Memorial Day Weekend

Had a nice long weekend. My daughter and wife marched in our local parade with the girl scouts. Played poker with some friends. I won around $10. Woo hoo!

I kept plugging away at my newest flower pen & Ink. It is very slow going. I scanned in what I have so far. The final size will be 18.5" x 12". What I have so far is about 5" x 12". My original plan was to color it when I was done, but I might let it stand as is.

Quick Charcoal

My wife had these two plants in the house that I have been wanting to draw. Yesterday I did not see them and asked her where they were. She brought them outside to plant. I quickly grabbed and made a charcoal drawing of them.

5 - 0

We won yet again last night. This time 17 - 5. This is amazing. Only a couple of years ago we were the league laughing stock. We couldn't get a hit if you paid us. Maybe because most of the team is pushing 50 and started taking geritol?

I have been plugging away at my new flower pict, but it is very slow going. I started inking last night and will post a work in progress soon. Meanwhile here is the last oil painting I completed.

Updates

My mom saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday and she does not need a pin in her thumb. He said it will heal just fine as it is. She is very much relieved.

Worked on the new flower piece last night. Man, it is taking me a loooong time to finish the pencil sketch. I'll post a picture of it once I start the inking process. I should be able to finish the penciling part tonight.

Meanwhile here is another painting.

Sunday Double Header

Had a softball double header on Sunday. We won both games with big leads. I can't remember the last time we hit so well and consistent as a team. It must be ten years. I broke my no hit slump and went 7 for 8. Normally after our Sunday double headers we have a barbecue after the game. But the wind was so bad we all just went home. The wind made for interesting games. Hats were blowing off of heads. Pop flies were never a sure thing. I would have to pitch at the batter and the wind would blow the ball over the plate for a strike.

When I got home I was very tired. I lied down and started to fall a sleep. The phone rand and it was my dad with a sentence that will wake you right up. "I'm at the emergency room with your mom." My mom fell down the basement stairs and cut her thumb open. They couldn't stop the bleeding so they went to the emergency room. She had two deep gashes. They also x-rayed the thumb and found out it was broken. Other than that she is just bruised a little. Lucky that is all at 67 years of age.
She has to see an orthopedic surgeon this morning to fix up the thumb. They think she will need a pin. Oh, and typical for my dad. He called from the emergency room to ask name to tape desperate housewives. They didn't want to miss the season closer.

On to art. I photographed my painting over the weekend. The sun was much better than the flash. Here are the other two paintings that go with the onions.

The allergies are coming, the allergies are coming...

I started feeling my allergies kick in yesterday. I'm allergic to tree and grass pollen. My allergies aren't strong enough to react to just one, but when both are out at the same time I get whomped. Last year they got so bad I had to get an inhaler, pills and eye drops. So far so good. But last year my allergies didn't kick in until Memorial Day Weekend.

I made my famous chicken soup last night. Didn't eat it yet, I make it for lunch. I'm the only one in the family who will eat it. I'll reveal for the first time my secret recipe. Take the left over chicken carcass and boil it in six cups of water with 1 chopped onion and a teaspoon of salt. While that is boiling look in the fridge for some vegetables. Chop up what ever vegetables you can find plus two cloves of garlic. If the garlic has turned brown and soft, don't use. But don't throw it out, it just might get better.

Put a pot in the sink then a colander on top. (from experience, if you forget the pot you have wasted an hour and some vegetables) Stain broth into pot and put back on stove. Boil the chopped vegetables for ten minutes. While boiling add what ever spices strike your fancy. Also add chunks of chicken that look good from the colander. At the end I add some organic brown rice that I cooked while the chicken was boiling.

Viola!!! Randy's famous chicken soup.

On to the painting. I tried taking a picture of a large painting, but the flash kept making a mess of the image. I'll have to try this weekend outside and see if I can get better pictures. Meanwhile I took one of my smaller paintings and scanned it. This came out all right. I tried to color correct the image but the room our computer in was too dark to do this with any accuracy.

I painted this in 1997. It is about 11" x 14" I have two others that are the same size and style. We had them hanging together in our kitchen. I'll scan the other two this weekend.

