Cold - Hot - Cold

This is an interesting shot of cold icescikles against hot magenta and cool cyan and high chroma; sharp contrast of black.


Opening the aperture at night; interesting movement.

Beauty and Sadness

A study. My intention was to give a feeling of sadness.

Merry Christmas

Edited: 12/26/07

This is addressed to all Christians.

May you experience the very presence of the Lord, to remember to worship Jesus our Christ, our Lord, who is God in the flesh (Immanuel i.e. God with us) ... by giving thanks for his gift of Himself to redeem those whom the Father had given Him (John 17). Therefore it is not what man can do for God; it is what God has done for man. It is a free gift that can be accepted or rejected. It is never a "gift" plus something else. Jesus' sacrificial atonement is sufficient to save.

There is no other religion or belief system on the planet that offers Grace to man ("Grace" i.e. the unmerited favor of God - of Grace not of good works lest ANY MAN boast). ALL works of man are filthy rags to God. All means all. Therefore, there is no other way to gain right standing with God Almighty other than through Jesus;and the world will hate Christians just as it hated Jesus. Why? Man likes to take the credit for good works and righteousness and thinks that all men are basically good when the truth is that all mankind is basically not good.

Remember Christ's admonition that is so appropriate for our age.

Mat 5:11-16 "Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"You are the salt of the eretz, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."


Edit: Just to clarify I have added the following.

So what about this thing called "good" works.

When the rich young ruler addressed Jesus as "good Master" what was Jesus' reply? "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God." That was a loaded rhetorical question packed with great meaning because indeed Jesus was "good" ...for He is the only good man who ever lived...BECAUSE He was Immanuel (i.e. God with us in human flesh). Man is not made righteous by good works doing ... man is unrighteous therefore an unrighteous human being doing a good deed means nothing. (Mark 10:17) Jesus was teaching about man's depravity in this story. It was given to show man's love for this world and the things in it. This young man was coming to God with his good works saying ... "I have kept the law from my youth." Jesus countered, "sell all that you have and follow me." He couldn't do it and neither could any other human. Wherefore, the young man went away sorrowful for he had much wealth. You see, his depravity was showing. If you can't do anything for God to gain his favor what is left but a desperate need for the unmerited favor...Grace of God.

All "good" works are of God not man. ALL means ALL. Man is just a willing and sometimes even unwilling conduit for good. However, when man cooperates fully with God, his life becomes blessed because God's blessings are flowing unhindered through him; the kicker is that man dose not gets credit for initiating them, God does.

What is the significance of this?

God gets ALL the credit and man gets NONE except his willingness to cooperate; for that man will be rewarded in heaven. The idea that all men are basically good is not scripture. The idea that man can build up Karma to gain heaven ...makes God indebted to man forcing God to bless man. That is nonsense. (Gonna be lots of surprised people in heaven.)

In heaven Christians shall all be crowned and rewarded for those good works that God channeled though us because we were willing ... but we shall throw those crowns at the feet of Jesus because we know that all good are His works not ours.

If you would like the scriptural basis for anything that I write, please email me or comment. I will be happy to supply many scriptures to support what I am saying; I never used just one proof verse.



This is the Good News (aka The Gospel of Grace).

OCD Christmas lights

Decorations by a obsessive compulsive.



This is the ultimate in Christmas lighting. It is not possible to top this holiday display since every single twig and bush has carefully placed lights in perfect order.

Once you see this house live, you might as well just go home.

Drama in the ice.

For those of you who do not watch TV 24/7, we are having an ice storm here. We lost this tree this morning...I am worried that the other half is going to fall on our house. More moisture and below freezing temps may pull other trees down tonight. I'm nervous. (Yesterday I ordered a new SONY 100A (Alpha) DSLR camera body for all of my lenses and soon I will be posting much better images.)


Guess we'll get a new mail box.

Cennini Lesson - Merlin Part II

This is a continuation of a Cennini Forum Lesson. The following are examples of illustrating Merlin and the Lady of the Lake. Here is the part of the poem that I chose to illustrate. (Reference previous November post.)

"And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws, And takes it in her hand and waves it over the blossomed thorn tree and her sleeping lover. Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round, And made a little plot of magic ground.”

The task is to create big abstract black and white forms that convey the story in a powerful way. Next part is to make two color versions of the same illustration but create a different mood with a change in palette. One to create tranquil scene and one a dark and evil feeling of doom. The vertical ones appeal to me but I failed to lesson. I like these but I did not accomplish the lesson's objective...and that is less detail and more abstraction. On the vertical one I did get a shift in mood. I hope I will do better in the next lessons.

HORIZONTAL COMPOSITIONS





VERTICAL COMPOSITIONS

Ozzie ... a God send.

