Today

Today I’m staying home while Sheila goes to cardio at Golds Gym. She’s also going to Kohl’s so I’d rather in and keep getting things done. I’d really like to figure out what & how to sell my images again on Amazon. It’s not a “can’t” but “how” thing. Logistics, inventory, how to leave room to personalize posters and sayings. It’s a good problem. Maybe instead of just “thinking” about it, I’ll “walk” on it 😊

Yesterday

Morning
(fires, floods, walking)
Due to wanting to leave off Sheila at Golds Gym before my dr appt, we cut our morning walk to about 20 minutes. Still good, but could feel not getting that little extra.

The air was calm and the skies looked like another hot day coming, probably another 100+. The promised low 90s on Monday evaporated with the heat, lol!

Meanwhile, Imelda, the storm that’d been brewing the Gulf of Mexico was drenching the people between Houston and Beaumont. 30-40 inches of rain in 24 hours. I went through 24 inches in one day in Galveston once, back in the late 70s. I don’t need or want to know what 30-40 inches is like on flat farmland w/out a high tide to reverse and take the water back to sea. Those folks there need my prayers, not my complaints about our weather here.

Wife & I still got 2000+ steps in. Grateful we could.

Then, back in our apt, saw where condominiums being built along the route we sometimes take to take the 6 year old to school, and just past and along the side of the gym I was leaving Sheila off at and the dr’s office I was going to, had burned down, and was still smoldering. It also torched two apt bldgs adjacent and destroyed them, plus nearly a dozen cars.

So we counted our steps, and we counted our blessings. ♥️

Afternoon
(photographing my art, surprise rain)
Well. After the noon news said chances of rain’d dwindled down to “unlikely” – it poured! Torrentially! My wife says 10-degrees-cooler pouring, lol!

It’s a good thing I’d already shot the pictures to choose from for a file copy for “Hackberries” – another 2006 painting, this one being submitted for a December group show of Austin Area artists this year.

So luckily I had my pictures so I could adjust, crop, and size the files before the weather threw a fit (no, I’m not complaining 😊)

The real work for me, was 1st deciding how to shoot the image.

The thing about heavily textured work – and this is one of my most textured painting since the early 80s in Galveston when I’d pour acrylic with medium into the reverse side of stretched canvases (neat idea, huh?) so the stretcher bars’d hold the paint – is that any angle, no, every angle the painting can be viewed from will show a slightly to much different look.

It’s not just that the light is from another angle, it’s that that light is then illuminating different slants of brush strokes, differing colors on one side of a ridge from the other side! The image is literally experienced differently, even if just slightly.

And not like looking at a photo or poster from a side and catching a sheen across the paper, but rather across a different landscape than the opposite side.

And – one side or the other will tend to appeal to folks more than the other!

Individually. Even if there is a majority side preference.

So I shoot straight ahead, but…

…the problem was, as it always is with these deeply textured works, which direction to let the light illuminate the pigment. I think I’ve sold more pieces over the years when I’d (I felt) “warned” the prospective buyer that, since the paint was in layers, it would appear differently throughout the day!

“Oh sure, lighter, darker, mornings, and noon, of course,” they say.

“Yes. But -“

And I’d see their first real hesitation to buy.

“It’s that the softer light in the morning, the lightly less soft evening light, and the noon light,” I’d say, “go into the layers differently, different depths, and change the colors you see.”

Then, if they were truly interested, I’d see their first real desire to buy.

I’ve gotten a little better (quicker?) deciding not only which side the light will be from, but what time of day. The darker valleys between the ridges of paint darken, or shrink into lines, accordingly. A much better more versatile camera, in addition to my iPhone XR, sure doesn’t hurt 😊

There is, of course, also an assumption on my part that the painting, in the buyer’s home or office, will receive directional light, ie, from a window.

I’ve almost never shot the image of my paintings purely inside without some outside light, unless it’s a flatter textured or even non-textured work.

Plus, painting with directional light is how I create most of my work.

I like to sit or stand with the light from my right, at an angle, like it’s coming in through the space between where I am, painting, and the spot where my canvas is before me.

So shooting it’s file copy, like this, reflects what I actually saw – setting brush or knife to canvas, with paint 😊

“Hackberries” can seen on Fine Art America at – https://fineartamerica.com/featured/hackberries-felipe-adan-lerma.html?newartwork=true

Evening
(watermelon, settling in)
Sliced into thin slices and small chunks a half a watermelon we got a few days ago at HEB. Not too big, not to tiny, and less than a dollar@ Even better is how it tasted. Fresh, sweet, and satisfying! Ate all we wanted and still had half left for tomorrow, or, as is often true – whenever 😊

Used my new fitness therapy ball for what it’s intended for – placed under a sore or tired spot and slowly rolling it around. Sometimes just resting on it & breathing. It’s soft and cushiony, yet filled with sand, so it also provides support. Definitely – despite my complaints I’m not strong enough to carry it round to toss and play balance with on a full walk – a keeper!

And because I walked the indoor track at Gold Gym before and after I came back for Sheila from my dr visit, I did log 8000+ steps today. Plus took breaks to toss my fitness ball around a few minutes here and there. No wonder I was tired and ready for some Colbert or a Prime movie ❤️

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My Related Blog Posts

• Dancing Flower – My Newest Palette Knife Painting ; Sometimes It’s Just About Making a Choice, Choosing the Emotion 🙂
• Deciding When My Painting is Done, Part 4 – Discoverng and Painting a Story, Woman in Moonlight

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Related Amazon Search & Products

Water Soluble Artist Paints

Art Supplies

I do like to point out I pick my selections to showcase from my Amazon searches. May not always be the case, or wholly always the case, but for now, I prefer picking titles and book covers and gift items that just really appeal to me. There’s lots more to choose from, but only have so much room, lol! I hope you enjoy —

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

Twitter / Instagram / FB @FelipeAdanLerma
Amazon Author Page – https://amzn.to/2YpgyUf
Fine Art America (FAA) – https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/felipeadan-lerma.html