some of you Blog Buddies have asked if I put any thought into what color I first put on the canvas to just get some color down.  The answer is NO - I think that thinking is over thought :>)  

I just reach for the first tube I find and slop on some paint either with a brush or my trusty palette knife - Ya just can't over think these things - SPONTANEITY is a way of life and works best for me.

Now there is 2 minutes of your life you won't get back!!!

As you can see - grey is the first tube I picked up - apples are not grey but what does it matter????  It doesn"t. 

OK hold on as this is another palette knife painting sooooooooo RIGHT it will develop very quickly right before your eyes - that is if you do not look away!

TOLD YA it would develop quickly!!!

GOOGLE BLOG is not running worth a crap this morning - as I've mentioned it is a FREE piece of software that GOOGLE puts out and if it runs --- GREAT if not OH HUM --SO WHAT - they do not waste much time improving it or supporting it!!

Being a starving artist - FREE IS ALL I CAN AFFORD!!

I shall speed this up as GOOGLE is driving my crazy and I need another cup of coffee!

BLOBS & GLOBS of color-color-color to be applied with the speed of light!

DETAIL

It has taken me 22 30 minutes to post this blog - over half of that was waiting for GOOGLE BLOG to respond!!!!  I really need some coffee now!!!  :>)



UN REASSEMBLEMENT de TROIS

Hello Blog Buddies,

I'm in a French mood as I have some French Cafe' music playing in the studio this morning.  It is a CD by Putumayo  www.putumayo.com  The title is French Cafe' and it is lively - bouncy and wonderful.  All in French of course - the words that is - I don't think music can be played in French - :>)

The title in English is "A Gathering of Three"  (You can read into that what you want!!)
You know the FRENCH!!!!!!!

8x10 using Chroma Interactive Acrylics wet into wet - palette knife application with lots of emotion - expression - movement and the gaiety of the French Cafe' music.

Once again this will be quick WHY???????/  Right-----because it is a palette knife painting!!!  Youse guys is catching on real quick!!  :>)

Before I begin - I just want to remind you folks that my 2ND BLOG which I'm in the process of building and adding to all the time is found at http://art4rvs.blogspot.com/

This is a collection of smaller paintings many of which are posted here as well.  These paintings are designed mostly for the RV community to provide a SPLASH of color in the sometimes confining spaces of an RV.  They are of course FOR SALE to everyone - most everything I own is for sale so if you see a painting you like - email me and we'll talk.  If you should want pictures of our furniture or our house I can send them to you and we can talk about that as well!!!!!!  :>) 

Look what I found!!!!  A blank canvas - HOLY CRAP let's get some paint on it real quick so the glare does not hurt my sensitive old eyes!!

See how quick a palette knife is!!!!!  You should not have blinked your eyes. NOW pay attention as it will get quicker!!  I don't have time to waste - I'm not getting any younger!!!

OK - I lay in some more texture as sort of a road map ( I get lost easily!) in a lighter color.  Hang on as this is going to proceed with gusto and that of a speeding bullet!

UP - UP and AWAYyyyyyyyyyyy

COLOR-COLOR-COLOR

MORE COLOR-COLOR-COLOR & DETAIL

SLAM - BAM - WE ARE DONE

U DA PAINTER MAN JR!!!!

Yesterdays Painting Finished

Hi Blog Buddies!

Just a short post today - I wanted to show you the finished painting from yesterday blog post.

Instead of "RENDERING" in a limited palette of 3 or 4 colors, I expanded the palette range and used my weapon of choice a "PALETTE KNIFE."  I feel like RAMBO of the Canvas!

I sure do LOVE to SWOOSH that palette knife around - so LIBERATING!!!

Whoops - I'm starting a 2nd Blog which is ART4RVs.blogspot.com and will be for the sole use of presenting small (8x8 - 8x10 - 11 x 14) paintings for sale for the use in RVs.  Due to the limited wall space in most RVs, these are intended to be table/counter top easel pieces.

AGAIN, the new blog WILL NOT REPLACE my  RVPAINTER  BLOG.

DETAIL

Enjoy the day my friends.

WATER JUG WITH PUEBLO CLAY

Hello Blog Buddies,

Well today is Wednesday which as most of you know is my DAY OFF!  Also as most of you know I always seem to do some house hold stuff on my day off - such as today I'm doing the laundry.  My DW normally works on Wednesday but she is home today as she switched work days with someone.  Sooooo not wanting to be in the way, I asked DW what her schedule was for the day.  She is working on another novel for younger children this time and is in the process of going thru it once more for editing.  I've read this novel several times in our proof reading process and I am really excited about it.  It is very much a different type of novel from her first one but it is really-really GOOD!!!

As most of you know her first novel is in the process of being self published by the publishing arm of Amazon.  The interior of the book is all set as far as font - size - spacing etc etc.  At present she is waiting for a re-vamp of the cover from the illustrator.  We suspect that will arrive this week.  I have to tell you that this middle grade novel "The Christmas Village"  is full of suspense - twists and turns and will be enjoyed by "children" of all ages as well as bloggers across the world!!!

