Today

Weather promises to be great today, so good it’s already nice enough to take a walk before breakfast, lol! Ironically, or is it kismet, I posted a really good reblog from WebMD with one of it signature quizzes, this one on walking! 15 short questions, I missed 3, lol!

Later, wife & I go to meet the oldest girl, middle granddaughter (now in college), with lots of others for breakfast at Casa Garcia 😊 I did a review of Casa Garcia on TripAdvisor but was so used to going to eat at Casa I didn’t take any pics for the review, hope to remember to this time!

Later this afternoon, if I’m able, I’ll go to Creative Arts Society (CAS) is having their 20th anniversary celebration way up north Austin. It’d be really nice to see some old friends from a decade ago again, plus new folks. It’s just the drive, oh boy, lol!

Somewhere in there, probably once the sun is up, I really need to reshoot my image for Canyon Lake, one of my two entries for the Cypress Grill show going up next mth through the holidays. Once I have a decent detailed shot I’ll upload to Fine Art America & let folks know 😊

Take care everyone, happy Sunday! ❤️

Yesterday

A royally robust day of taking the 6 year old about, trying to get a new digital image for one of my paintings, and doing a very rare early evening gathering with a group of Sheila’s friends from her exercise classes for one of the classmate’s birthday.

And yes, the six year old got smashed in the face (a little bit) during one of the soccer free-for-all scuffles for the ball (he survived with huge hugs and concerns from Grandma & Mom), the new digital image of a sailboat painting of Canyon Lake from the early 2000s was attempted too late in the day & the indirect light wasn’t strong enough to capture the tiny sailboats as more than mayonnaise like curved smears (love that image, of the mayo I mean 😂 – will try again tomorrow earlier w/better light), and the friends gathering of seniors enjoying sharing memories back to the “old” days of the 60s & 50s (moon landings, open doorS & windows at night – w/screens of course), including 9 choices of sumptuous delicious want-more Vietnamese food, went to the brink of dark, which necessitated taking roads back home we knew were well lit (vs quicker less lit route choices) — so yes, all that, and —

What I most remember is 1) the wonderful way the sunshine felt on my skin for the 1st time since late April, and, 2) the pleasure I felt watching my 1st art videos since about May, before the 1st gallbladder pain attacks & subsequent ER visit & surgery.

The sun was soft as warm memories.

Basking, and luxuriating, have meaning in that context ☺️

My breath itself could breathe. The pressure in my temples settled into a smile.

Birds literally jumped from tree to tree with squirrels swirling round them as they chased shadows of butterflies….

It was magic. It made me want to paint, and I still couldn’t. I knew I could throw paint onto canvas (figuratively, but essentially so). But I’d begun searching in late April, into May, before the move and before the multi-hour gastric pains and subsequent surgeries, searching for what I’d intuitively recognized I needed/wanted/desired more of for my art. I’d begun to see it, here and there, as I unpacked my decade climate-control hidden art from the 80s, 90s, 2000s. Some were good. Really good. Some, shockingly good. Others, not bad. Seemingly unfinished. And not necessarily in terms of details in the image. Something else. Some pieces were heavily textured, some not. That wasn’t it. Some were swirls of paint, or dabs and dashes. And that wasn’t it. There were good and, well, not as good, among them. Some were monotone, some were not. And that wasn’t it either. And the one’s that sold most recently did have it. They had value. But they had value because..they had values – nuances – shade & light – depth. Depth even when monotone, no matter the brush style, no matter the subject. I’d gotten lucky, and intuitively created work with a working value scale, which produced, within my landscapes and seasides and skies, pleasure, a sense of kindness I remembered sometimes consciously realizing I was touching within myself, sometimes so strongly I remembered writing back then, in the 2000s, that I’d triggered memories and recognition of when a child or infant who’s been struggling, physically or emotionally, to rest and be at peace, and finds that peace, stutter steps a breath and literally sucks the air into its lungs, and rests. The stutter step breath is a release, and a return to a primeval stage in one’s life. Maybe the womb. Maybe the first cradling. But it’s at the core of being alive. That’s when I knew I had finished a painting. Any more and I would ruin it. That’s what I saw in the best work I unpacked from my decades past. That’s what I realized I needed to reach more often. And the one’s which had elicited that type of memory in me, had touched me to any degree like that when I created it, had a value scale.

