Casualties of Sun - Evidence the Sun is Round

This is the cat benign equivalent of sun stroke. They wander into the edge of a sun beam, their brains are shut down, and they collapse. Over several minutes you can observe their bodies reducing height and increasing breadth, maximizing the square inches exposed to the barrage of photons, and deepening the soporific effect. Only when the sun moves to another position, and sufficient cat surface is in shadow, do they revive, but they're usually dragged back into the sun and the process is repeated.

Notice in this aerial view the circles of light around the square window spots. (Click images for closer view.) This is evidence that the sun is round, and appears in our sky as a disk, not a point. If it were a triangle, this refraction distortion would be a triangle. It's caused by the fact that not all photos are coming past the edge of the window from a single angle - some come from every side of the sun circle and therefore get around the sharp edge of the square, casting this circular spot. If you've noticed the light spots on grass or sidewalk through tree leaves, they also form circles for the same reason, regardless of the odd shapes of the space they shone through between the leaves.

Working today - just took a break to note these interesting scientific phenomena

Those Scraps - a CD Cover Project

When I make 23 x 23 inch squares (for my square format 19 x 19 inch watercolors) I have to tear off a strip about seven or eight inches wide, and about twenty three inches long. I've been accumulating these, because I don't throw out this paper. Sometimes I use it to sample paints and see how they'll behave before I put them on a piece in progress (when I don't want to take too much risk with a painting that's going well).

The other day it came to me that I could do a series of CD covers on these strips. They would be big enough to do three each strip , and three strips would fit, stapled to one of my square boards. So out came Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and I used the lyrics book to trace nine CD cover size squares.

Back from a business trip this evening, and with the stretched paper dried in my absence, I taped them all off, pulled up a mess of Flickr photos for lines and shapes drawn blindly, and played fast and loose with watercolors. Most of these are not likely to look anything like this by the time I get done with them. I plan to toss in acrylics, pencils, ink and anything else that seems right. I'm going to make nine whatevers - responding on this small scale to the things that usually tickle my muse. I don't plan for them to be abstracts - we'll see what emerges.

Then...

I plan to put them all in a post and let people comment. Anyone who wants one can ask. The comments will register the order of the requesters (their place in line). Then the first five requesters will get to pick from the pieces that remain depending on their place in line (first commenter gets to choose from the eight that remain, second commenter gets to choose from the seven that remain, etc.). They'll also need to send me their mailing addresses, of course (via private e-mail, not in the comment), so I can send their choice. In each case I will letter the little piece for a CD cover (tell me what to put on it) or not, as the requester wishes. I'll enjoy seeing what CD you pick for the piece (if you're using it for a CD cover). All pigments and materials are lightfast, so they should be OK even in a car, etc.

The one little twist (maybe you noticed above that the numbers didn't line up) is that I've already decided who gets first choice this time. Lisa of That's Why will get first choice of the nine. (Because she's the one who propelled my blog into it's current larger audience, that's why).

If you've done the math up to this point then you've figured out that I will have three left. I don't want anyone who lined up for the original choices to end up with too few to choose from, hence stopping with the first six (even the last in line will have four to choose from).

After that I'll post the remaining three pieces and anyone who hasn't got one already, if they like any of the remaing three enough to ask, may have it - first request for each of the three will win. Just like the first six, I'll work a CD title into the piece if they wish - or not - their choice.

I'll warn you all ahead of time when (date and time) I plan to post the nine - to prevent anyone who is interested from feeling like they have to hover over my blog to get in line. I'll finish all nine to my satisfaction before the give-away will be announced. I may show the progress of these as I go (or not), but I can't predict if they'll stay recognizable from one post to the next. So if you do want one, try not to fall in love with one during the progressive photos. I can't promise I won't paint it white and start over. Two of these have already shifted to acrylics and over half of those two were covered over...