And the winner is...

Has a softball game last night. We were down 8 - 2 going into the 6th inning. Then we exploded for 10 runs. We ended up winning 13 - 8. I worked a little more on the new flower piece but I was so tired I only worked for about 15 minutes. Since this piece is going to take a long time I am going to snap some pictures of my oil paintings and post them, but not today.

A new flower starts

Spent last night painting an 'X' on the back of the masonite boards. A friend told me if I didn't do that the boards will warp because of the gesso only on one side.

When I finished I started a new flower pen and ink. My last few pieces were a set up still life which I like doing a lot. It was weird to go back to photo reference. This piece will be much bigger than my previous flowers pieces. I want to push the ink aspect of the drawing more this time. We'll see how it comes out.

My wetcanvas fellow artist Stoy Jones added my blog to his blog links. Thanks Stoy. When I get the time I will update my link to the right and add Stoy's and some other blogs I frequent.

Yup, it's done

Took a last look at the piece last night. Made a couple of small changes and called it done. Then I had some free time to organize things and put some gesso on a bunch of masonite panels that I cut out to use for painting.

Fish...finished

I finished the fish piece last night. And none too soon. My sepia pencil was down to a nub and I don't have another one. I want to take a fresh look at it tonight before I really call it done. It came out pretty good I think.

Saturday night I went to a friend's 50th birthday party. He sings in a band. During the night people started playing guitar and singing. A drummer started bringing in pieces and played too. During the night it could be one person playing guitar and singing to six people playing and singing at the same time. Met some new friends and had a great time. I never had the guts to get up and play too. I've never done anything like that before so I chickened out.

Fish update

We had our first softball game of the season last night. The weather held up. We won 21-2. I went 0 for 3 with a walk.

Worked on the fish some more. It is coming along pretty good. I took a digital picture of my progress, so the image is not that great, but not bad either. I noticed in the image I took that the bottom right shadow seems a bit dark. I'll have to check that out tonight and see if it really should be that much darker. I'm guessing not.

Rowayton Arts Center

Did some sketching in the park yesterday during lunch. Some guys were playing bocce. I thought it would be great to capture the game. But as I started drawing the players some people started gathering in front of me and I couldn’t see the game anymore. So I started drawing the people around me. Then it started raining and I left.

I sent in my check today to become a member of the Rowayton Arts Center. It has been a long time since I have displayed my work. I feel it is time. I went to an opening there over the weekend and they had some great works there.

Sepia Pencil

I started the new drawing with the sepia pencil. Right off the bat I didn't like the feel of it. It has a raspy/scraping feel to it that I don't like. Other than that I am happy with the piece so far.

I wanted an over head view of the fish I am drawing so I have set up on an easel and have to stand while I was drawing. My legs got pretty tired after and hour or so. I took a walk and then came back to work a little more. This piece will be a little slow going. Here is a pict of my set up.

Owl

One charcoal owl for my daughter...done. Did it in one sitting. Now I am off to draw some fish with a sepia pencil. My first time with the sepia pencil.

Flower update

I pulled out the Flower of Paradise and tried to fix the background. It's okay. Better than before anyway. My daughter wants me to make and owl for her room so that will be my next project. I'm going to do it in charcoal. She found a picture on the web that she wants me to copy.

I'm calling it done

Had my first softball game of the season last night...well, almost. There was a cold drizzle when I showed up to the field. The head umpire said the game wold go on. So we practiced in the drizzle for about a half an hour when the same head umpired called it and and told everyone to go home. Maybe next week.

Later that night I started working on the pots again. I had some good advice from the people at wetcanvas and wanted to give this piece another try. I'm calling it done. It didn't come out too bad.

Candlesticks

I finished up this piece last night. I was pretty happy with it. There was something about the candlestick on the left that was bothering me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I posted the image on the wetcanvas site. Looking at the image in the computer screen I noticed the top of candlestick on the left was slanting downhill. Oops! I may go and fix it or just leave well enough alone.

Tonight I am going to work on the pots again. I got some good advice from the people on the wetcanvas site, and will try to apply what they suggested.

Here is the set up and the final piece.