NOT A PAIR (A PLAY ON WORDS)

Hello Blog Buddies,

Well, I had my annual physical this morning - that is always worth a few laughs!  I mentioned to the Dr. that we had sold our home and come April we would be taking off in our 31' RV.  Wellllll. HOLY CRAP was that ever a mistake!!!!!  The good Dr. says "well we'll check out everything today since you are leaving the area!!!"
HOLY CRAP did he ever check out everything - but I won't go into he details as I'm still walking around on my friggin TOES!!!!
He did a balance test - I thought I did great on that - but - OH NO!!!
The good Dr. said "for someone your age (71) you did not do very good.  He then suggests some test that they can give to determine why my balance is not as good as they feel it should be - ( I HAPPEN TO BE VERY HAPPY WITH MY BALANCE!!!) and he adds we can put you into REHAB to correct this condition.  HOLY CRAP!!!!  REHAB - I'm 71 - not 91!!!!!  I say
LET ME THINK ABOUT IT!"  My mind says "REHAB MY ASS!"

He did an EKG and some other tests.  When all was said and done we agreed that other than the balance thing (which I question as I may be a bit dippy and unbalanced - however I can stand up without falling over!!! Geezzzzzzz!!!! 

OK - I did another "QUICKIE" today - no smart remarks are necessary!!!!  This time I did a still life - why???  Because I'm the artist and it's my choice :>)

I'm happy to report while doing this painting I only fell over once!!

:>)  HAR-HAR-HAR just kidding - REHAB!!!  What was he thinking?????

OK - very quickly without a lot of explanation as I'm tired from my physical ordeal this morning!

I quickly sketch in an apple and a pear using this time a palette knife.  A fellow that I communicate with via my blog and an RV blog that I met him on said he was glad to see me using a brush again - referring to my painting of yesterday --- so today I used a palette knife - after all, I'm the boss of myself!!!! This piece is

 10 x 8 on sketch canvas

Lots of texture is present by using the palette knife and a lot of paint gets applied very quickly as compared to a brush

I wanted to keep my RV friend happy, so I do a bit of tweaking and refining using a big brush - 1 1/2 inches wide - my Tony Van Hasselt brush  - I love that brush!!

We have the finished piece without a lot of blah-blah-blah - just about 15 minutes of slapping paint on with lots of vigor - emotion- expression with very little regard for perfection!  This is expressive painting - this is fun painting done with a large degree of emotion and spontaneity - the juice of life.!!!

Have a good day my friends and live it to the fullest!

:>)  JR

A SURPRISE

Hellos Blog Buddies,

While unpacking my art supplies and setting up my "painting spot" I came across 2 pads of 9x12 containing individual sheets of primed canvas.  HOLY CRAP where did this come from????  I have no knowledge of buying it and I have no idea of how long I've had it.  I'm going for my annual health checkup tomorrow so perhaps I shall mention this memory loss to the DR.  YA - RIGHT!!!!  When I go to the Dr. and he asks how I feel, I always say "I feel great - no problems - no worries - I should not even be here!!!!"  If you tell Dr's anything else you will be x-rayed - poked - stuck and in general jerked about until something is wrong - even if induced by all this man-handling!!!!

So - I continue on from whence I left off.  I said to myself - "SELF" what can you do with this treasure you just found?  Weeeellllllll, these individual pieces of 9x12 canvas are perfect for sketching - and I mean quick - down & dirty sketching.  Every so often I do very quick sketches - some times plein air and other times from my  memory contained in this very mixed up brain of mine!!!! :>)   

These sketches are fun to do and a good way to loosen up - to my way of thinking a painting can never be loose enough - ya gotta leave somethings for the viewer to finish - otherwise - go buy a camera and become a photographer.

That said - which I just said - sketches can also lead into a bigger painting of the same basic scene.  In a sketch you can work out problems - pit-falls and general organization of the scene.

I have a good friend - a professional painter - Tony Van Hasselt - my idol as a watercolorist.  When we lived in East Boothbay, Maine our home/gallery was a 5 minute walk to his home/gallery.  I admit it - I used to stalk Tony - as I say he was my idol!!!
Long story short - one day he gave me a brush - I cherish that brush as it was one that he used when doing his paintings.  It is like the brush is magic - I can feel tingles when I use it and my hand seems to have a mind of its own!  It is like touching a vortex - crazy????? PERHAPS  however none of you out there have touched it soooo-----ZIP YOUR LIPS and try to understand and appreciate what I'm saying! :>)

Any-hooooo I used Tony's brush for this painting and when I say a "QUICK SKETCH" I spent no more than 10 minutes on this - working totally in a wet into wet style with vigor - expression  emotion and no regard what so ever for exact color as this was from memory and as we all know my memory is not all it should be!!!  :>)

This is a photo of the brush - it is a Muslin brush with natural ox hair and the hair is 1.5 inches wide and 1.5 inches long.  It is made in Germany.  Sign painters use very similar brushes in their work.  I love this brush!!!