I was always good w/color. I was crayon-ing on scraps of anything before kindergarten. Dragging water color paint across paper since 1st grade. Watching pastels crumble colors on textured paper since 3rd grade. And never cared about the rest. I’d do squares and circles and mix them. Draw straight lines and curves and mix them. As long as I had color. And never thought about values. Check out Picassa, in BW, and in color, to see an example of straight/curved etc. I have another piece, even earlier, called Noon & Night. I’ll try and find a copy I can post soon. It’s all black and white abstracted design based on Mesa Verde. A lady in Galveston who saw it, I remember clearly, told me, very rare an artist combines straight lines and straight like that. Never saw her again, never much thought about it, just took it for granted.

So what I want to do now, need to do now, is consciously study values. And I’d begun that. Just barely, esp via Dianne Mize’s videos and sample images, when I was derailed.

Well. I think the tracks been repaired, mostly 😊

And I’m back on track ♥️

Related Amazon Search & Products
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My Purchase & Wish List On Amazon 😊
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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 —

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My Related Blog Posts

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My Latest Blog Posts

• December 03, 2021 – I Am Tired, But I Am Happy; I’ve Been Painting, A Lot!December 3, 2021
  The above pic contrasts below with this earlier pic shot shot in November —
• December 02, 2021 – My Minimalist Art Experiment, “Abstract Minimalism 1 (in-progress) Part 2, Major ShiftDecember 2, 2021
  The large blue area (which I loved) had to be muted (or change the other orange/red areas). Blue bottom areas were also muted. The white/yellow glaze over the blue area tinting it into green. But, do I want to do more? Do I need to do more?
• December 01, 2021 – My Minimalist Art Experiment, “Abstract Minimalism 1 (in-progress) Part 1, a BeginningDecember 1, 2021
  A funny thing happened on my way to my newest attempt to correctly ( ie, satisfyingly ) extrapolate a detail shot ( variations of which I’m calling, “Approach” ) of one of my paintings (Autumn Passage) — — during the 2nd lay-in, after applying Light Molding Paste over the canvas, I ended up, when I’d see it from a distance, ie through a door from another room, very much liking its basic look; enough so I decided to try and enhance the current stage of the painting, yet, keep it’s basic minimalism intact 😊
• November 30, 2021 – My Idea for Promoting My WordPress Blog Posts on Twitter (With My Pinned Tweet), Part 4November 30, 2021
  And so far, I’m very pleased with how it’s working. It’s saving me a bit of time, yet also keeping tweets going out promoting my more recent posts. I could probably do with slightly more frequently….
• November 29, 2021 – Fine Art America News : “Easy Morning” and “Walking in Light” Featured in Art Groups + Sold a “If Dads Were” Coffee CupNovember 29, 2021
  Both figures in the painting above and below are watercolors, though, Easy Morning is all watercolor on absorbent ground. Walking in Light’s paint, around the figure below, is acrylic; both the watercolor figure and remainder of my painting done on Golden’s Light Molding Paste. Golden has evidently been at improving acrylics a long time, as I learned in this post (with links to Golden’s article), and I can say that for me, working on their molding paste, in watercolor and acrylic, is a real treat!
• November 28, 2021 – My Most Viewed Image This Past Week @FineArtAmerica, Heart FragmentNovember 28, 2021
  If it was an amazing process to see older photos and artwork show up on my most viewed list last week (and it was 😊) then this batch is incredible! Work from so many years have shown up, and such a variety! It tells me, one can never quite tell what folks might be looking for day to day, week to week, and it’s nice for me to have the inventory assortment, “almost” a historical diary, of my work
• November 27, 2021 – LOL! I Don’t Like It, But I WANT It! : Preparing More Paintings and Applications for Places to Show and Sell!!November 27, 2021
  I squashed together what I could to show a “fair” sampling of my work recently finished or in-progress right now. There’s more, tucked here and there among these, lol! And on another wall! I choose to consider that a good problem 😊 Seeing these together like tis, If I had to choose one thing tying them all together – the impressionist skews, the abstracted slants, the washes, the thick tones, the high key and (nearly) BW work – I’d say it’s….

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

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