Work Zone

Work is going to be very heavy, taking up evening and weekend time for a while. I'll get to blogs some - gotta unwind a little before going to sleep every night - but I don't think I'll be posting a lot. It's already been thinner here over the last few weeks.

I'll be back when it settles back down. There's an initial rush before really large projects, and this one is huge and I'm really excited about it. So it's not a bad thing.

Several Thanks - Awards

I was happy to receive two blogging awards recently. My problem is that I dread choosing who does (and who doesn't) get them from me... So I often fail to pass them on. However, both of these were given with no strings attached.

Genie Sea awarded me the "I Love Your Art Blog" award in this post. Genie does her painting digitally for now, and produces inspiring images of great freedom. I'm looking forward to her first efforts with a brush in hand, and enjoying her digital art and inspiring words. She shares from her heart on her blog. I've got more creative blogs to explore as a result of Genie's post.

The Pagan Sphinx gave me the "Creative Blogger Award" in this post. The Pagan Sphinx presides over a blog world of photographs, art, issues of justice and equality. I particularly like the Friday Evening Nudes series and her posts on the controversial art topics, which get some friendly debate going. I'm looking forward to checking out the other winners of this award.

Thanks to you both!

Abstract Landscape

Weeks ago I added some neon orange to this painting (Prismacolors) and then it sat untouched. Yesterday, dealing with stress from work and some disturbing news about my Dad's cancer (spreading again) I got this out and lost myself in the sky. The photo does a terrible job of showing how neon and bright the traces of orange and pink are (running along the horizon line). The colors are clean, bright, pure, and capture some of the joy I feel in sunsets and the hot colors that I want to climb up and follow. I've remarked before that that kind of light in the sky is how I picture heaven.

This is all watercolor except for the neon pencil work.

And after I posted this, while going to link it at Creative Every Day, and while reading Leah's post about muse/inspiration/synchronicity, I looked over at the painting and it all fell together and I wept.

I'm not ready to lose my Dad (how can I ever be ready) - but when I eventually do, I will seek him in that light. It's where I feel we're all going, and he may be heading over that horizon sooner than I want. That's what I blindly painted yesterday and this morning. My wish, my dread, my hope, my fear.

Orange - the color of joy. Purple - the color of grief.

Dunny - Continued

I opened another of my stash.

This one is by Le Doux. He came with a beard disguise (LOL!), that reminded me of the beards from Life of Brian. Actually, maybe he reminds me of the aliens from that same part of the movie...

Foxwood - Finished

OK - here it as as I left it last night. First Youngest told me the lines had to go (he was right). That was work I did yesterday before this photo was taken and posted.

Then Linda suggested that the top wasn't done yet (and I knew that, though I didn't want to think about it yesterday). So I worked up the top quite a bit tonight, and liked it better.

Then I showed it to Dearest and she said that the top and the bottom looked like different paintings. The foxes were more hard edged, and painted in a different manner than the top. And I knew that, too, but was even more resistant to thinking about that, because I had liked how the foxes turned out and I didn't want to mess with them. But it was the usual - they were "precious" and still too outlined. I realized that I really had nothing to lose - they didn't work as they were. So I was at peace about changing them, and knew what to do and thought I could manage it without damaging them.

So here they are repainted somewhat, and blended into the painting. Now they're in the wood, instead of on it. And I like the light on them better in this version. As usual, though, the camera is losing the beautiful rose colors, leaning towards a hotter red and emphasizing the orange. This painting is actually more balanced over the three secondary colors, and a rosy pink, pale blues, and some yellow for emphasis and light. So it's a sort of homage to how I used to feel about the basic Crayola box of eight. The six colors were all equally favorites, and I felt sorry for brown and black.

Maybe you can't see much difference between these two in the photos - and then again, maybe you can... I thought the differences might be interesting to some of you. Click on them to see larger versions.

Thanks to everyone who made the concrete and constructive suggestions, especially Dearest, who made hers after she was pretty much done talking for the day.