Sunset, Mystic

A Facebook friend, Geneva Renegar, has turned out to be a wonderful photographer. She started not so long ago, well into adulthood, and she often takes and shares truly amazing photographs.

This was one of them, a sunset in Mystic, CT. She didn't use any filters or any digital magic to color the photo - it was what it was!

I asked her if I could make a painting from the photo and she agreed. This painting is sold, I believe - as long as the buyer loves it in person as much as on the web.

It was great fun to make this painting! Mystic is a place I know, so that helped. And I love orange, so that added to my fun, too.

The painting in the inset is one that just sold at the show in Pennsylvania. I made it after the Charlie Hebdo shootings. It's a painting unlike any I've made, and I had trouble finding a spot for it in my booth. But the series of shootings of black men by police, and then the slaying of the Dallas police officers all were happening at the time of the show, and I thought it was the right time to hang it, as a prayer for peace.  I was delighted when it hit home with a couple from Annapolis, and I had the great pleasure of delivering it to them and seeing where it would hang in their home.

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SOMETIMES I CAMP at shows, and while I'm on a painting trip. This is me camping at the show in Crozet. There was another camping area, but it was concrete, and loaded with campers - I loved waking up here in this field, hearing the birds singing, seeing the dawn inch up over the trees, lighting the big lawn and the big sky. 

I hope to do some camping during my upcoming Big Skies Painting Trip, in late September/early October. I have four sponsors already, and am hoping you're considering sponsoring me! Check out my website for information on how to participate. 

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Dog of the Day

Our daughter's dog, Benny, is probably six or seven months old now, but he's still a puppy who doesn't quite have control over his legs. Hope this little video plays - and makes you laugh! 

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A Final Thought

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist - a master - and that is what August Rodin was - can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is, and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be... and more than that, he can make anyone ... see that this lovely girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew olden than 18 in her heart, no matter what the merciless hours have done to her."

- Robert Heinlein