Today I started working on recreating the lemon painting (see post below) with a real still-life. I bought and cut up some lemons, then went about the tricky task of setting them up with the lighting and viewing angle and background done as closely to the original painting as possible. I had some help, fortunately. Here’s my first painting copied from an original by Helen van Wyk: Here’s what the […]
When I last posted about the lemon painting, I wasn’t very far into it. It’s now finished, and I’ll try to explain the steps I took to get there. It took longer than I thought it would. I’m learning that painting is a lot like writing. It doesn’t make sense to write in every single detail of a scene — what every single thing looks like, sounds like, smells like, […]
The ball of fur I adopted from the animal shelter decided it would be a good idea to wriggle her way through a wrought iron safety rail and jump four feet down onto a pile of river rocks in my back yard. She did not break any bones, but she did some damage to the spay the animal shelter had performed just five days earlier. Consequently, her parental unit had […]
Our first grader lost another tooth and found a new hobby. She is sending increasingly detailed questionnaires to the tooth fairy. Here are the questions and answers. Just so you know, I am not the tooth fairy. He is much funnier than I am.
I have a new toddler wandering around my house, putting her mouth on things it shouldn’t be on, whether it’s electrical cords, baseboards, or shoes, and struggling to discern the difference between my carpet and a toilet. Her name is Joanie. We picked her up from Town Lake Animal Shelter on Tuesday afternoon. She is named for another beautiful redhead, Miss Joan Holloway of Sterling Cooper. She’s darling, and a […]
We saw this sign yesterday morning and had to stop to take a photo with my phone. It’s a little hard to see — it says, “God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.” I was going to post it as just plain funny, but now, in light of last night’s news, it seems oddly prescient. Osama bin Laden is dead. Praise be to God.
I decided to leave the pear as-is and pursue my next art project. My teacher suggested that I pick a painting of a still-life to copy. Later I can reproduce the still-life in reality and paint it again. Copying paintings as a way of learning technique dates back to the beginning of painting. It’s like doing an internship in art. The student doesn’t have to make any choices about color, […]
The Big M and I were walking through Sam’s Club with the kids earlier this evening when everyone’s stomachs started rumbling. There were supper fixings waiting in the fridge at home, but I had done no prep, and it would be at least an hour. We got into the car and looked at each other. Some beautiful spark crossed our synapses at exactly the same time, and we just knew. […]
My baby left a survey for the tooth fairy under her pillow tonight. I transcribe it below: Dear tot- h fairy are you real, _____ “I hope so,” be cause It too- k a long time… For tha- t toth to come out. sign in your na- me ______ What Do you Do with your th- eth. ______ ______ ______ I hope you Do not eat them!… thank you for […]
Close to our vineyard there was a pear tree laden with fruit. This fruit was not enticing, either in appearance or in flavor. We nasty lads went there to shake down the fruit and carry it off at dead of night… We took enormous quantities, not to feast on ourselves but perhaps to throw to the pigs; we did eat a few, but that was not our motive: we derived […]
Flabby Brain 