When it is published I'll let you know how you can purchase one.

Since my hand is quite stiff and prone to cramping after my "RENDERING" of yesterday, and after all it is MY DAY OFF - and I can do what ever I want to do!!!  Let me  "MAKE THAT PERFECTLY CLEAR!!!

I thought I would do a palette knife painting.  If worse comes to worse I can duct tape the palette knife to my hand!!!  :>)

Some of my blog buddies (your peers) seemed a tad confused as to my term RENDERING as compared to my palette knife style.  So for definition purposes - to me - after all I AM THE ARTIST!!!! - RENDERING is a very careful thought out process of applying paint in a slow methodical manner as to create a more detailed, softer and a more blended painting - at times it also means a very limited palette of color such as the RENDERING I did yesterday in which I only used 4 colors.

Palette knife style is for me sort of SPASTIC in application very often if not most often I think nothing out ahead of time nor do I pre-plan any specific colors - although I'm somewhat careful to use complimentary colors a lot.  This is a painting done with SWOOSHES of the palette knife with a lot of arm movement (from the shoulder) much like a tennis player, and spontaneity - emotion and expression are the key ingredients in both form and color.

Soooooo I said once again to myself - "Self why not do a compare and contrast for my Blog Buddies!"

This is the same size as yesterday ( 14 x 11 ) on the same type of canvas panel - however I've added one more pot.  This is a natural clay pot done by a 92 year old great-great grandmother living on the Santa Clara Pueblo.  This Pueblo is highly regarded for its pottery.  My DW tells me that she was only 82 and only a great grandmother.  Well to that I say Prince Poppycock!!!!  My version is much more interesting and being an artist I have no problem exaggerating!!!!

There will be no show and tell with the creation of this piece - as a matter of fact it is not quite done as I need to throw in a BG and FG - this is not RV lingo but is in fact artist lingo meaning background - foreground.  Oh yes, some highlights would be nice as well.

However that said - it's done enough to compare and contrast.

"Water Jug With Pueblo Clay"
Palette knife application with emotion-expression-spontaneity

DETAIL

 
 

WATER JUG & MICA BOWL

Hi Blog Buddies,

Well, being Tuesday it was food shopping this morning as well as Sam's Club.  This is a ritual every Tuesday morning - I'm a very boring creature of habit - mess up my schedule and I'm lost - don't know what the hell is going on!!  This is something I'm looking forward to UNDOING as soon as we hit the RV ROAD!!!  We'll clean RV (house) and do the food shopping whenever we damn well please!!!  Holy Crap I feel so liberated saying that!!

After my chores which I did with a smile on my wrinkled little face I decided to throw some paint at my easel.  It's funny how what you have in mind changes because of this or that or these and those.  I had no idea what I was going to paint, I figured I'd just fly by the seat of my pants and see what developed.  I open up an 11 x 14 canvas panel from its protective wrapping and in looking at it ( I'm always hoping I'll find one with something already drawn on it - like paint by the numbers thingy!!!)  No such luck - however my very observant eyes and rather keen brain noticed that the canvas had a very strong vertical grain so I said to myself - "Self you need to do something in the vertical orientation."  At that very moment what to my wondering eyes should appear?
A ceramic water jug up on top of our kitchen cabinets!!!  Hola water jug!!  Next I spun around in quick fashion ( as I tend to do - as I'm very quick on my feet for my age ) and spotted one of my Native American bowls on the shelf of our our Kiva fireplace.  Hola little bowl!  The bowl is made out of black mica clay which is only found in certain areas and this bowl was made on the Santa Clara Pueblo and is part of my Native American collection.  Like mica, it glimmers when the light hits the little pieces of mica in the black clay.  

I decided to do a brush painting with lots of rendering and color blending directly on the surface.

14 x 11- Chroma Interactive Acrylics done wet into wet with a softness of touch in order to retain the textured surface of the canvas - as well as some dry brushing to give it an aged look.

I just jumped right in and using a small brush I put some outlines and then switched to a large brush for some color onto the canvas - Ya gotta start someplace!  OK here we go!

Not too much commentary here as the excitement of the palette knife and the sounds of the swooshes coupled with the emotion - expression and gusto is not present when rendering.  As you know rendering is not my favorite style as it really aggravates the arthritis in my painting hand.  Funny thing is - after doing a "RENDERING" the spirits are sort of squashed and I go into somewhat of a quiet state.  Of course you already know that I do not talk very much anyways - but after rendering a sort of silence comes over me.  Putting a finger aside of my nose I shall continue!!  :>)

Some detail for those of you who have not yet fallen asleep.  Look close and you can see the grain of the canvas I mentioned.  If you stare at a bright light bulb and blink your eyes very quickly for 2 or 3 minutes and then look back at this photo, you'll be able to see the flickers of mica also.  :>)

I was only kidding stop doing that!!!!

OK -- I'm starting to fall asleep so I'm going to juice this up and paint double time and go take a nap!!

