New art (finally) and a new year, 2020

I Shut down my website, claudlylesartworks.com for a couple of reasons. 

I dropped Instagram. Privacy and waste of time concerns :)
I hope you enjoy the updates to my art and life as presented in this blog. IF you don't like the political stuff and don't want to receive future blogs just say so, no hard feelings. So far, only two have taken me up on the offer. With that in mind, remember:

Below the Fold below is where lies controversial stuff, if you don't want to go there, stay above.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present:

New Art: Playing around with my inkjet printer, photo paper, and some markers. 

Remember, you can click on the photo and it should open up in a larger format for you. AND, if still available, all pieces are for sale at reasonable prices - inquire within, to me at cexl1@icloud.com.

For those of you who missed it, this year I painted a piece that I could then print for my Christmas card. The original is a 12 x 12" oil on board. Held by Fr Ronny O'Dwyer, SJ.

This was a plein air oil on 12 x 12 board looking south at the Daniels Rd RR crossing that parallels Metro Blvd. The piece below was from the same location but looking north to the 10-mile canal. The tracks would be on the right of the bridge. It is a 10 x 8" oil on canvas panel. 

The above were started before L's illness was diagnosed, but finished in Sept and Oct. Because of our circumstances I had not been able to do any artwork since. The last week of January presented an opportunity to join a workshop at The Bonita Springs Art Center for three days, put on by nationally known pastel teacher from Denver, CO, Doug Dawson. Through the generous caregiving efforts of neighbors and friends I was able to attend each session which ran from 9 - 4. Learned a lot. 

 One of his demo works that he referred to from time-to-time over the 3 days.

 This is a collage of some of the students' work in various stages. Overall, a pretty accomplished group from about 15 states. 

12 x 9" Pastel on Sennelier Card

Day one, from a photo I took at Fort Myers Beach last July 5. We grabbed a room so we could watch fireworks on the 4th and not have to worry about the traffic on and off the beach. The next morning I went on an early walk and captured some great colors. 

9 x 8" Pastel on card

Day two let me use a photo I took August 2019 from our Rhine River cruise. This was a plaza up from the river bank in Eltville, GR. 

 Day three resulted in this view of the preserve behind our house, which has been a subject for me over the 6+ years we have lived here. 

8 x 10" on card

Three others I finished from my summer start. This view of Maui is oil on 20 x 16" canvas board 

And, these are two acrylic of which you saw the beginnings in an earlier blog. They are 9 x 7" canvas on board. Two views of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO. 

Purchased Art: 

Pastel on watercolor by local artist Roger Brown: Motoring on McGregor Boulevard. 9 1/2 x 7 1/2"

Traded with a classmate Maddie Miller from my FGCU class. 12 x 12" acrylic, from our Hands Project I discussed in an earlier blog. 

Murder Mystery (until it was solved):

I was watching one of the reality crime shows on Discovery ID last week in which (Cathy) Sue Weaver "from a small town in Missouri" was murdered in her then home in Orlando FL. The show told us that she was a '71 grad of MIZZOU - an Interior Design major. She went on to get an MBA (may not be worth much since it was awarded from Kansas). Later, after moving to FL she started her own commercial embroidery business and seemed to be quite successful. 

Spoiler alert: about six months before what was her brutal murder, rape and arson, a local vendor sent two men out to clean her home's AC ducts. One returned and did the horrible deed. What is frustrating to most of us, and resulted in a successful law suit against the vendor was that both men were convicts. The killer, "at age 23 while living in Fern Park, pleaded no contest to raping and robbing a 31-year-old woman at gunpoint in her Winter Springs home. In 1986, the woman told police that he forced his way into her home and hit her in the face with a gun. She was raped, and her wallet was stolen.

At the time of that attack, he was on probation for the 1980 rape and false imprisonment of another Seminole County woman. He was sentenced to life in prison, but he was released Oct. 2, 1998, after serving 12 years. He moved into his parents' home near Lake Howell and took a job repairing air conditioners - unfortunately for Sue Weaver.

These photos were taken from my '70 Savitar, her junior year.

