Happy Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps

The Marines have 231 years of service today. Happy Birthday. Here is a tribute to them. It is very long but a nice tribute to the Marines including our son. Thank you all for your service to our country.

Semper Fi

Plein Air - New Mexico Window, Pastel Painting

The last Sunday I painted at Peppers Gallery in Magdalena, I did this pastel of the window on the side of the gallery. It was nice and sunny, a little windy, but nothing like the Friday before when we had to quit painting. I painted it as a demo. Peppers was having open house and artists had booths out front. This is 9 x 12 inches on Art Spectrum pastel card. It was done in a couple of hours, on the spot. Plein air paintings have a spontaneity that comes from painting them in a short time without major corrections. You have to get it right the first time.

This painting has much more variation in color that what shows in the painting. It was great that the curtains have red peppers on them to compliment the red flowers on the window sill.

I'm putting a new page on my web site for these plein air paintings. They will be for sale, unframed for $100.00. Check my page if you are interested in the plein air paintings I did this summer. In the meantime you can send me an e-mail if you have questions or are interested in purchasing a painting.

Sketches Chair, Nuts, Spoon, Egg and House Plant

It was a beautiful day, so we got in nine holes of golf, walking. The playing wasn't great but what a day. About 85 degrees by this afternoon. I then painted on the rocking horse but did not take any photos.

The sketches are for the Scavenger Hunt 16. They are in a generic sketchbook about 6 x 10 inches and with the Pigma Micron 05 pen, dark brown. I took the photos under a lamp so they were very yellow and I turned them to black and white for posting.

#9, the kitchen chair is out of perspective. I like the feel, though. You can see some of the correcting lines. I'm still trying not to erase or start over. It is training the eye to see better.



#10, Silverware, is an old silver spoon. It hardly has any shine, so must have been silver plated. #11, an egg, is interesting. Very difficult in the pen and ink to get the soft shading, may try it in pointillism and see if that is better. And, #12, Nuts, are some mixed nuts from a can.



#13, a houseplant. This is a bucket that Jennie gave me, red, white and blue. It looks a little squashed .. just my sketch. It is in very good shape.

Pileated Woodpecker

This fellow showed up in our yard and Gene spotted him. Not great photos, but they aren't supposed to be here in central Texas. They belong in Nova Scotia and then on our west coast. Hmmm. Remember to click on the photos for larger image.

Sketch Peach Slice, Candy, Wooden Object

I worked on the roses today. I did not like any rendition I started and the paper went sour. I put alcohol on it two more times and I think the tooth was full. At any rate the roses are too dead as well, so no more rose painting and sketch. They were too formal for me, I guess. Not every try is a winner.

This evening I sketched for the Scavenger Hunt on wetcanvas. #6 - Slice of fruit, a peach. #7 - Piece of candy, Reese's Cup.



#8 - Something wooden, Bolivian carved statue. The statue is very dark wood, almost black, probably stained with shoe polish. The face, hands, foot and baby are brown. They were for sale in the 70's in just about any size. This one is about 10 inches tall.

Powwow Austin

Don't you just hate it when you have nothing special to do and no one is posting to the blogs you usually read? And when everyone is posting and you don't have time to read them. Hmmm.

Jennie and I went to the Powwow in Austin yesterday and it was great as usual. I don't think there were as many dancers, but it was beautiful and touching. My camera wasn't working well, but I hope you can feel the beauty and enjoy the colors. I will post more as I sort them out. I hope you will honor all the military, active, veterans and fallen with me this week and on Veteran's Day.

The young man that carried the Indian Nation flag is a Marine that has served three tours in Iraq and is going again. He is in the green and white just in front of the color guard. The color guard is made up of veterans that come every year to carry our U. S. flag. There are many native Americans in the service of our country and the Powwow honors them and they are so proud of their service to our country. They have protected it always and will continue to do so. During the grand entry they present the colors and all of the dancers who come from all over the States and Canada.


The gourd dance honors all the veterans and elders of the tribes. It is a touching and beautiful ceremony.


This photo is of the Fancy Dancers.