This is a pastel sketch ... for which I have absolutely no training. I am certain that to the trained artist this will appear technically off but I really like this sketch for it captures Ozzie's special look. He is, we think, part Schnauzer and who knows what else (about 20 pounds). These darling floppy ears often stand straight up on their own translating into jack-rabbit ear status especially when Oz is hopping around the yard chasing squirrels. Maybe he is a Jackanauzer. It's comical but it is not his floppy ears that made him so endearing to me but the feeling between us is quite mutual. You see, this is the stare that I get every single night. Oz plops down next to me and turns his head and just stares at me sometimes for longer than one or two minutes. I've never ever had an animal do that.

You see, returning from physical therapy six years ago, deeply weary of fighting to regain my mobility and ward off the effects of the worst surgery experiences of my life, I was returning home that autumn day when there on my porch was this little white puppy presenting himself before me at the front door as if waiting for me. He was all white and had a small black collar but no name.

Halley, our standard white poodle had to be put down recently so I just couldn't bear getting another pet plus I was too sick to take care of anyone or anything. It was a dark time for me.

This cute little thing looking up with those expressive eyes produced enough pity to offer him a drink for he looked like he needed some care and he was so eager. When I opened the door inside he dashed disappearing around the corner past the dining room. I couldn't see him anywhere. I called; nothing.

Too sick and full of pain to do anything about it, I closed the door behind me and yelled again for the puppy but he was no where to be found. My hospital bed had been moved into the morning room since the stairs were too difficult to manage everyday. As with so much of my life at this point, I just couldn't cope with the pup. "How much damage could the little thing do anyway," I thought. The pain medicine had made me drowsy so I laid down and soon surrendered to unconsciousness.

Who knows how much time had passed when finally I opened my eyes and before me sitting with his two front paws so perfectly aligned and still, the pup at first didn't look real. Our eyes locked and up he jumped onto my lap and into my heart when, as if recognizing what a hard time I was having he placed his muzzle on the side of my neck, collapsed flat on my chest (I'm not kidding), and with his paws literally hugged me.

I wept. Everything just gushed out of me. I had not known how much emotion was pent up inside. It had been a hard two years trying to regain my health and function. My career ended, my life seemed to be frozen in time.

It wasn't long before Ozzie was officially ours after putting out "lost dog" signs and no response thankfully. It would have been impossible to give him up for we were indeed attached to each other and soon Ozzie gave me a reason for getting out of bed.

He's a puppy, right? So every hour on the hour I would have to get out of bed and walk to the door back and forth to let him out to take care of his business. And it was Ozzie who loved to lounge in my lap and make me laugh with his antics. Finally, I taught him how to push open the door and close it all by himself. (Maybe I'll post that video if I can figure out how to do it.) And it was Ozzie who helped motivate me to take our first walks together. Soon, I began to recover and gain strength and I owe a lot of that to the little guy who was definitely one answer to prayer.

So it is with a lot of love that I enjoy sketching Ozzie boy who is truly a critter sent from God.

November Drawings

Phyllis (a local Cennini member and pastel-ist) and I, armed with cameras went out this morning on a hunt for images. Oklahoma is horse country so it was not surprising to find one. Here is a vine charcoal on newsprint...a quick sketch.

It was good to smell the "roses" ... in this case the lovely country side. It was a perfect ... sunny autumn day.

Is it murder to dissect? aka "smell the roses"

AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
By William Wordsworth (1888)

UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

On Cennini Forum, some good advice was given me...i.e. "don't over analyze... observe and paint more."

This is my personality and why I am writing a blog. The problem for me in art is that in the past I always felt I was experimenting all the time. I knew what was in my head that I wanted but I didn't know how to get that down on paper or in paint. So over and over I worked and usually felt I never achieved the effect on canvas that I wanted.

Is it "murder to dissect" when it comes to art. I would say it could be if one tries to be mechanical about painting and forgets to "smell the roses." I don't think that is possible for me now ... but I could spend too much time reading and not enough time painting and observing.

Now, with the wealth of information on Cennini ... I see that there are artists that have forged through and solved a lot of the problems already ... and developed techniques that will help me achieve the results I want. So as one who loves to read and study this new resource is in fact taking a lot of my time.

So my goal is to paint 5 days this next week at least four hours each day. I will just paint and enjoy myself. So that was good advise.

A fellow artist and I will spend time searching for ideas for painting tomorrow. Wahoo.

1998 Still Life

(This is not a very good quality jpeg - its very dark and pixilated and there is glare right in the middle...and it's not in sharp focus. Maybe I need new scanners and cameras. It will have to do for the moment until I can replace it with better quality.)

Ten years ago, I painted this big watercolor which is about 24"x30" D'Arches. Matter of fact it is the biggest watercolor I have ever done. I like challenges so I got as many reflective things, tectures, etc. in one painting as I could. I have dried roses and ferns, patterns and all my beautiful inherited glass. Notice the hand painted wine glass on the left (if you can see it. Now that artist could paint!) And my prized antique venitian glass.

I am hesitant to post it because I would do so many things differently now. (I tend to bash my work and pick it to death. That is why so little of my work survives the axe.) However, there are parts of this painting that do what I wanted to do -- beautiful reflections -- and that pleases me. The bottles are the best part and that makes it acceptable to me. Maybe I should have just cropped everything else out... Aargh!!!!