OK, some detail for those of you who are yelling "SHOW US MORE- SHOW US MORE - PLEASE JR SHOW US MORE"

Pomegranate

Hello Blog Buddies,

Well, I got the housework all done and it sure seems nice to have a nice clean house!  Cleaning can be enjoyable as I found that out this past February/March.  I'll digress for a moment as let's face it - it's my blog so I'm the boss of the blog and of myself!  Well after my DW ------- I'm the boss of myself :>) Just kidding - we are equal citizens in our home and we bend where & when necessary - it works out quite well.  OK now the real reason I digressed.  When we were in La Paz Mexico ( Holy Crap I LOVE it there)this past FEB/MAR for a month, the resort where we were renting a condo had all the amenities one could want.  The pool was a negative edge pool with a nice lower and upper covered pool deck.  The covering for the upper deck had a sort of vine growing all over the top of it and of course leaves would fall onto the deck.  There was a very pleasant young woman who would start work at 7am and work until 3pm.  She would sweep up the leaves almost as fast as they fell, and she would do other things like wash the windows on the exercise facility and clean the bathrooms etc etc.  This woman did not stop working from the time she arrived until she left for the day.  She always had a smile on her face and always said Hola.  She did not speak any English - but that smile on her face every day, 6 -- YES 6 days a week said she was very happy to have a job and as long as she was doing her job, she was going to be HAPPY!!!  It would be surprised if she was being paid more than $2.00/hour!!!!  

After we got home, I looked at chores I do around the house in a very different light and with a much different attitude.  I now do these chores with a smile on my face - when I get up on Monday morning (Monday is house cleaning day) -I sing out to my DW " Time to clean the pool deck!"

OK back to what I started to say about 3 minutes ago - (You'll never get that 3 minutes of your life back!!)  Just a minute, I have to space up as I forgot what I was talking about!!

I really do not like pomegranates - messy-messy things - however they make an interesting object to paint - soooooooo here comes a pomegranate!

8 x 10 on canvas panel done with a palette knife and blobs & globs of juicy Chroma Interactive Acrylic paint - done wet into wet with my usual emotion - expression - gusto - rusticity and spontaneity of color - form and movement of arm - better know as SWOOSHES!  Well, we seem to have a blank canvas here.  I'll need to throw some globs of paint onto it - I won't draw any thing as there is not much to a pomegranate!!!

Now -- keep in mind this is only 8 x 10 and I'm using a palette knife and as we should all know by now, a painting moves very quickly with a palette knife!!!

About 3 swooshes later, we have the beginning of a pomegranate.

Excuse me!!!!  You think I went too fast????  I told you it would move quickly - try keeping up with the rest of us - this is not a blog for the lightheaded - oops sorry---- light hearted :>)

Some detail so you can see the blobs and globs of thick juicy paint.

Pretty neat HUH!!!!!  You DA PAINTERMAN JR!!!

OK - I do not have a movie camera or do they call them video cameras now??!!???

That reminds me - a quick story - I went into a music store a while back - quite a while back actually and I did not see any RECORD ALBUMS around - remember RECORD ALBUMS!!!

So I asked the salesclerk "Where are the RECORD ALBUMS?"  She looked at me like I was strange - ME STRANGE- she had about 12 earrings in one ear, a stud stuck into the side of her nose and another one under her lower lip and all of a sudden I'm the one who is strange!!!!

She said "HUH?"  "What is a RECORD ALBUM?"  I tried to explain what they were and let me tell you - her eyes went DEAD on me  - I was going to call 911 - she was just not computing what I was saying.  I left the store!

I would need a video thingie to show anymore progression of this piece so HANG ON it will be a quick TRIP!

SLAM - BAM I'M DONE!!

Too quick you say - OK I'll show you again!  Pay attention this time!!

DONE AGAIN!!

DETAIL

TOMORROW DUDES - TWT

THE EXTRA STUFF GETS PACKED

Did not do much today - sort of another slow day of just sitting around on our butts enjoying some time off.  We are very good at doing that - sort of at the level of being semi-professional.  Once we get the house sold and get into our full time RV life, we plan on turning professional! :>)

This morning however I did do a major cleaning of the inside of our car as well as the windows inside and outside.  I cleaned all the leather with armor-all and it looks brand new.  It didn't take long as we have a Mini Cooper so if you move the front seats forward and kneel between the back seat and the back of the front seat you can just about clean the entire interior without moving positions!!!!  The other good thing is I don't have to vacuum it out, I just pick it up and SHAKE IT OUT!!!! :>)

Here in Santa Fe we are not allowed to wash our cars due to the 10 year drought.  Santa Fe has the dirtiest cars in the world!!!!  You can use a car wash ONCE A MONTH - I don't know who watches and keeps count - I guess it is the honor system - YA RIGHT!!!!  A car wash costs $20 - hard to believe HUH!!!!!  I've solved this problem - with the Mini being so small --- I just bring it into the shower with me!!!! :>) 


We ordered some more packing boxes as our theory is "If you pack things up- the house will sell!"  We are packing up all the "extra -stuff" that has for the most part not been used since we moved in 4 years ago!!!! 

