Hot Feet, Pastel Painting WIP and Mark Ockelberry

Most of the day was not art related. A little baseball, watching the College World Series. We were rooting for UC Irvine and they lost to Arizona State. Now it is Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State. No favorite. Watched a little of the U.S. Open but do not like the way NBC presents golf and do not like Johnny Miller. I was tempted to just watch the highlights as I was rooting for Tiger, of course. The Golf Channel presents the European Tour well. They show golf and the announcers are in the background, for the most part. You don't have to watch the talking heads and the interviews with the "experts".


I made progress on the little feet. I reworked the legs and feet. I'm happier with it. I still want to refine it a little, but it is pretty much done. We are having the children over for Father's Day tomorrow so will let the critics decide.

Yesterday I met with Mark Ockelberry. You should go read this bio, he is a very interesting young man. We try to help him with framing and getting his art to the Guild for showing. It was important for him to have something up for Bastrop's 175th Birthday and Juneteenth.

Mark's work is so original. He has a photographic mind and he designs his drawings from something he sees but changes to the country or primitive look. Not really folk art, but very original and interesting. Mark was commissioned to do the railroad stations in Elgin, Bastrop and Smithville by the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, for the main hallway.They look great. They bought several others as well. He draws with graphite, colored pencils and pens.


This one is Hill Country Farm. 11 x 14 inches.



This one is The Road Home, 11 x 14 inches.

These and his other new one, "The Grass is Greener", which has a cow looking through a fence, are available at the Bastrop Fine Arts Guild Gallery on Main Street in Bastrop. If you are not in Bastrop and are interested just send me an e-mail I will round them up for you. They are $175.00 each, plus shipping and sales tax (if you are in Texas).

One Year Old, Hot Feet Pastel WIP

Can you believe it? My blog is one year old today. The first entry was short and sweet. I never thought i would be able to keep the blog going. Gene keeps a daily journal. I really admire him for that. I have tried before, but would put in a couple of weeks and then it would trickle off to once a week, once a month, etc. He makes lists and schedules. I make lists and never look at them. I always have plenty to say, but the routine of posting almost daily .. well, I'm not good with schedules and keeping to a daily routine. You can tell that by my exercise routine, diet routine, bookkeeping routine, cleaning, putting things away, etc. But, I have posted 297 entries for the 365 days. Some days I post more that once a day which means that I missed quite a few days. Oh well.



I worked on the feet painting. I feel the shadows are too strong for the lighting and will adjust that. The legs are too skinny, more adjusting. I should have taken another photo in the process but it is hard to stop when you get on a roll.

I have kept my web page going since September of 2003, so I am consistent in some of my endeavors. Guess I am good for another year in the blogger world, see how it goes.

Happy Flag Day, and notes

The Sentinels
Pastel 16 x 20

Today is Flag Day. You can catch up on some of the reasons we celebrate on Wikipedia.

Here at home, we remember for a couple of reasons. It is Charlie's birthday and Crystal's birthday. Happy Birthday to you! Charlie ignores the internet so he will not see this. Not sure about Crystal, but we spoke with both of them today. Charlie is a friend of some 40 odd years, married to my "old" roommate, Gen.

Crystal ,we met in Bolivia where she started a group to assist one of the orphanages there, Para los Niños. I donate a percentage of my art sales to them every year. What a great project. Besides helping there, many children have been adopted and are in loving families. We had a great time, great memories.

It was fun to talk with them today. Thank goodness we have birthdays so we have an excuse to call!

Little Hot Feet, WIP pastel painting and Sunset Photos

Last night I put up some new tile items on my cafepress.com shop. Check them out, here.

We went to Daddy's Grille this morning and took down the last of my paintings there. It was too early to eat lunch. We came back and Gene worked on a project for Joanna and I painted on the Little Hot Feet pastel painting.

I started working back to front.

Adding more color and adjusting the skirts.

The color is developed, now to refine the trim, feet, floor. Ah, just a few things. :)

More tomorrow........

I took photos of the sunset on the way home from Austin Yesterday. We came back on Hwy 969. It is a pretty drive through Webberville and ranch country. You see lots of cattle, hay bales, horses, etc. These were the best photos, though.

This one is just as we got near Hwy 71 just before Bastrop.

