Attack of the pie brigade

Thanksgiving goes from one extreem to another. There might be 35 people or just one. All you need is a semblence of a meal eaten with appreciation.

In 2007 and 2008, my mom and I broke with tradition and went to a local diner for our meal. This year my cousin who had moved to PA has moved back here, and one of my mothers sisters has moved back from Florida. My cousin's sons and their families were not visiting this year. (One is overseas, the other is on the West Coast.) So it was a small crowd and a meal featuring some high fat but really delicious food. Our gathering including five actual relatives and three folks the cousins invited who are not relatives. One of them is Chef Johnny who deboned the bird and stuffed it with chestnut sausage stuffing. My cousin's husband basted it with brandy and cooked it on a grill outside. Oh my. Chef Johnny spiced up mashed sweet potatoes and doused green-beans with almonds and amaretto.  My family always fears there will not be enough, and so there is always WAY too much. When one is trying to avoid cholesterol  - it seems almost an assault to sit with a mousse pie to your left, cream pie to your right, etc etc. The following video is an account of dessert.

Going WAY back here - my first oil painting

I have always been a fan of brown in all its zillion permutations with raw and burnt umbers and siennas rich as compost.

This is my first oil painting. This was painted during a Painting I class with Robert Alberetti at Western CT State U - decades ago. The actual painting mildewed and was tossed out. All I have is this rather blurry snapshot - which I scanned into the computer and digitally signed in Picnic.  The wonderful thing about Mr. Alberetti's still life setups was that the objects were all so beautiful and compatible. My rendering of them is forgettable but forgivable considering it's a first attempt.

P.S  - the blurry snapshot does it a service in my opinion, i.e. it looks nicer in the photo.

Inspiring pastel demo with Clayton Buchanan

Pastel artist Clayton Buchanan gave a local workshop last week. Wow. Now, first I have to say that I don't work with soft pastels much or ever. I work with oil paint and oil pastels, occasionally watercolors, collage - yadayada.  But the way this artist talked about what he was doing, and the way he was doing it shed light for me on the process of "seeing."  Check out his website, by the way - his finished works are gorgeous.

His method was at first baffling. He'd stare at his subject, then stare at his chalks. (a familiar enough process). He'd suddenly pickup one and make a little mark here or there on the paper. At first the results didn't seem to make much sense or form a picture. It was just little squiggles or patches of color. But after a while the subject emerged from the chaos of color into a recognizable and accurate picture.  During the process a roomful of 30 people sat silently watching for an hour and a half.  There was a ten minute break, and an occasional question shot out by onlookers - but mostly these folks, all artists,  watched intently.  And it was worth the wait!   He also had two great handouts about using pastels and using them for portraits. The event was put on by SCAN.

Mr. Buchanan said we should try to see our  compositions in terms of "plains of light and shadow," and to try and see those plains in terms of color rather than value.  That really hit home for me. I am currently working on a bunch of paintings. One in particular features two men sitting on a bench in the early sunlight. I am trying to apply these ideas:  "Plains of light an shadow" and color rather than value . I think these ideas will allow me to move forward with this particular picture in a different way than before.

Melody with slide show

This is a tranquil melody or that is how I envisioned it.

While brandishing a set of wind chimes and ringing them occassionally, I improvised this melody to a video of my cat. When I watched it afterwards, the tune didn't really fit the pictures. So I took some old stained glass-like early digital paintings of mine and made a slideshow of them. The slides overlap which makes new colors as one fades into a another. The last slide is a low res pic of a painting of mine. Hope you like it.

Drawing: the groper

This is an old sketch. I like it though. He is surely a groper - but she doesn't seem to mind and clings to him as they slide. I made the jacket rather too splashy and check out the blue suede shoes! Have always had a visual fascination for dancers of various kinds. There are quite a few sketches of bodies in motion here on the blog.

I was bummed earlier because someone was on the blog looking at the drawing category and I realize only 5 old drawings were properly categorized. There are actually 24 plus drawings on this blog...  I have fixed it and the drawing category now calls up everything it should.

Painting: Rural Free Delivery

This is an oil painting on a small canvas board.   This painting hung around for a year because I couldn't figure out how to finish it.

Below are earlier versions of it.  I have this debate with every picture:  when do I stop? Things are lost and others gained. Perhaps I am over painting them.

Painting: Busy No 1 - Cat Dreams, oil on canvas board

Cats are busy when they're awake, and who knows what they dream about. Maybe little birds or mice running, or leaves skittering on the wind? This painting is busy too, with color and movement of dots. I don't know why. Just a fancy I had I guess.