Cloud Appreciation Society

It’s always my pleasure to pass along the Cloud Appreciation Society Newsletter. I’m looking forward to viewing some of the presentations available on their website about clouds! Hope you’ll enjoy them too.

Glass Outhouse Gallery – ‘Fleeting Passions’

A few years ago I was introduced to the Glass Outhouse Gallery in Wonder Valley – just east of 29 Palms.  It is in the middle of nowhere, even more than I am, and has a small gallery where Laurel and Howard hold month-long 2-artist shows, and a sculpture garden made of recycled material art, created by Howard.

Four skies in the Glass Outhouse Gallery

I had a show there a few years ago with my Mixed Media work and am scheduled to have another show there with that medium in January 2021.  Yes, artists do plan ahead.

The cart shows that this is a hanging day.

As I have another body of work and enough Mixed Media to run two shows concurrently, I’m on their ‘waitlist’.  A list of artists who, in an emergency can put together a show in a couple days.  Last week I got the call.

The outgoing artist hadn’t picked up her work yet.

I had planned to take my oils and acrylics to the show in Monrovia this weekend, but with a quick call I managed to get that changed and this body of work was available for the month.

Nice little row, the last 4 ‘diamonds’

My fellow artist is Tami Wood.  We both joked that our names are two four-letter words.  Her work is made exclusively of recycled materials.  We’ve called our show ‘Fleeting Passions’ because we both explore ephemeral aspects of our environment.

And room for the bin, that holds paintings I did in or for paint and wine evenings that I’ve taught.

After the show in Newport I brought everything up and hung the show.  Howard will pin up the prices later.

I’m surprised the one on the left hadn’t sold at Newport, it had a lot of interest.

Because of existing commitments (Monrovia), I can’t be at the reception but Tami will handle that and I’ll do my share of gallery sitting during the month.

The painting on the right is one from my house – I’m down to the last few oils and acrylics and am selling at discount prices!

What I didn’t realize until I told another friend in 29 Palms about the late arrangement, I’d scored a show during the Highway 62 Art Tour – three of the four weekends in October, and the Glass Outhouse Gallery is one of the stops.  Wow, I’m sure glad I decided to go for it!

Almost exactly the right amount of space, there was only one suitable painting I didn’t put up!

I feel bless that because of various issues outside of my scope, I now have a show with both bodies of work on the Highway 62 tour – I have Mixed Media work at the High Desert Medical Center!

 

A forever home in Palo Alto

A recent sale at Palo Alto subsequently got back to me as a pic of the painting in its forever home.  This one might not look as interesting as you would think it could be, but I knew before the new owners took it home, it was going in the guest bathroom, so most of the surrounds are omitted for aesthetic reasons.

“I thought this would be” has the following lines written for it and painted into the horizon areas: I thought this would be the view I’d live and die with but the sea recedes.

Newer work #89

“Daybreak on earth”‘s name is inspired by the beauty that I am still seeing in ‘Dawn off my back porch’, and the fact that the Salton Sea is drying up.  Some day in the not too distant future there will be no water reflection.  And it’s not just here right in our lap, it’s everywhere.  Climate change is observable in our lifetime and will eventually render the planet utterly different than we know it.  But it is still worth getting up in the morning and seeing what the world has to offer because as far as anyone knows, there are no dawns and sunsets in heaven.

“Daybreak on Earth”, 9×12″ refractured watercolor on panel. $110. The poem written for and painted into this painting is: Daybreak in heaven never looks like this! Heaven has no day and night

Tales from the field #22

On Thursday I had to go over to Borrego Springs for an Art meeting.  I was held up by gazillions of wonderful visitors looking for the right place to stop to look at flowers.  Of course you can’t see flowers in detail when you’re driving at 55 – the speed limit along the S22 which for those non-locals is the only road between Salton City and Borrego Springs.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s one of my ‘private collection’ because I’m apparently the only person who goes where this flower is.

By the time I was late for the meeting, I’d composed this in my head and plan to put it on a sign at the corner of S22.