Other than the wooden portion of the handle and the ox hair, the rest of the brush is COPPER!

Well, as I say this was what is commonly referred to as a "QUICKIE"

HEY - you in the front row - 2nd seat in from the left - that is not the type of "QUICKIE" I'm talking about sooooo as they say on Southwest Airlines when the plane pulls up to the gate --- GET OUT!!!!

What a nerve - and in mixed company too!!!!!

Any-hooooo now that he is gone----- it is a simple landscape - (needs some tweaks here- and thar) but the concept of it is done and could be transformed into a larger painting perhaps 18 x 24 or so.

Until next time my friends - enjoy your days.

JR  :>)

Good morning blog buddies,

Following is a link to an article which speaks to the 31' NEXUS RV that we have contracted to have built for us.

http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/Reviews/Motorhome-Reviews/NeXus-RV-Phantom-31P/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motorhome-magazine+%28MotorHome-Magazine%29

This is a review by MOTORHOME magazine.  Additionally at a recent RV show - which is huge, all the RV manufactures bring their latest rigs to display and show-off.  NEXUS won an award for the 31P which is the unit that we bought.  It is my understanding that NEXUS will be featured on a segment of HGTV in early January.

NEXUS is a new company in the RV market - however - NEXUS is a company run by some very, very savvy and talented RV experts and the units are crafted by professional craftsmen and craftswomen who have on average at least 10 years + of creating RVs.

NEXUS is lead by experts and the units are crafted by highly talented craftspeople.  This is a winning combination and thus far the sales of NEXUS RVs will certainly cement this statement.

Well, things are starting to get back to normal after our move out of our home and into the apartment and then our trip to NEXUS in Elkhart Indiana.  So now we can begin to settle into somewhat of a routine.

I hope to start painting more often now that we are getting settled in so you should start seeing a combination of paintings and RV-ing.

Take care my friends - JR  :>)

Video Book Trailer!

Hey folks, check out the video book trailer for Melissa's -aka- DW's book, The Christmas Village. It's on YOUTUBE, so I want you all to view it a hundred times so it can go viral.  It's so cool. Okay, here it is:

OUR RV

Hi Blog Buddies,

Well, back to reality - did some laundry today in the laundry room on the bottom floor of our UNIT ON THE HILL.  I miss not having our own washer and dryer but as we keep saying to ourselves - IT'S ONLY FOR SIX MONTHS!!!  Actually it is longer as our RV will not have a washer and dryer either.  Oh well - this is good practice for me!

We took some photos of a same size RV ( 31 feet ) as we are having built, so the following pictures are only to give an idea of what ours will resemble.  We are not having the bed in the over the cab section - that will be an entertainment center in cherry wood cabinets and will also provide extra storage.  In the center of this entertainment center will be a 32 inch HDTV with DVD player and surround sound. Therefore we will not have the windows in the over cab section as you see in the pictures.

The cabinets are beautiful - they are hand crafted out of real wood by Amish cabinet makers who live in that area of Indiana.

The living room slide out is 10ft long by 2ft deep

A nice electric awning and of course a ladder to the roof

My DW - Melissa at the front of the Ford 450 V-10

A practice shower

Melissa waiting for lunch at the dinette

Stove-microwave-sink-refrig/freezer

Nice comfortable leather couch and there is a leather swivel captain's chair across from it.

All in all it is a beautiful RV, with all the comforts of home, the cabinets in these photos are maple but ours will be a very rich looking cherry wood.

VERY EXCITING!!!!!

A TOUR OF THE NEXUS RV FACILITY

During the past year my DW, Melissa and I have had a slogan regarding the purchase of our RV.
That slogan was "WE'RE DO'IN IT"

Well-Well-Well -  that slogan has changed to "WE DID IT"

We arrived at the NEXUS RV Executive offices in Elkhart Indiana at 9 am Friday 10/14 and stayed until 1:30 - went to lunch - returned at 2:30 and stayed until 5:30.  During that time period - close to 8 hours, we were taken on a tour of the manufacturing facility and the show room by the President of Nexus.