Tomorrow is house cleaning day - always on Monday - I wake up and tell my DW "It's time for DH to clean the house!"  I hope to do a painting tomorrow as I'm starting to enjoy this butt sitting and that really is not a good thing!!  So as I now say to most everything TWT now -------- Time Will Tell.

THE SKY ABOVE THE GROUND

Hi Blog Buddies,

Well it looks like I'll be shipping my ACER crap-o-lla- netbook off to try and get repaired.  I thought of getting up on the roof and throwing it off onto the walkway but will give the warranty repair route a try first.
I'm using my DW's computer - as I've mentioned before, she is a writer and she has a real nice computer which we got for her and her writing - 18 inch screen, which she needs for all her writing and editing.  It's like carrying an "on-board bag" around!  It's has a bigger screen the the first TV I bought myself!!!

First and most importantly, I went on a search for "CREAMSICLES" I'm sure you remember my blog whereby I mentioned these childhood delights.  I'm happy to say that I found some and here is my DW enjoying one!

I'm not use to her computer so this post will be quick.  I decided I wanted to do a palette knife painting - a landscape.  My head is into sky & ground for some reason.  

11 x 14 on canvas panel with palette knife wet into wet - lots of emotion (as I'm quite emotional over my crap-o-la ACER netbook) lots of expression and an over abundance of gusto - rusticity - and spontaneity of color & form.

First of all we need a blank canvas - no pencil marks just jump in - and push forward by the seat of my pants - the story of my life!!

Now we - ( I ) just throw on some color to create a sky - this is again full of emotion, expression and perhaps a tad ( just a tad ) semi-semi abstract.

One has to be careful ( so I'm told ) not to split the canvas in half as this will drive the viewer crazy!!  In this case the sky is bigger than the ground.

I now turn it upside down as this is wet into wet and I find it easier to lay in the initial ground while upside down - NO!!!  Not ME upside down, the painting surface upside down!!!!!  You forget I can hear you ------- I forgot to mention I can also see you-------

FOR GOD SAKES SHUT THAT BATHROOM DOOR!!!!!

:>)  

This will go quickly now as I'm using only a palette knife so this speeds up the application of paint!!

SLAM-BAM-WE ARE DONE!!!!

I have a few tweaks and lights and darks left to do but the entire surface is wet now with very thick juicy paint which will take about 3 weeks to cure!!!  If I went into it now, I would create MUD ----- yes the dreaded MUD!!

LOST DAY - Good & Bad

Yo my blog friends,

Well, today did not end up being all that I wanted it to be.  That said, the highlight of the day was my DW treated me to lunch.  A new Bar&Grill opened in our community and this is where we went for lunch.  I had one of the best hamburgers I've ever had!!!  It was a cheese burger with bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato and lots of green chili - Hmmmmmmmmmmm GOOD!!!!  It came with red onion, but I do not like onion on my burgers.  So this was the GOOD of the day!!!

The BAD - As you well know, I'm not one to compalin!!!  HOWEVER, I disobeyed my own rule of always buy QUALITY!  I needed a new lap top and did not want to spend a lot of money - mistake #1.  I bought a "netbook" 10.1 LED screen - WiFi certified and lots of other bells and whistles.  It cost less than $250 and what I really like about it is I read a lot of Kindle books that I download/buy from Amazon and the smallness of this computer is great for that.  It is an ACER D255 and the speed of this I can only imagine is that of cold mollass running up hill!  When it comes to speed on the Internet it is CRAP - I've actually fallen asleep waiting for it to connect!!!  NO LIE!!! To make matters worse, I just updated to the newest version of explorer and that is even a bigger piece of CRAP - nothing but hangups and the laptop just sitting there doing nothing.  I'm  glad I got the breakage insurance policy - it even covers things such as DROPPING it!!!!!  Hmmmmmmmmmm that gives me an idea!!! :>)

So if you want to read books - buy a Kindle - if you want a laptop get a big one with some guts - stamina and speed and stay with the KNOW entities.  ACER has been around a while but I don't think they have built a very good product in the D255.

I started a painting and wanted to show the beginning of it but ALAS my slowassed ACER D255 has decided it forgets how to read and load photos from the card in my digital camera - which happens to also be a piece of CRAP - but that is another story for another time.

Once we sell the house and buy our RV I'm throwing all these CRAPPY things away and buying QUALITY!!!!!

My tummy is full thanks to my DW so now it is time for a nap.

Tomorrow is another day and perhaps my computer will remember how to process my photos---------------------------------------

Another Slow Day

Hi Blog Buddies,

Today we had to go down to Albuquerque to firm up the design of our RV shirts.  I designed a logo consisting of a Native American Dream Catcher.  Curved over the top of the dream catcher will be the words DREAM CATCHERS - under the feathers of the dream catcher will be the word CREW.

We each ordered 5 shirts and a sweatshirt in various colors.

My DW and I have always been dreamers and the Native American dream catcher has had a place in our home for quite some time now so that coupled with my Native American heritage it only seemed fitting to name our RV ---- DREAM CATCHERS.

