Pastels, ArtPoems, And More:

Recently completed some pastels in my class at the Bonita Springs Art Center, teacher Jake Hands; still learning but here are two from class and one of a sunset of Sanibel Island used in a project with ArtPoems.org.

 Lakes Park

 Cashiers, NC

 Sanibel at Sunset

This one is inspired by the poem After My Evening Meal by Holly Lee McEntyre. She provided 5 poems. I then drew this in pastel chalk for the selected poem. At the same time, I provided 5 pieces to another poet, Jamilla D Brooks, who will create a poem for one of my 5 art works that she will select. Can't wait to see which piece she selects and then the corresponding work she will create. There will be 3 shows where the pieces and poem will be on display and for two locations the poems are to be read. The tandem pieces will be for sale. The first exhibit will be Wednesday March 7 at the Alliance For The Arts; the second Wednesday March 28 at Big Arts on Sanibel Island; the final will take place at Arts For ACT Gallery during the month of April 2018 with the reception to be held on Friday April 6 during Art Walk in Fort Myers.

Speaking of which...we joined Art Walk on the first. It was also the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony for Fort Myers. Included was an outdoor concert in front of the The Sydney and Berne Davis Art Center downtown. The featured band at this end of First Street was the Beatles tribute band Nowhere Band. They were pretty good. Probably 500 watching. When they played a Christmas Carol they cleverly started with a Beatles chart that morphed into the carol. Think of the lead in to 8 Days A Week; after the ringing notes on the Rickenbacker, instead of oooh I need your love babe, they rolled into the traditional Deck The Halls in that key. Worked perfectly. 78 Degrees, slight breeze off the river. Afterwards we stopped in at Bruno's of Brooklyn, our first visit. Excellent. I told the waitress that my pear shaped pasta filled with four cheeses and a pear puree in white sauce sautéed with peas, portobello mushrooms and shallots was as good as any dish I have ever eaten. Really. 

 black and white to feel like 1964 all over again.

Then last week we saw a couple of productions at the Florida Rep. Last Night of Ballyhoo, which we also saw several years ago at the Missouri Rep on Webster College's campus. This one seemed better, more cohesive, and for some reason did a better job of bringing out the Jewish story.

 Set for Ballyhoo

And on Wednesday we saw Disgraced, an award winning play. Pretty good acting, set design. 

I promise to cover our TransAtlantic cruise in the next addition but it is getting late. And, I hope to have another pastel and oil by then. I will finish with a photo of me and my sister Val at the top of Perch 360 in Punta Gorda as we ate and drank with Val's daughter and her boyfriend in from Houston, and a new neighbor of Val's. 

P.S.

Christmas Tree 2017

Use the Comments section if you have anything to say about this edition. 

Back But Leaving

Back but leaving again:

We are back from our trans-Atlantic cruise but leaving this evening for Fort Riley, Kansas to join our son Greg when he is promoted tomorrow to the rank of Captain. Needless to say, have not been making art; however, I did finish my Irma piece as originally intended. They are now attached and ready to hang. Ready to be purchased !

I will chronicle the cruise and the four cities we visited. I am going to try to insert a slideshow for each stop. As a test, today, I will add the Towel Animal. Each night, when the cabin steward turned down the bed, he created an animal and placed it on the bed. I took photos of each, a couple with two views, and finished with shots Linda took of the Towel Zoo, the last day's presentation by approximately 30 staff, placed around one of the swimming pool. If an image for a movie appears, This is supposed to be a slide show but not sure if it is working. Let me know if you can run it.

I found this to be funny, thought I would share it:

Starting next week, will attempt to resume painting. I have several in process and want to try some new subjects and techniques. After Thanksgiving I have a four-week class in Pastel. Have not used them since the 1980's, and then it was all self-taught. This class is taught by a professional affiliated with the Bonita Springs Visual Arts Center which I joined this summer. 

Coming up in Jan is a three-day, all-day oil painting class outdoors in Punta Gorda, about 35 minutes north of here. I joined that Center last month. They have a good DVD collection in their library which I have been making use of.

A new project coming in Dec - ArtPoems. I will learn more in a couple of weeks, but I believe I will present five pieces and poets will circulate and select a 2-dimensional piece about which they will create a poem. It all comes together in the Spring with a show and fund-raiser. A friend in my tennis class introduced me to the group.

Non-art activities coming up, we saw Syliva at the Florida Rep Tuesday evening. Coming up are additional shows, three Pops Concerts with the Southwest Florida Symphony, some Broaday-Fox-type shows at the Barbara B Mann Theatre, and symphony Foundation events at private homes. Can't fill in Spring Training games yet, the schedules are not set, but those will all be in March and almost all day games:

Lastly, I purchased one piece, in Malaga, Spain, along the harbor. It is the birthplace of Picasso ( I will talk about that museum when I present that slideshow) and Miguel paints fans in the style of P. $25 euros and lots of color for my studio wall. 