Reading:

Lt. Joe Kinda of Colorado Springs, Co and Discovery ID TV. I Will Find You. In the book: 80% of his suspects waived their Miranda rights because they just wanted to talk, and talk, and talk, or they thought they were more clever, smarter than the "Dumb" cop. He was something like 512 to 2 in convictions; one loss his lawyer would not let him discuss and the other defendant was very successful at smoozing the jury, Born Again (falsely claiming,) etc. Evidence clearly showed he was the murderer. Kinda said that, in general, if you are guilty take your chances with a jury, if innocent go with the reasoning of trial by a judge. Several years later his hometown police, Brooklyn NY, called and told Kenda that the dude either jumped or was pushed off a 10-story building... now about the size of a can of corn as a result. Of the 30 cases he could not solve, in 16 he felt strongly about a suspect but could not gather enough evidence to go to trial; the remaining 14 - "I have no earthly idea or clue as to who did it."

Light reading, but interesting if you watched the show

Watching:

Stu the Uber driver.

A few clever lines but this story, fish out of water, has been told a hundred times and more successfully in about 90 of those.

We also made it to the Florida Rep for Always, Patsy Cline - loved it and Alabaster - walk out at half time. Linda made it to Hamilton here as part of the Broadway Series, coming up are Cats and Miss Saigon, Escape To Margaritaville, Waitress, Come From Away.

Holidays fun: Santa gave Dominic a rental plane flight so he and Lisa, with the owner, flew over Fort Myers Beach, across the Everglades to Everglade City where they had a luncheon, and then returned through some light rain which produced a rainbow,

I'm not admitting to being competitive, however, I found that same light rain and took this shot from our Costco parking lot.

And another Holiday treat. Dominic treated his brother to a weekend hike/climb up Mt Washington in New Hampshire last Saturday. The small group then bunked overnight with a team of scientists who prepared dinner and discussed their mission. Sunday morning they returned back down the trail. As you can see, kind of dangerous, and certainly strenuous, and c,c,c,cold.

Humor:

Not sure what they are discussing but I'm sure it's funny

Maybe it was this headline vs. photo?

Travel:

 Key West wedding for my niece Lindsay. Ceremony at the Hemingway House. Great group, nice families.

Mother of the bride

Dali interior

 Dali Museum in St Pete, last weekend. Lunched with friends at The Hangar Restaurant & Flight Lounge. Prior, went to the St Petersburg Museum of Fine Art...well worth it. For a city their size they had some nice original master works on the wall.

Edison Ford Estate trip from last fall. They featured Mr and Mrs Yours Truly in the centerfold :) I wrote about Wynwood in an earlier blog. Well worth the side-trip if you are in Miami.

I Don't Get It...

Super Bowl Ass-Time Show

Inexplicably, Jeb Bush thought it was the greatest half-time show ever. I thought it was filthy, analmalistic, and demeaning to women. But, that's just my opinion, right?

Interesting: 

Some photos of Fort Myers in case you have never visited...

Jet Blue Park aka Fenway South for the Red Sox. They have sun tan lotion dispensers placed around the walkways.

One of the two marinas downtown on the Caloosahatchie.

View to the south and second marina

Just driving' around one day

Bonus...So, on the news last night there was a piece about a black Mercedes that pulled out of a 7-11 with the gas pump hose still in the auto, the result was a twenty four section of hose dangling from the car about 40 feet away. In the shot, though, next pump over, was a camper type van and the front end held a plate in black and gold letters with MIZZOU.

Twins Hammond Stadium, about 3 miles from our house

Photos I like:

billions and billions of planets, stars, galaxies.

Greg in Morocco last fall.

My backyard on the edge of the preserve (these ARE the colors!)

Below The Fold---------------------------------------

Enter at your own risk:

Read carefully please.

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I was there in the early '70's. I took a college level class on the environment, Paul Ehrlich and all of that. I remember they said we would be out of oil be the year 2000 (will never happen, by the way; it might become more expensive but we won't run out. And, they were sure we would be under a CO2 cloud and the ice age would return. Absolutely, no room for discussion...

Oh, really? Don't believe what I just said?

 The framers knew what they what were doing, has nothing to do with racism. 

Be careful with what you wish for, I mean demand...

Thats what they demand, same rights as guns...