The President Claude Donati escorted us through the construction of an RV from the time the chassis is delivered until it rolls out the opposite end of the factory as a finished RV.

I have been researching NEXUS RVs for 6 months now and my research showed that they were a strong-well managed company.  It also showed that the NEXUS RV was an extremely well built RV.  Well, after our tour and examining the exterior top to bottom, side to side and the interior top to bottom and side to side, what I observed was:

The NEXUS RV was not only what my researched found it to be BUT - the NEXUS RV was in fact much more than my research showed - it was SUPERIOR to what my research show - it in fact simply stated is, FANTASTIC in every way - a SUPERIOR product - well built with many-many innovative-state of the art techniques & construction processes inside-outside-top-bottom-and sides.

  We met workers at each station of the construction process who had 15-28 years experience in building RVs for other long time RV manufacturers who did not survive these economic times.  The experience level at NEXUS is outstanding.  As Claude explained, they are using "just in time production techniques" - such as the Toyota production model uses - make it in house if you can do it better and more cost effective and outsource when you can't - do not bring in product until you need it.  NEXUS uses local vendors and suppliers - developing strong loyal relationships within the community.  Examples of this are the local Amish cabinet makers who craft the solid wood cabinets and use metal slides - NOT the plastic ones attached with staples.  The solid wood cabinets are constructed with solid tongue and grooved and glued joints.  A local furniture maker produces all the couches, dinette seats etc - what better quality control could one ask for!!!  All inventory is stored inside climate controlled buildings, not piled up outside in a storage area or up against the building.  I have never seen such a well organized production line, not to mention neat and clean.  The entire operation was just unbelievable in terms of organization and the dedication of the workers was amazing.  The workers are not on piece meal so they care about what they are doing and what they are producing - they are not just pushing thru as many widgets as they can in order to get a pay check.  Non-piece work equates to QUALITY! 

Watching the workers assemble their various parts of the whole piece, I'm standing there looking at one-piece fiberglass residential showers, residential microwaves- just to name a few of the quality products used in the process.  The roof for example is light weight STEEL trusses as is the studding with in the walls.  The insulation is rigid foam - so much better than fiberglass bats.  Better insulation and it also adds stability to the wall structure.  The underside of the RV has yet to be rated for R-value but the owners feel it will exceed the industry standard.  The roof is a one-piece fiberglass roof which have very healthy pitch to each side.  There will not be any standing water on these roofs!!!!  The light weight steel used in this innovated production adds but a very small amount of weight to the overall RV.

 

 I have never seen such a well organized production line not to mention neat and clean.  The entire operation was just unbelievable in terms of organization and the dedication of the workers was amazing.  My DW, Melissa and I have never more happily written a check for a down payment - it was a complete joy to write this check!

 

In my opinion if you are looking for an RV - one of superior quality and professionally constructed using some of the most innovated processes in the marketplace today, you would be remiss in your search if you did not research the NEXUS product line.

 

http://www.nexusrv.com/

 

From the owners - Claude Donati and David Middleton (who both have very extensive backgrounds and successful histories in the RV industry), to the professional and talented craftsmen who create this product I do not think you could find a more professional team nor a more professionally constructed product.

 

We have completed a sales order & agreement for a 31 foot Class C Phantom RV with a living room slide out 10 feet long by 2 feet deep.

Our RV will go into production January 2012 for delivery March 2012. Very,very,very exciting!!!!  WE DID IT!!!  

RESTING IN FORT WAYNE

Hello Blog Buddies,

Just a short hello - we left Elkhart this morning and on the way out we stopped at SHIPSHEWANNA which is a lovely community in the heart of AMISH county near  Middlebury Indiana.  It was very nice - lots of nice shops to go in and my DW got 4 or 5 Christmas presents bought!!!!  Lots of those Amish horse & buggies going up and down the roads - just our kind of place.

From there we continued down the interstate and arrived at our Best Western right off of I-69.  We are a short distance from the Fort Wayne International airport from which our flight will leave tomorrow morning at 6 am for Dallas/Fort Worth.  We then catch a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Albuquerque NM and drive back to Santa Fe.

Our journey to find and design our RV is almost over and now we sit and wait for our RV to be built - how exciting is that!!!  We'll be back here around the beginning of March to pick up our RV and drive it back to Santa Fe!

:>)  JR