Memorial Day Postscript - Oldest WWI Veteran

Check out this AP article about the oldest living WWI veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles. It includes some photos of Mr. Buckles. Pretty cool.

Memorial Day Note

My brother, Powder, was a veteran of WWII, he was awarded two Purple Hearts. My sister-in-law's brother, Neil Garrett, was a killed in the Korean War. Gene's uncle, Joe Montoya, was a veteran of WWII and was awarded the Silver Star. His other uncle, Herman Montoya was a veteran of WWII as well. Gene was in the Air Force and David was in the Marines.

I wrote about this and put it up late last year. Please remember our veterans today and keep all our troops in your heart.

Thank you to all the military and their families that have served our country to keep us free.

Sketches for Hunt 87

I didn't do many sketches for Hunt 86 (more hunting info on this link) so here we go for Scavenger Hunt 87 which starts today. Maybe, just maybe, I will get a few more done. These were done in the regular hunting sketchbook with a Pilot regular ball point pen. They work pretty well and don't leak and dribble. Good for times when you don't want to get up and look for a sketch pen.


Number 1, hand of cards. A poker hand, full house. The yellow is the highlighter from the other day. It soaked through several pages. Should have opted for colored pencil as I used on the red part of this. About 10 minutes.


Number 2, timepiece. I sketched the computer screen with the clock in the corner and a small battery clock on my desk. About 10 minutes each.

Number 3, hand doing something. Typing on the computer. About 20 minutes.

Baseball Excitement (No Art)

Yes! The Longhorns won the Big 12 Championship Tournament. You can read about it on Joanna's blog and the official page. Brandon Belt, Texas First Baseman, was named Most Outstanding Player. Very nice. Brandon, Jordan Danks, Center Field, and Russell Moldenhauer, Left Field, were named to the All-Tournament team.

Texas was not selected to host a Regional for the NCAA College World Series. We were hoping, but they just didn't win enough games this year, I guess. We thought maybe the new stadium would influence the decision as well. We will find out tomorrow where the Longhorns will play. Maybe we will go to the games. We shall see.

A Little Baseball Note and BBQ (no art)

The Big 12 Baseball Championship is going on big time. Texas lost their first game to Missouri, then beat the Aggies. In order to play in the championship game, Oklahoma had to beat Missouri for the Horns to have a chance. The first time ever that I can remember, to root for Oklahoma. Ouch! At 9 a.m. tomorrow, the Horns play Oklahoma, then Missouri plays the Aggies (We will be rooting for the Aggies, another ouch!). The Longhorns have to beat Oklahoma and the Aggies have to beat Missouri for the Horns to play in the championship. A round about way to get there, huh? We have been keeping up on the internet. That is great. Read all the good, bad and the ugly on Joanna's blog and the official page.

We will listen in the morning while we get ready for a family get together and eat some of Gene's famous brisket.

Of course he is cooking steaks in this old photo!

There will be about 20 people here besides us. I made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (also famous, another post for that!), an apple crisp for me (I made a gluten free carrot cake and it was awful last year for Joanna's birthday - poor thing.), and will make some banana pudding with the vanilla wafers on the side so I can eat that, too. Corn on the cob, baked beans, fruit salad, homemade flour tortillas and baked potatoes should round it out.

It was hot here (near 100 F with high humidity) and the air conditioner went out!! Luckily the third company we called sent William over and we had air by about 2 p.m. Thank you, William.

Amazing Animals in Pastel

Deirdre Pattenden, moderator in the classroom forum on wetcanvas.com, pointed this artist, Vic Bearcroft, for instruction in painting animals. His big cats and all the animals are so good and real. Wow. Go over and have a look. Very nice. In pastels. :)

Off topic, Biofuels from Algae

Boy, check out Joanna's post of May 18, 2008. This stuff is amazing. Biofuel from algae. Those engineers/scientists at UT are always on top of things. I wonder how long it would take to get this really going?

Sketches for Hunt 86

I relaxed a little after I finished working on a commissioned painting by sketching for Scavenger Hunt 86. I can't believe it is 86 already. I started on Hunt #2 in the summer of 2006. Jeanne Grant started with #1 and still going strong. We have fun and it feels like we all know each other now. One artist makes a list of 26 items with some extra challenges. We have 9 days to sketch them in any order. Jeanne put up the list for this time. It is a little vague, ha. Usually the items are named. It helps to sketch things that we wouldn't normally sketch and gives ideas so you don't usually have to think about what to sketch. This time you have to think a little, usually the list is of items like a glass of water, your mailbox, a heater, mixer, etc. Here is the list for this Hunt.

Scavenger Hunt #86 May 17-25

Animal, vegetable, & mineral
Porous
Gold & silver
Rock, paper, & scissors
Thick & thin
Spiritual
Organic
Soup & sandwich
Breakfast Challenge 1: lunch and dinner
Fish & fowl
Distant
Close
In your face
Delicate
Massive
Simple
Strong
Weak
Final
Beginning
Backward
Long
Limp
Shallow
Deep
High

Challenge 2: something represents your personality
Challenge 3: something represents your age
Challenge 4 for extra credit: something you would use to celebrate a birthday

My number 1, long. We got stuck on a LONG Lifetime movie today. Drawn with a Micron 005 in my regular sketchbook. About 15 minutes.


Number 2, gold and silver. This little plastic box of earring holders, ends ?, with some in gold and silver. More gold ones left as I seldom wear gold earrings so haven't lost the keepers. About 15 minutes with the Micron 005 and a touch of yellow highlighter. Number 3, high. The corner of our living room at the ceiling, must be 18 - 20 feet up to the corner. About 8 minutes with the Micron 005 in my regular sketchbook. All three sketches done this afternoon.


