Wow it's dark out here...

At the farm over night for the first time in long time 

Boy it's dark out here

A great find on a busy day...

Things are crazy today with preparations for next weeks vbs and working on the house. I didn't get much artwork done but I did find this really cool drawing at the second hand store. 

I think this guy needs to watch over some room in my house.

It's been a while...

Getting back to blogging this spring. Hopefully it will become a habit again.
I am lucky to have found a coveted tube of Gamblin Oil Colors Torrit Grey at Pat Catan's this winter. Now the question is what to paint, what to paint?
The color is wonderfully cool with a greenish blue quality. I've been using it sparingly in my new batch of oil paintings- it offers a rich neutral hue that doesn't compete for attention, yet doesn't look dull. I wish they just offered this color all of the time, but I guess it's difficult to manufacture and remain consistent.

Spring break Ohio style part II

Checking out the trenches for the tiling that is going in this week. I will post a blog about that when it is done.

This week was a busy one for us at the farm. The cold weather finally broke a bit and we were able to get some projects started.

We are renovating the old farmhouse from top to bottom and from bottom to top. On Tuesday we cleaned dust and debris from the attic. I am sure there were treasures there at one point but the extreme conditions and rodents and wasps over the years destroyed almost everything. The best find  was a stack of Ladies Home Journals from the twenties and thirties. Oddly enough, they survived in good condition. Paging through one is like going back in time. It is funny how far we've come as a nation in some respects and how much other things have remained the same.

 I sometimes think that as we transition to a society who gets all of it's information via digital media, history will be lost. Will someone be able to stumble across a news website in 90 years? Technological advances have a way of sneaking up on us. I'd forgotten the early days of dial up internet and vga computer graphics from the late nineties. My girls and I watched the movie "You've Got Mail" the other night. It's been about 15 years since it's release. The movie has aged very well with the exception of the technology featured. My kids found it hard to believe that computers were once so primitive and took so long to load a page. 

On a side note, the movie centered around a struggle between the owner of a small mom and pop bookstore and a large big box store which had just opened around the corner. Spoiler alert- the big box store won the battle with the small store, but  their owners found love along the way. It was a fun two hours watching even though you knew what was going to happen at the end. It would be interesting if they made a sequel to this film in the present day.These days, many big box retailers are struggling with the competition provided by Amazon and other online retailers. Maybe the Hanks and Ryan characters could reunite in a movie about how they deal with the latest retailing trends. The addition of social media and smart phones would add new opportunities for the romantic characters.

Meanwhile, back to the farmhouse, when the attic is fully cleaned out, we are going to  install flooring and insulation. The goal is to make it a clean usable storage space. The big pieces of junk are removed. We have to sweep all of the remaining dust and cob webs out of the floors and rafters. We also have to install a handrail on the staircase and perhaps some roof top vents to improve airflow during the summer. 

We are also beginning an expensive renovation of the basement. In May, a contractor is coming out to re-dig the basement and pour a new floor. He is going to install additional drainage around the foundation and move the cellar stairs. We are also having the walls covered with a new coat of concrete. The hope here is that we will have a clean DRY basement and a solid foundation. The renovations we're making aren't the fun kind, but they're necessary. Maybe the cool new kitchen will come next year. Rehab Addict is my new favorite show.

If you look closely you can see the line of baby trees up the center of the photo. 

I began planting my windbreak this week. I am building on what is left of a windbreak of cyprus trees that I am guessing was planted in the sixties. I am shifting it to the west a bit with seven Colorado blue spruce trees. They are close to the field. Hopefully they won't get run over by any equipment.

work in progress this week...

I am focusing on two pictures this week. My portrait of Maryann is finally dry and ready for the next layer of glaze. I have learned more about Harley Davidson motorcycles than I ever thought I would know. These days when I pass one on the street I look carefully at it's engine, handle bars and any accessories it may have on it. They are all unique. Harley riders like to express themselves by outfitting their bike and clothing with awesome bling.

This week also marks the start of my series tentatively titled Equestrian Expressionism.  Maybe that name is a bit too kitschy, but so far it is the first one to stick with me.
Equestrian Expressionism is a 24 picture series I've been contemplating for the last year or so. Half of the paintings will interpret my admiration for horses and their varied relationship with humans. The other half of the series deals how horses are depicted in art and pop culture through the generations. These will be still lifes. All of the pictures are painted in oil on panels. Here's hoping I can get all of this done in a timely fashion.

Here are a few pix of the pictures thus far...

Portrait of Maryann in progress.
The orange behind her is an underpainting. The actual background will be a summer sky in Syracuse, New York.

Imperial Horse, in progress.
 I wish there wasn't such a glare on this shot. The colors are richer in person.

First Woman Doctor...

Here's the cover for a biography about Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first woman doctor. I illustrated this school book for second graders in May. I love the historical work. Tracking down the costumes and researching the hairstyles and doctor's tools was a lot of fun.

Summer's final hold outs.

I love the colors this time of year. The warm tones that appear as green gives way to rust and gold, and eventually to brown and grey. This was a difficult, dry summer for the plants. I don't think the corn is going to yield much of a crop. The drought was so bad in some areas that the corn was a total loss. Perhaps the low supply will boost the prices, we'll have to see.
I thought the berries would have been done by August. They had a resurgence in the last three weeks, as if to tell the harsh summer that it didn't win, that they were still alive.
A few of the blueberry bushes and grape vines weren't so lucky. They will have to be replaced in the spring. Some of the blackberries I planted this spring are meant to be grown on a trellis, like grape vines. Unfortunately, I can't remember which ones they were! I suppose after a while they will make themselves known to me.