Robert in Seattle

OK -- I've gone out and bought my first three 4'X5' canvases and I've primed them for painting. Each of these canvases is being prepped with the same process of a sky and earth division, proportioned out on an 80/20 scale (80% sky and 20% earth with cerulean blue and burnt sienna as base colors).

Painting a cloudscape...

Many of you already know that I've recently moved into a small studio to pick up where I left off over 25 years ago with painting. Over the past few years, I've given a lot of serious thought about the subject matter of my next series. I still enjoy the challenges in working with large high-realism pieces and the subject matter obviously has to be consistently challenging to keep my interest long enough to complete each painting and an entire series. My last real series revolved around coin-operated machines: pinball, parking meters, juke boxes, etc. I eventually settled on clouds this time around; they're highly ethereal, they embody a lot of the abstract and, as such, present a fantastic challenge to put down on canvas.

So then a whole new set of questions came up: What kinds of clouds? What size of canvases? And clouds vary dramatically from one geographical region to another. I finally decided just to start with clouds in the Pacific Northwest, especially now that we're heading into what appears to be an unusually warm and clear summer. Different regions and the time of day present another set of visual opportunities to explore. I'll write more on this blog about the thinking process in my approach to painting cloudscapes.

A friend presented me with a house warming gift (maybe it was a studio warming present?) of a fresh new white canvas. So began the ritual to assemble my new materials and equipment to paint my first real painting in over 25 years. Here are some pictures taken over several weeks.

(To see a larger version of each picture, just click on the image.)

The two basic background colors get laid down: Cerulean Blue for the sky and Burnt Sienna for the ground. I plan on using these two colors as the base for each subsequent painting.
























Here's the sky area brushed in by hand.























Woo-Hoo! Some of my airbrush equipment arrives and I start spraying in clouds. Airbrush works well to convey the transparency and fluidity of clouds. Each of my paintings will combine traditional painting techniques with airbrush.
























I start building in cloud layers, working from background to foreground (bottom to top).























I start shading in the clouds. The earth area is still untouched at this stage; I'm just starting in on it now and will go back-and-forth with working on the sky, orchestrating between them until I think the piece is resolved.

Ha ha ha -- this guy has evolved from street graffiti to hanging his own pieces inside of real musems in New York Ciy. This guy's actually infiltrated the Museum of Modern Art and placed a small painting on the wall that stayed unnoticed for 3 days! Cool! (I appreciate the fact that he doesn't do any harm or malicious intent.)

I'm getting more and more in the mood to snap pictures these days now that I'm constantly on the prowl for cool clouds to paint. So my camera's usually ready for a good picture when it shows up. I pulled into a parking spot at my neighborhood QFC late this afternoon and had to do a double-take at the old Jeep parked next to me. (Click on this picture to see a larger version).

Here's John Hargrave's second set of pranks with credit cards. He decides to find out just what you can and can't get away with when signing a credit card slip at the register. In fact, he even uses different signatures -- even making up stuff as he goes -- when he starts using those new electronic signing pads. Amazingly, despite some of the ridiculous things he draws and writes on those pads -- often with sompletely different signatures each time at the SAME store -- they keep approving his purchases! Take some time to examine some of the signatures he uses on his purchases.

Absolutely incredible -- this guy's a snort! Classic prankster stuff!

John Hargrave has a self-proclaimed humor website, Zug.com. A while back, he did an article on the fallacy of credit cards. His first piece -- Part I of course -- covered his misadventures with signing an intentionally wrong signature on his payment slips and never having it checked by the clerks at the cash register. His pranks are both humorous and scary at the same time, when you consider the fact that the clerks at the Point of Sale are supposed to be the line of defense for protecting our credit cards from being abused by strangers.

My next post will contain a link to Part II.

Being a lifelong gadget addict, I've always been on the lookout for the next cool toy. If they don't have it, then it's simply another invitation to invent it! Mobile PC Magazine recently came up with their list of The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time. This list is surprisingly wide-ranging and inclusive; I found the Popeil Pocket Fisherman on the first page! Of course, Ron Popeil is hocking his new cooking widgets on infomercials these days. I've always said that my most lucrative invention will probably end up being some whacky gadget that will sell millions rather than some incredibly tech-intensive product that only geeks will love.

And next door was the BG Mart, a gas/convenience store that sold Chinese & Soul Food (just like the sign says). They actually had some pretty tasty food: I tried the sweet-and-sour chicken with side orders of egg roll and black-beans-and-rice and corn bread. Yummm!

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But what the heck -- I DID get two beds in the room so they wouldn't have to change the sheets or towels the next morning. (And they didn't!)

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Oh yeah -- and the toilet wouldn't flush until I reached right in there and fixed it (yuck!). But then it ran all night, every night...

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Oh wait! Look! They gave me a coffee maker and coffee. But heck -- there aren't any coffee mugs!

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Wow! There was an ice bucket (I never did find an ice machine anywhere during my entire stay however). But there were absolutely NO glasses to be found in the room.

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The remote control for the TV was nowhere to be found in my room... anywhere!!!

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The Cool Knob was missing from my loud air conditioner so the room made me really get the feeling of being in New Orleans: hot and humid.

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The curtain's wouldn't close completely so... this is where carrying band-aids in my toiletry kit comes in handy!

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I knew I was in trouble the minute I walked into my room and noticed the security latch had already been torn from the door frame and the deadbolt didn't bolt.

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Well, it sure didn't look like the picture on the TraveLodge site! (They left out the chain-link fence with razor wire on top surrounding the entire perimeter.) I got in around 9:30 pm from the airport after a long day flying in from Seattle for the CTIA Show. I knew it was going to get interesting when I walked into the lobby and there were 10 pissed-off people standing around the small lobby at this TraveLodge. Unfortunately, we all knew that there weren't any other rooms available ANYWHERE in New Orleans; the town had been booked for months in advance for this wireless telecom convention and trade show. We were completely at their mercy and they knew it!

It took over an hour to get checked in (and only after a very colorful sarcastic and loud comment in the lobby about the long wait to no one in particular). Once I finally got into my room, I decided to at least put my digital camera to good use documenting my stay at this fine, overpriced establishment and hope to shame the TraveLodge corporate management to look at this place closely enough to put it out of its misery. Maybe I can also draw some attention to Orbitz as well and strike a blow for road warriors everywhere. So here's my 2-night adventure at the TraveLodge in New Orleans complete with color commentary...

But I DID find some decent Chinese Soul Food. See the final picture in this series...