Artists don't have to finish all the list and can do them in any order. (I rarely get more than 10 done and have never finished the list.) You can post them on wetcanvas and receive comments and critiques if you want them. You can comment or not. It is encouraging to sketch in company and keeps me sketching. My sketching style hasn't changed, I keep hoping that some of the very precise sketching will rub off on me, but no luck. I do improve in speed, and accuracy which I think helps my painting. Jeanne (link above) is an example of someone that has really learned and advanced her drawing skills from all her practice. She joins in many of the wetcanvas projects and you can see the great progress she has made. She has some quirky ideas (you can tell from this list) and has been a delight for the Hunts. :) Come join us. You get to practice, learn something, make friends and have a good time, too.

Off Subject, Bug Photos and Heat

I'm not sure why bugs were liking the screen door this morning. I guess it was the first rays of sun. Soon there will be too much sun, it is supposed to hit 100 degrees F. Yesterday our thermometer read 100.7. Ouch! The low has been under 70 so we could have the house open, tonight will probably be the last under 70 if it gets that low. Once the temperature reaches 74 here, you can't stand the humidity, it feels like 84 or more. We played at golf early yesterday and today as we like to walk. We will be going to the high desert in New Mexico soon, right? Cool nights there.


This is a stick bug?? He is definitely missing a leg, whatever it is. :)

This spider was not far away, a daddy long legs?? Whatever they both were, I would just as soon that they didn't park about eye level on our door! Well, anywhere on our door.

An Artist I Admire, Tom Christopher

**Note (Monday, May 19, 2008) I'm posting this again to say that Maggie will have all the artists that we admire posted on Wednesday. Then you can check her post to see all the artists that were suggested by us. You may want to check back. :) Maggie has already reviewed several other artists for May, Hubert von Herkomer and Doug Dawson among others. You can pick up some pointers there.

I took up Maggie Stiefvater's challenge for today. Here is the challenge:

• Find one artist you admire. Safely Dead is easiest, but Not Safely Dead is fine as long as you secure permission from them to feature their work on your blog.
• Identify their strengths and the tricks and techniques you'd like to use in your painting
• Blog about it on Monday, May 19th
• Comment on this blog post with a link to your post.

(One artist, tania ,commented on that post and said she was calling the "Not Safely Dead Artists" the "Dangerously Alive Artists". Hmmmm.)

I am not a history buff and do not enjoy studying from books so I have never really studied art history .. and never had art in school.

I like paintings from life and outdoor paintings, therefore, I decided to post about a "Not Safely Dead", or as Tania says, "Dangerously Alive" artist I discovered on wetcanvas.com, Tom Christopher. He is in Iowa. Tom paints mostly in pastels (some oils) and posts in the Pastel, Landscape and Plein Air Forums. This is one of his latest posts in the Pastel Forum. If you sign up or are signed up to wetcanvas.com, you can find all the threads (posts and continuing conversations) that Tom has started in a pull down menu under his name at the beginning of this and his other posts. It is wonderful to see all of his paintings. I do admire this artist. Thank you, Tom, for sharing your photos of your paintings and your expertise in painting.

Pine Lake Park, Pastel 24 x 36 inches

copyright Artist Tom Christopher

Spring Along Highway 175
Pastel 24 x 36 inches, with frame

copyright Tom Christopher


Winter Light, pastel, 22x28 inches
This piece is the 2007, 4th place winner in the Pastel Journal 100 competition.
It will be featured in the Pastel Journal magazine in the Spring of 2008
copyright Tom Christopher, artist

I really like color and find that Tom uses color to great advantage. He makes great use of values and variation in temperature of colors. He has great design, using varying amounts of contrast as you see in this black and white version.

Winter Light, changed to black and white for this post.

copyright Tom Christopher, artist.

Tom experiments on different supports with different pastels or oil paint. He has a great touch with his pastels varying his strokes, creating hard and soft edges. The gesture in his trees, ground cover and water are very intriguing.

He generously shares this information with other artists. He paints and posts very often. I hope some of his technique and dedication rubs off on me. Check out his work and see if you don't find inspiration in his paintings as well.

I did do some research, I include this post from "Outdoor Painting", with history and links to some other famous and Safely Dead artists that you might find interesting or posted by other participants in this challenge. :)

Baseball, The Eyes of Texas.....

College baseball teams, watch out .. ,. The Eyes of Texas are upon you.....

Wow! The Longhorns pulled off a sweep of the Texas Aggies for the final series of the year. Yahooooo. The Horns are playing their best baseball of the season. They have all sorts of possibilities now. The Big 12 Tournament is this weekend and if the Horns do well, they COULD end up hosting a Regional on the road to Omaha and the College World Series. This looked almost impossible a few weeks ago. That would be so great. Read all the results and see some great photos from Friday night on Joanna's blog and more on the official page. The Horns record this year, 34-19 (15-12 Big 12) , and last year they won the conference with 42-14 (21-6 Big 12).

This is the score from the last game last year. Another sweep of the Aggies! The Texas pitchers coming in from the bullpen.

This is the handshaking in Austin last year. Quite a few of the same players. The games are played with the Friday night game at one stadium and the Saturday and Sunday games at the other field on alternating years. This year the Friday night game was in Austin so yesterday's and today's games were in College Station, so no photos of todays game. It was on TV though and that was nice.