I'll post a photo of the finished product once we receive them.  Additionally, once we acquire our RV we will have a vinyl decal of the same logo made to adhere to the back of our RV.

We also stopped at UPS and mailed out the paintings I recently sold.

Sooooooooooooo this brought about another SLOW DAY - but it's good once in a while to slow down, smell the roses, dream the dreams, rest the brain and feed the imagination.  It's called vegging out!  It's also called enjoying life.

Hope to throw some paint at the easel tomorrow - where it lands nobody knows - not even me!

ORANGE DELIGHT

Yo my Blog Friends,

I've spent most of this morning - excuse me - it's 12:19 - so I spent ALL of this morning packing and wrapping my two painting I sold (DID TOO SELL TWO!!) for shipping.  I really do not enjoy this process but it saves the client quite a bit of money so I do it - I don't like it - but I do it!!!

I did manage to do some more cleaning up of my art closet in my studio as I had to find all the packing thingies - tape - etc etc.  I'm cleaning my closet as I figure if I pack up for our move - someone is bound to come along and buy our house.  I'm being very proactive!!!!  :>)  When someone finally does buy it - I'll be able to say "Do you want to move in tomorrow?"

During my cleaning process I found a blank canvas panel 8 x 8!!!!  I thought I did not had any left, and I order 24 of them a couple of days ago.

I digress for just one short moment - it might be for my benefit, so seeing as tho it's my blog - I'm just going to do it!!!!!

I'm thinking of starting a venture (once we get into our Full time RV journey) whereby I will produce small (8x8 - 8x10) paintings that will provide a SPLASH of color in RVs.  I would call this Art 4 RVs.  There is not much wall space in an RV so these little puppies can sit on an easel on a counter top or table top and easily be stored when on the move.  Again - their prime function would be a SPLASH of color and gaiety (if you will!) They will be mostly still life and landscapes.  What do you guys think???

Oh one other thing - they would be very affordable say $25 - $35.  Enough for a Pizza for me and my DW.

OK digression OVER!!!!
Last night my DW and her DH (Darling Husband - that's ME :>) had a discussion about ice cream treats we had as kids.  We both agreed one of our favorites was the creamsicle - orange sherbet covering vanilla ice cream on a stick - they were great!!!!

When I started throwing paint at my easel (after my afore mentioned administrative duties), this is what developed.  I had no idea what I was going to paint so I just let the juices flow.............................

Orange Delight
8 x 8 on canvas panel painted with palette knife with expression, emotion, gusto and spontaneity of color - texture.

YIKES - that all white canvas is blinding me - got to throw something at it!

OK---now I'm getting sick to my stomach!!!!

That's better - now some dorks (Woops DARKS) and lights - WHEW thought I was going to PUKE!

I've got to add some color to this and as I say I'm using a palette knife and what happens when JR uses a palette knife???

NO!!!!  I don't cut myself----- Geeeezzzzzzz somebody has not been paying attention to previous postings!!!  Is this your first day here????

The painting progresses VERY QUICKLY as like one swoosh (love that word) is like equal to 10 dabs of a brush.  So pay attention - do not look away or you'll miss the creation of something that is just out of this----------------------

SLAM BAM - YOU DA RVPAINTER MAN JR!!!

COMPLETED

Another slow day

Hi Folks - Today being Tuesday, it is food shopping day and Sam's Club day.  I also had a couple more errands to do - had to buy some bubble wrap and boxes to ship out a couple of paintings I just sold.  I HEARD THAT!!!!  You keep forgetting I can hear you folks and to the smart ass - YES!!!!!!!  my paintings do sell!  Geeezezezezeezz - What a nerve! :>) It just happens that I've sold TWO not ONE but TWO in the last week!!

Santa Fe rarely gets over 85 in the summer and for the past two weeks we have been in the mid 90's - I love heat but a day or two break would be nice.  This past winter we had a 2 week period the wind chill factor brought the temp down to -24 degrees - that was not a dash, that is a MINUS sign!!!! I was praying for warm weather sooooo 6 months later it gets here!

We have another house showing today and I pray it is not one of those Bottom Feeders!!  I'd rather the PB not be interested as compared to submitting an insulting offer.  The thing that irritates me the most is they are so damn PROUD of the fact that they are submitting a low ball offer!  Some even say I don't want to insult you but I realize this is a rather low offer - but it's all I'm willing to pay with the economy and all.  Well slap yourself upside YOUR head and call YOURSELF STUPID!   YOU WON'T BE STEALING OUR HOUSE - NOT TODAY OR ANYDAY!

Now get out of town you JACKWAGON!!!!!

I'm hoping it won't be another bottom feeder PB (potential buyer!)  Elsewise my DW (darling wife) and her DH (darling husband that's ME) will in unison say "BITE ME"

DW and DH is RV lingo - I just love it -  a whole new language to learn.

I guess what we should say to an insulting offer is You can kmela and you can also sybt.  Man would that ever upset them!!!!!  :>) 

SEE YA TOMORROW DUDES.

