Portrait #1

The blog appears to have been abandoned in February. I have been feverishly working on a portrait as a portrait for paddle barter. It has consumed my painting time and even cut into my planned time as I carry the panel looking for various light sources and angles to see what changes need to be made each week.I am becoming obsessive about it. It was completed on Wednesday and then on Saturday morning I started repainting again...

As a break from Ron the Painting, I turned the easel on another elusive image--my Amazon parrot. As many times as I have tried to get "his character" in paint, I have failed pretty much every time. This is a 15 minute sketch in grey tone that shows his fluffy-slouchy-on-the-perch mode.

Make no mistake about my painting productivity. I may not have much to show for it. but there is some paint being flung around. Some version of Ron the Painting will appear in the next post...

Extreme Safety Precautions

What do safety glasses and hard hats have to do with this painting? They are loosely connected if you hear me out on this thing. One November Saturday I came down the Bruce Vento Nature Sancutary path to find 4 mini-vans parked in a circle and about 20 ardent people dressed in fluorescent orange vests, safety glasses, hard hats and rubber gloves. They were moving through this grassy area in the painting and stroking the grasses with their gloved hands. My curiosity was piqued and I found the only friendly person in the group to ask what they were doing. "Collecting seed," was her curt answer. Then I asked about the gear and she retorted, "For safety purposes [idiot]." With that I backed away and left for a quiet corner of the sanctuary. So when you look at the painting above, you see a mono-culture of little blue stem (Minnesota Native Plant) in a flat perspective, and when I look at it, I am amused by the Seed Gatherer sighting (a paid position, I might add). It appeared to be a covert government operation and native seed gathering is one covert operation I could get behind.