This one is as we entered the pines just before we got home. After you turn into the pines, no more sunset!

Susan Carlin Portrait Workshop

I got a note from Susan Carlin, portraitist in San Antonio, Texas. She is having a workshop on July 14 and 15. A couple of reasons you should go if you can. First, for your art, Susan is an excellent artist, award winning (if you care about that!) and a very good teacher. You can have fun and learn. An ideal situation. She has a great way of presenting her knowledge that we can all understand. Second, it is inexpensive, as workshops go.

Her blog, her web page and e-mail here for more information.

Sadly, I will be in New Mexico. You go and take advantage of this offer and let me know how it goes. You will be very pleased.

I'm working on the Little Hot Feet today, I will post the progress later.

Larry's Photos

I told you that I am behind in the trip, graduations, etc. As I was thinking about the things I have to put on my blog, I realized that I have not linked to son, Larry's page. Arghhhhh.

He is an excellent photographer and would be glad to take photos for you! He is in the San Marcos/Austin area. Can't believe this wasn't on my blog and page.

A link to his page and sample photos., here it is now and you will find a link below and on my web page. Sorry Larry!


Here is a photo he took on a photo shoot of Jennie's dogs. Pretty cute, huh?
(copyright Larry Castillo)

Little Hot Feet and Magdalena Pastel Paintings

I started the pastel painting yesterday of the little dancer's feet. As I said they are Mexican folk dancers in Santa Fe, New Mexico.



This is the sketch start of the painting with some color testing. I will move the yellow skirt nearer to the center to keep the lightest lights and darkest darks in the focal point of the painting. I think the feet are the way I want them. The heels in the upper right will be very much in the background. It is on green sanded Colorfix paper. It is about 9 x 13 inches, seemed like the longer landscape cut would be good for this idea.

We shall see how it progresses.

I was looking for frames for the balloon painting and the Magdalena painting. They are both very blue and that is difficult. You think silver would be good, but no it isn't. I think I will end up framing them in black gallery style frames. Most of my new work is framed that way and the paintings seem to show nicely as a group for the shows. Works for me, anyway.


Here is the finish on the Magdalena painting. It is 16 x 20 inches on Ampersand Pastelbord, soft pastels. You can see the WIP (work in progress) here.

The viewer is coming into town from the west and is a ways out of town. Highway 60 is so straight from Magdalena to the ends of the Augustine plains just before you get to Datil, New Mexico. Probably about thirty five miles of straight, straight road, just up and down through the hills. From the west you can see Magdalena from about 10 miles out and it is downhill all the way. The rain is around the point of the mountains on the continuation of Highway 60 to Socorro. Magdalena is our home town where my show will be on July 7 at the Old Timers Reunion.

Self Doubt? Check this out.

Maggie Stiefvater has some good advice for us on self doubt. If you haven't become a fan of her blog, go check it out. You will get some great advice and have a smile or two every day. Evidently, busy people get more done. She specializes in horse paintings, which are so fine!

Purple Feet

I'm designing a new painting today. Gene is taking a painting apart so I can use the frame and is cutting paper and backing. New Mexico deadline is nearing... frazzled nerves. Ahhhh.

He Dances
Pastel 8 x 10 inches


She Dances
Pastel 8 x 10 inches

I did He Dances and She Dances last year.
This will be the third painting of dancing feet, a series, right?

I sketched a little to decide which feet to use and the set up.


These are young dancers that I photographed in Santa Fe we back in 1999, I think. Sue was with us in New Mexico for the International Association of Pastel Societies convention. That was my real introduction to pastels. Sue talked me into going, I had only used pastels once in a class in La Paz, Bolivia. What a great time we had. I bought a bunch of Daler-Rowney pastels there, and, as they say, the rest is history.

I'm cheating and using this sketch for the Scavenger Hunt 43. I don't have time to sketch for that and couldn't find anything purple, anyway. We are supposed to sketch from life, so I'm sketching the photo, not something from the photo. Ha. Anyway, this is #6 something purple.

My mind .. a vast wasteland!

Joanna has had a comic up on her site since March and it is so fitting for me. It is from "Agnes". I keep forgetting to point to it. (See there!) Go have a peek before she changes it.