November 28, 2009

November skies


Climbing the mall road the other day, I shot this out the side window of  the Prius. Those clouds, those amazing clouds.

To me 2009 is the year of the cloud, as I have said here before. I can't remember seeing so many days of great skies before.

Thursday as we wolfed down a spectacular Thanksgiving meal at Pete and Zoa's - who have been hosting the annual family get together for almost 50 years - the sky was gray. But in the house with 23 of us at the table it was all light and warmth and memories.

When it all started Babbie and I were still in our 20s. Now we are the oldest of the three generations at the table. Our children are now older than we were when Pete and Zoa extended their first invitatioin.

I hope the kids, and their kids keep the tradition flourishing another half century.

Getting back to clouds, here's another  shot, this one on a partly sunny day when the clouds capped the hills.


Photos by Grier Horner/All rights reserved

November 26, 2009

What's so Odd?


Odd Nerdrum is a painter who I tried to paint like when I was given this book some years ago. But I couldn't master his old- master style.

Still I tried recently to capture the spirit of this Odd image in this self portrait. I should have pulled the hood down farther over my forehead. Did I hear you suggest "way farther"?



Oh, by the way, happy Thanksgiving.

Could anything be more appropriate for Thanksgiving than this photo? Why? Well for one thing there's the wattle, otherwise called turkey neck.



Here's a portrait of me drawn by FX Tobin, a guy who's been teaching me some important things about painting via our email correspondence.

I liked his drawing so much I had it framed. The shadow captured in the glass is me taking a portrait of my portrait.


November 24, 2009

Orange alert


This is a photo of a neighbor's house on a pitch black night with its lights on. The camera was hand held, giving the effect that the house is on fire.
 
Continuing the orange theme, this is a painting by Hubert Scheibl, an Austrian painter I admire. His new show at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropak opens today. From the information I saw on the website, I can't figure out whether its at the gallery's Paris or Salzburg locations.

But I guess it's a little late to fly over for the opening.

 
Orange is also at play in this photo of the painting I am currently working on for my Dresden show at Bard College at Simon's Rock from January 18 to February 12.

I showed you mock-ups for the painting in my November 18 post.

What you're seeing here is the angel at the top and the prone woman, representing Dresden, at the bottom. The figures were drawn on canvas and were then cut out and attached to the surface of the painting with gesso.

The idea for the painting comes from William Blake's Pity, and the angel's face and shoulders were printed from an internet reproduction of that painting. Looking at what I've done so far, it looks like the angel needs breast reduction surgery.

For blowups click on the pictures. Top photo by Grier Horner/Protected by copyright.

November 22, 2009

In hot pursuit


I'm driving the Odyssey down Crane Avenue Friday afternoon when I spotted it coming out of Clark Road.
See it. See that yellow school bus making the right turn there out of Clark?

Who do they think they're fooling? They can't outrun us even under the cover of lowering clouds. We just had new alloy wheels with extra fast snow tires mounted on the van. So fasten your seat belts, we're in pursuit.


The bus is hotrodding it but we're gaining ground anyway. And unless the driver's willing to risk the lives of 25 kids, he (or she) has to stop at the bottom of the hill where Crane ends at North.



What did I tell you. Even if he (or she) wanted to run the stop sign, the driver was forced to come to a halt because the cars ahead of it stopped.

It's not like the movies where the desperadoes use the weight of the bus to push the cars out of the way like toys.

So here, intrepid reader, you have photographic proof that daring drivers like us always catch the bus.

To enlarge the photos click on them. Photos by Grier Horner/Protected by copyright.