THE SPIRITS ARE RESTLESS & ANXIOUS

Hello All,

Today is house cleaning day and after starting at about 7:00 am, and being now 12:05, I've been done for about 3 hours now.  After 2 hours of house cleaning I was going to start a couple of sketches for paintings later this week.  However - have you ever had a feeling whereby things around you seem to give off - a feeling of restlessness - anxious vibes and sort of upheaval ready to happen?  That's how I feel - I don't think it is me, I think it is the energy around me.  So I've decided to park my butt today, do some reading and research on RVs.  It amazes me how many people are buying RVs these days - both new and used.  I've been following 3 RV sites online for about 6+ months now and RVs I was interested in 2 or 3 weeks ago are GONE!!!!!  The inventory on used RVs is getting depleted so I searched for an found a 4th dealer.  This dealer is in Surprise AZ and has a pretty good inventory - so I shall add this to my list.

I've never been one to believe in "spirits - ghosts - beings" - to be honest is scares me!!
However that said - a true story follows which has turned me into a believer and now that I believe HOLY CRAP I really get scared now!!!!

My DW and I bought a 125 year old Victorian home in East Boothbay Maine, over looking (partially) a nice little harbor.  The house was built by a rather famous 4 masted schooner builder.  The house was also inhabited by a sail maker who married the daughter of the schooner builder.  The house had a lot of history to it as well as some sadness - young deaths etc.

The house had started to fall into minor disrepair before we purchased it.  We put all new roofs on as the existing ones leaked like a sieve!!!  We put all new cedar clapboard on as the original 125 year old clapboards were still on the house.  We made other improvements in the kitchen and other rooms.  The last room to be done was the living room or PARLOR as it was called back 125 years ago.  This room had been used for birthing - wakes and segregation of the sickly inflicted family members.  That sounds gross doesn't it!!!

I kept promising my DW that I would paint the last room to be painted THE PARLOR.  The ceilings in the house were 12 feet tall and I was putting it off as long as I could - I do not like heights! That reminds me of a joke!!!  A quick digression:

A pilot for a Polish airline was approaching a NY airport for landing.  He called the tower for instructions and the tower radioed back "What is your height and position."
The pilot responded "I'm 5'8' and I sit up front.""

OK back to Ghostbusters.

One night my DW wife nicely asked "When are you going to get your lazy butt in gear and paint the PARLOR?"  I said just as nicely, "don't worry it'll get done!"  I kept my paint brushes down in the cellar (which also leaked like a sieve!!)  I had a sign on the property NO SPITTING as this in and of itself could cause the cellar to flood!

No sooner had I nicely responded to my DW - we heard a clunk down cellar - something had fallen onto the floor is what the sound indicated to both of us.  OH CRAP what broke or leaked now!!!!!  We went to the cellar door and at the foot of the stairs was MY PAINT BRUSH!!!!  OH CRAP - I'M FRIGHTENED NOW!!!  The paint brushes were kept on a shelf at the opposite end of the cellar - at least 20 feet from the foot of the stairs!!  NO joke - not even the hint of a JOKE!!!  This is NOT FUNNY!!!!!

The name of the sail maker was Charles - my DW wife said "I think Charles wants you to get started painting tomorrow - he threw one of your brushes  over so you'd get the hint!!!!"  She was not the least bit phased by the unexplained "flying paint brush" as she believes in this spirit stuff and now I'm thinking I'm a believer too - HOLY CRAP DO I EVER BELIEVE!!!!!!! :>O

OH YES ---- I BELIEVE!!!!

 I got my ladder (and parachute) out the next morning and I started painting the PARLOR!

While painting the PARLOR, several times throughout this process I would feel a faint blowing of air across the side of my neck and cheek (don't get excited - face cheek!)
This was during the winter so no doors or windows were opened!!!  My painting speed hastened as this blowing stuff was creeping me out!!!  I told my DW and she said " Oh that must of been Lectina, (the wife of Charles), showing you her appreciation for painting the PARLOR and of course as I've said before she has a crush on you - I think she was flirting with you!!  HOLY CRAP I"M FREAKED OUT NOW!!!  I've got spirits in the house and a DW who is ON THEIR SIDE!!!!!!!  YIKES!!!!

Other such things had happened in the house prior to this and after this which my DW took to mean that Lectina had a crush on me - I would nicely say "stop that crap you know it scares me!!!"

I'm sorry to say Lectina died ( in the MY PARLOR ) at age 32 from TB.

Several other things happened right up until we sold the house - these other things clearly pointed (proved) to the fact that we were not the only ones in the house!  My DW use to say "There is nothing to worry about - they are friendly spirits!"

We had a neighbor 4 or 5 house away who also lived in an old house and they could hear footsteps in the hallways at night AND someone (invisible of course) would chase the lady of the house UP THE FRIGGIN STAIRS!!!!!!  NO lie - she could hear the noise of the running foot steps, which caused her to take the stairs 2 at a time!!! They ran this home as a B&B and guests would complain at the noisy footsteps in the hall at night!!!

Sooooo long story short - I DO NOT DARE TO NOT BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!