Superbloom

While you’re trolling for flowers at 20,
that vehicle that’s riding your ass
is a local that’s late getting somewhere,
so please let the tailgater pass!

Zooming back

Have been away for awhile so no blogging.  This time that I flew to Heathrow, I took United, so I ended up in Terminal 2, whereas it seems just about every other airline that flies out of LA uses Terminal 3.  So, on the way home, I had time to seek out some of the artwork at this terminal.  Slipstream is a huge sculpture that occupies a massive covered area between the terminal and the buses/taxis area.

“Slipstream”

The associated sign says a little more about it, and there’s yet more information here.  I don’t see any information about material, but it seems to be made of aluminum.  Or aluminium, if you use the local dialect. Sadly, despite the enticing shape, we’re not apparently allowed to slide on it.

Graphene

Concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world. And now, by adding the invisible wonder material graphene to it, researchers have taken a step towards a more sustainable construction industry. The new graphene-laced concrete is two times as strong and four times as water-resistant as the standard stuff, shows a new study…

via Graphene Can Green Up Concrete’s Act — Anthropocene

 

Messing about in boats

I have to say that this was one painting (or pair of paintings) executed under the most hostile of weathers.  No, not so much heat, but the desiccating wind.  I had to stop on the second morning and go back for a short session closer to dawn on the third day, and then it was a struggle.  The good news is that once I’d drawn up the letters, I could quickly go from one side to the other, painting layers, knowing full well that that my start point would be completely dry by the time I returned to it in about 25 minutes.  At the end of the second day I had to quit because the paint was drying on the brush.  The east side of the boat was too hot to work, and the west side, in the shade and wind, I was shivering.  And I still had to figure out how to spray with an acrylic glaze with the UV component – in a stiff breeze.

Nevertheless ‘Poseidon’ has its name on its sides and today will be test launched.  Eventually this boat will carry a solar powered pump which will pump water from the Salton Sea into the marina ‘fingers’ in Desert Shores, to maintain the water level and mitigate red agae.  Launch day is on Sunday.

I would like to recommend….

For those of you who are into science – at least reading about it – can I recommend this blog – sciencesprings. Richard posts a lot of interesting science stuff from earth and around the universe.

From Science Alert: “This Volcano Erupted For 5 Years Straight, And The Photos Are Mesmerising” — sciencesprings

Science Alert 5 APR 2018 SIGNE DEAN You’re looking at a very rare type of lava fountain. (USGS) On 24 May 1969, a deep rumbling started within Kīlauea, the largest of the volcanoes comprising the island of Hawai’i. Looking up the slope of Kilauea, a shield volcano on the island of Hawaii. In the foreground, […]

via From Science Alert: “This Volcano Erupted For 5 Years Straight, And The Photos Are Mesmerising” — sciencesprings

Indio Chalk Festival, Day 4 – the results

It didn’t rain at my house overnight on Saturday. However when I got to Indio, I found that there had been two hours of steady good rain there. Ugh. The city people had gotten there a little earlier and removed all the tarps to let the paintings dry. They needed to be dry before we could start on repair work, so we had a little time to commiserate between each other before we could start. Rafael’s painting – Lincoln, and Bijan’s painting (we think we read each others’ minds when we came up with such similar design ideas) had the most damage.

Some damage to the right hand corners and both hands that required a little rework. The throat dried out fine. The wash marks on the ocean wrist I just incorporated.

There were still puddles around 9:30am

Lincoln needed a nose job.

Bijan’s tarp leaked, causing a lot of damage on the neck and into the clouds.

Repair work done, just in time for the judging. Except that about 2 minutes before Kathy came by, a woman let her 3 year old run through the painting. Then yelled at me for chiding him!

The last competitor finished later in the day.

Amateur entries continued throughout the day, to the extent that there was so much judging for Kathy Dunham to do that the awards ceremony was about 40 minutes late. Here were the results in the professional category. The prizes were $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000.

1. Bijan Masoumpaneh
2. Rafael Valencia
3. Jeni Bate

The artist as part of the environment. 8’x8′, chalk on blacktop. (Photoshopped to be vertical, though you can possibly now see some of the foot damage.)