Today we had more medical tumbling, as we had a sore throat to go check at early morning Sunday pediatric hours, and the possibility of another emergency room visit, with Dearest having swelling in her leg and foot. The morning seemed like we were going back into the medical machine.But the Peds visit was almost a pleasure with the common sense and good humor and intelligence of the physician, one of the best in Durham, NC - Dr. Clark. And we averted the emergency room visit with ice and elevation of the leg... Dearest's Mother rushed over to be another adult in the house as daughter and I were at the doctor, and oldest had a solo in the church choir. Everything worked out OK, swelling is under control, and sore throat appears not to be strep (though the culture will tell for sure tomorrow).
By 2:00 all was OK, and the sun had finally come out - the first I've realy seen of it in over a week. Incredible. I took a short walk and did some painting. Now I'm baking an orange chicken recipe I'm making up - we'll see. It already smells good. I'm planning to put a dollop (it's much less than a schtickle) of ricotta cheese on each chicken thigh for the last 20 minutes - we'll see how that goes.
Yesterday or the night before, I've lost track, I did the wet-on-wet playing you see above. I wanted to play with some red. Today it became a portrait of Virgil Tangelo as the Summer. This is about 10x14 inches, on an Arches Hot Press watercolor block. They're my play between the more serious pieces on the boards. I think this image of Virgil is also influenced by the sun god images on Mayan calendar stones. But of course he still has his Oxford shirt on... Click for a larger version.I also worked more yesterday on Glee 1 and Coming Home but neither changed enough for me to want to bother to photograph them. I got busy helping Grenouille with his Christmas posts in the late afternoon and didn't post myself, at all.
Many thanks to friends, neighbors, and family as we got through this last difficult week. It would have been a lot harder without you.
7 comments:
I really like your painting and, though I see orange and very little red, I assume it must be the monitor (?)....I saw a masculine figure in the first picture but not exactly what you did as your eyes(great eyes, btw) are down about where his neck was...there is a great face up above those eyes but you might now have seen it...a full face!! love it anyway, expecially the eyes and then the shirt, which I didn't see at first, til I blew it up, the buttons!!! haha...loved it...you always have a sense of fun in your work and it's beyond me how you always stay there....
glad all is semi-ok with your family...wow, one thing after another lately...hoping now things will calm down and go back to normal.
happy winter!
Linda - Thanks! It looks more orange on my screen, too. The long band of color from the top edge, through the middle of his face, particularly under his lips, and on down beside the buttons is quite red, though it blends off to orange in some places and particularly off to the right. It's a start. I should try something that's mostly red.
As for the sense of fun, that's hard NOT to do when Virgil shows up. Everything about his image invites me to play.
I'm glad that the potential trouble was more or less averted. Thank goodness for family help!
I love that impish? knowing? mischievous smile on Virgil's face.
And I caught it - schtickle!!!! Bwahahahahaha! It's catching.
Schtickle!!!!!!
This morning's piece went at least well enough that several people told me afterward that they "had tears just streaming down" their faces. Same words, totally different people. Which is to say he did well.
I love the face within a face and the other small face off to the side. It is very like a soul in red season, so full of fruit and insight ripening out from the thin blue heart made plainer on the left by all that breathing joy of orange that dropped from it. It's always surprised me how oranges ripen in the winter, giving their surprising sweetness to dark days. Well, this painting is a bit like that, a little pulp of orange for the eye.
I'm not going to read the other comments until I've written you my first impressions of Virgil Tangelo. It's spectacular! I really appreciate the way you begin with some pure colors and then extrapolate on the results by finding the hidden images suggested. Linda does this quite beautifully too and it's amazing to me that you both find your visions in a similar way with such extraordinarily unique results.
Virgil reminds me a tad of Dali, except that his eyes aren't wide enough. He also looks like a wizard and a god. Glorious color as always, Steve.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Dearest.
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