One of the previous bosses - another story

Well, today is a quiet day. My DW and her visiting friend from AZ returned yesterday from the spa sojourn and went to the Harry Potter movie.  I'm not a Harry fan so I stayed home and ate more ice cream!!!  :>) :>) :>)

Her friend flies out late this afternoon to return to AZ, so we are just kickin back!

I have sooooo many more stories of my 32 year employment in "The Bank from HELL!!"

This is a true story as were all the past ones and is about my boss who had married the OLD MAN's daughter and consider himself to be an actual son of the OLD MAN!!!  He was not and I'm sure you can remember the OLD MAN treated him like crap, so he (my boss) treated everyone twice as bad - like CRAP-CRAP!!

All the sons, nephews and husbands of daughters got many, many more perks ( than they deserved) and one was a company car.  The only relative working at the bank who did not get many if any perks at all including NO COMPANY CAR was the daughter of the OLD MAN!!!  Now I ask you --- does that tell a story about THE OLD  MAN?????

OK back to my boss - the son-in-law ( AKA self appointed adopted son.)

First let me set the scene - It is Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving or as I like to say - Thanksgiving Eve.The bank I worked at is in Massachusetts.  As most of you know, I'm a very quiet person - don't talk a lot and like to stay under the radar.  I also am a private person which is why I lived in Maine and worked in Massachusetts.  I use to hate going to the grocery store and seeing half the people I work with - it seemed like I never left work!!!  :>(  Besides which they don't need to know what I eat and what toilet paper I use!!!

OK - back to Thanksgiving Eve.  My boss came to me around 4 in the afternoon and said I want you to give me a ride to the SAAB dealer so I can pickup my new car.  They don't call them their company car - they call them MY CAR!!!!!!  Of course being the obliging person I am - I said "sure - I'd be glad to".  (I had planned on leaving a bit early it was THANKSGIVING EVE - and it was SLEETING OUT!!)

The salesman who of course was also desiring to get home for THANKSGIVING EVE went through the features of the car rather quickly and I could tell my boss was irritated.
However he did not seemed concerned and it was then that I realized that he was not concerned because----------------HE HAD ME!!!!!  OH CRAP!!

We left the dealership and I said "Have a nice Thanksgiving."  He said "You are coming to my house."  I said "Why would I go to your house?"  He said "because you are going to explain how to work the features of my new car - I did not understand a thing that sales idiot said!"  OH CRAP!!

This of course took a while as I first had to read the owners manual then show&tell the boss idiot what he did not understand from the sales idiot!!  I was getting ready to leave and he said what about my special feature of heated seats???!!!???  OH CRAP!!

I had to read about that option in the manual and showed him how to engage this "special feature."  He said "You turn them on!"  I did and he sat in the seat.  After a few minutes he said "I can't feel any heat - you must have done something wrong - read it again!"
I read it again - and said "I've done exactly what the manual says."  He started to get very angry and said "can't you read something and understand it?  He was getting really pissed at me.  He went to the phone and called the dealership - of course no one answered - I assume they had all gone home as it was THANKSGIVING EVE!!!!!

Finally I convinced him that we could look at it on Friday as tomorrow was THANKSGIVING.  You see I knew this because today was THANKSGIVING EVE.

He said "fine - I'll see you at 8am Friday in my office!"

The roads were quite slippery by now and it took me over 2 hours to drive back to MY HOME in MAINE.  I kept saying over and over again "BUT IT'S THANKSGIVING EVE!!!"

By all that's right and holy I should still be in prison for MURDER!!!!!

RED BARTLETT & GRANNIE SMITH

Good day folks!  Well my lovely wife Melissa and her girlfriend from AZ arrive home today from their 3 day SPA RETREAT!  They certainly seemed to enjoy the stay.

I miss my DW (RV lingo for Darling Wife) when she is not here, so I tend to do little projects around the house and fill up my time reading about RVs - watching the new RV DVDs I got and of course throwing paint around!! :>)

This is an 8 x 8 canvas panel using Chroma Interactive Acrylics - a palette knife and the "palette knife brush" I created.  This gives the piece a variety of brush marks and palette knife swooshes.  I love to make palette knife swooshes - it is such a liberating movement of the arm and it just makes you feel in control of things.  Where as with a brush, one tends to "fiddle" with things and that is how you can get into trouble with painting.  It is best to get in there with vim & vigor do it once and leave it alone!!!
(MAKE NO MISTAKE) I AM talking about painting!!!)

As I always try to do, this was created with expression - emotion - gusto - rusticity - and spontaneity of color and texture.  This was done quickly so DO NOT blink, sneeze or otherwise remove your eyes from the screen or will you miss all of the years and years of technical training - the development of the the many skills

needed to become an extremely successful and highly sought after artist. :>)

If you believe that, please contact me regarding a bridge I have for sale!

CHARGE

A quick sketch - zip-zip

Throw in some color as a road map

Grannie Smith is a tad to dark, but I'll let some of that show thru as it progresses

NOW this is what I call progressing with vim & vigor - that was very quick - good job JR - you DA man!!!

A tweak here and a tweak there - juice up the lights and darks and the background,  put some movement into the foreground and SLAM-BAM we is done!!!!!!

I love to put movement into my FGs as still life can be so boring and static without any sense of movement - at least that is what I think and it's my blog- my paintings so I get l get to do it MY WAY  (Thanks Frank!)

DETAIL

ANOTHER STORY-ANOTHER BOSS

First this is a photo from our front courtyard of the smoke plume from the Pacheco Canyon wild fire which is about 15 miles from our house - as the crow flies. Last week we saw flames shooting up - remember this is in a canyon and those mountains rise up from that canyon quite a ways!!!

I promised to tell one more story of the Family Owned bank I worked for. ( I HEARD THAT - SOMEONE OUT THERE SAID "OH DAM!" Trust me I can HEAR YOU!!!! I proceed!!!  This boss was a nephew to the "OLD MAN" - three generations worked in this "Institution" - YOU COULD TRIP OVER THEM IN THE HALLWAYS!!! 

This boss was a NEAT FREAK!! He also would keep people waiting for long periods of time as he was also always late for meetings!!! I figure if I can be on time so can everyone else!!! It does not work that way!!!
He had a little round table at one end of his very, very large office so while sitting a that and waiting sometimes upwards to 2 hours for his GRAND arrival I would do things that I knew would irritate him. You know how the elastic part of your socks seem to come apart and little string like pieces of the stuff that was suppose to keep your socks up would get frayed? Well, at times I would pull those little stringy thingies and put them on his very plush carpet under his little round meeting table! :>) :>) :>)

Without fail he would notice them HEE-HEE-HEE and would tell me that I needed to get after the cleaning crew as they were not cleaning his office properly! I often wondered where he thought these little stringy thingies came from as I'm sure he wore a pair of socks only once and then tossed them - sooooooooo - they could not be from HIS SOCKS!!! I would tell him that I was on it and the cleaning crew would be brought to task!!!

Later that day when he went out, I would go up to his office - pick up the stringy thingies and advise him that I MADE the cleaning crew come back in (at no cost) and do a right proper job of cleaning his office!!!
This family existed for the sole purpose of finding things wrong and letting you know every little thing they found.  Their real joy was watching how quickly you responded to their silly little demands and the faster you responded the more they liked you - especially if you had kicked some butt and been mean in the process!  If you made some one CRY you were like their HERO!!!!  They were a sick little family unit.  They trusted no one - not even the family members!

For 32 years I played THEIR game but with MY rules!!!!

One day he assigned me (his SVP) the task of shopping for one of those floor type shoe polisher/buffer thingies! His only direction to me was "And I don't want a cheap one!!"

I spent all day (paid of course) trying to locating one for him - I of course took many coffee breaks and a nice long lunch for 2 hours!!  Finally my wife and I located one for him that evening at the mall!!!!

Now I paint! ( I heard that!!!)

LIMITED PALETTE No. II

Well, my wife Melissa and a girl friend from Arizona (we use to live there) are off for 3 days to a wonderful SPA!  Melissa has been working very hard on self-publishing her middle grade novel and this is a treat she really has earned
.
I on the other hand am left home alone to eat lots of ice cream - potato chips - and pizza.  BOO - HOO!!!!  There three items are such a tasty treat when eaten together!!  :>) :>) :>)

Today I did a few odds and ends as well as again view a couple of the RV DVDs that I bought.  I'm trying to learn as much as I can about RVs and RV-ing.  I bought the RVs from Mark & Dawn Polk - I consider Mark to be my RV GURU - he has a life time of knowledge (he is not even old) and he and his wife Dawn have made some wonderful Educational DVDs for all types of RVs - Travel Trailers, 5th Wheels, etc etc.
You can view their DVD offerings at http://www.rveducation101.com/

Check it out if you have an RV or are a wannabee or a newbie, there is so much to be learned from these DVDs - there is always room for more knowledge.

After I did my RV studies, I did a painting which is another limited palette - No. II
The palette consisted of:  Toning Grey - Titanium White - Payne's Grey and Daniel Smith Iridescent Gold watercolor pigment straight from the tube.  The painting was done on 8 x 12 heavy linen canvas paper using a brush I created that can be used in a manner much like a palette knife but yet retains the visible brush marks.  It is fun to use!

Not much fanfare to this as it was done very, very quickly wet into wet with emotion - expression - gusto and spontaneity of limited color.  So I guess it's time to begin. 
First I digress --------------- OH CRAP I forgot what I was going to write!!!  Oh well ..

CHARGE!!!!!!!

A QUICK SKETCH FOR SOME GUIDE LINES

GOT TO GET SOME COLOR ON THIS WHITE PAPER IT IS BLINDING ME!!

NICE BEGINNING COLOR - JR!!!

NOT BAD DUDE BUT LET'S WRAP IT UP!! PUT IN SOME BACKGROUND - SOME FOREGROUND AND TAKE THOSE HIGHLIGHTS TO ANOTHER LEVEL!!!

BAM!!!!  DONE - THAT WAS QUICK!!!

DETAIL