Greetings from Roma:

No artwork right now. Viewing Rome, starting tomorrow 3 cities in Spain, and then cruise across the Atlantic. From our flight over the Swiss Alps:

From our room looking into a courtyard:

Rome at night from the Savoy Hotel rooftop:

Tuesday at Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain. Hey, they let me in BVLGARI, Hermes, and McDonald's (bathroom break - however, kiosks to ordering pay with credit card - about 8 full windows for food, a full cafe with pastries). So, walked about 7 miles today.

On the walk home, St Paul Episcopal - love the brick patter : 

Lots of pasta, and hotel rooftop cappuccino last two nights. Tomorrow short shopping expedition and then off to the ship for 6 PM departure to Cartagena Sp. Met Lynn and Barry from Boyton Beach, I think he is a retired salesman of something...man can he talk. Picking up some Italian, like "Excuse', what are you doing with your hand in my pocket?" "No, we don't want the complimentary bread that costs $2.5 Euros"

More later. 

Late PS, sorry to end on a serious note. This was in the WSJ today, Really affected me with a son in the ARMY. If you pray, pray for these kids trying to protect us. Ask God to protect them.

New Art, Irma B4 and After, LP digitization continues:

Well, I completed another acrylic, abstract - "Beige, which follows Black completed last March and precedes "Blue" which is under construction.

Black, sold

Blue in process

This is my first iPAD effort, done in an APPLE class last week.







I am also working on more shape construction, one is partially finished in Bear Wallow Camp colors:

By the way, the desk was graciously sold to me by United Fidelity Bank. It was in their storage area. 

Not new art purchased but I reframed an old piece we picked up in a second-hand store or garage sale  years ago for about $25 - it happens: 

Irma: some asked about the damage. Again, we were uncomfortable with no electricity, but not suffering nor did we have to repair anything but two panels in the cage above our pool; however, here are some pictures from Lakes Park nearby. The first pictures are BEFORE and then some after (not the same view but you'll get the idea):

 Whole Islands are gone.

LP's to CD project: Really working diligently so I can finish the project and sell the LP's. One I transferred is the Police's Ghost In The Machine album. I saved out ticket stubs since it was our first concert together, we had been dating for a month or so. Sting's base was SOOOOO loud, I thought the balcony in the Checkerdome would shake loose.

Other thoughts...Ten Years After - A Space In Time: lots of good stuff including Hard Monkeys, I'd Love To Change The World, but One Of These Days is the perfect English Rock N Roll song. Just love it.
Remember New Riders Of The Purple Sage? I saw them in the old Brewer Field House in Columbia, MO, probably 1973ish. Gerry Garcia's sound in Garden Of Eden. The lush Gypsy Cowboy. Great stuff.
Rod Stewart - Just how many albums did he record? 500? I transferred three.
Neil Diamond live at the Troubadour in Hollywood - probably the last small setting in which he played. And, here we have another album, all songs recorded are his except one - Joni Mitchell pops up again. Its amazing how many people cover her songs.
When I look in my Imaginary Dictionary for the words silky smooth - female category, up pops a photo of Rita Coolidge. Re-listen to Anytime...Anywhere, specifically (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher, wow. I checked male and there was Johnny Mathis!
Stanley Clarke - look at his discography, played on so many albums over the years. This is his #1, School Days. The title track is so much fun in fusion jazz. I look to see who played with him on this album and found Raymond Gomez - look him up on the internet, his story, and his discography - amazing. Steve Gadd on drums, he must be on 1,000 albums. You would recognize the sound immediately - John McLaughlin plays guitar on Desert Rose. George Duke, Billy Cogham. These are all giants in the jazz field.
So that leads me to Little Feat: their live album Waiting For Columbus is probably the #2 live album after Frampton Comes Alive. The live editions far eclipses the studio work. I need to single out, however, Bill Paynes Gringo. I can pay it over and over. He felt it is his best piece. Add Kirkwood's David Sanborn on sax (there HE is again), KC's late-great Nicolette Larson on vocals. You know, Bill  also plays on many, many albums, looking an Emmylou Harris's Evangeline right now and there he is. Saw Nicollete in a theatre venue on Main in KC, she opens for, I think, Spyro Gyro. Gringo and Firefall's Mexico have the ability to transport me south of the border to a different life. Great tunes. The founder of LF, George Lowell is another casualty of drugs and booze, lived a little longer, to 34 I believe. I did not know he started with Frank Zappa, weird. He had an infatuation with the Beatles, thus the spelling of Feat; the song Strawberry Flats. And, when he and co-producer/ writer Fred Martin placed their credits on a piece, they used George/Martin. Fred had a humous/sad comment on George who grew up in LA and the early drug culture, sex, over-top events "He was born under a bad sign - Hollywood."
Finished up with Humble Pie - Thirty Days In the Hole. That is rock n roll. Live. "We go home on Monday, its been a gas. A gas" Frampton played on their live album.

Fun memory: Phil Collins No Jacket Required tour: I Think I have this right - 30 years ago...So, in 1985, Linda's mother worked for a company that represented sponsors for rock shows, Pepsi for Duran Duran (I think), also ZZ Top, and Michelob for this tour. As part of her duties, she was to make sure the sponsor received what they paid for, such as "For the next 6 callers we have two tickets to the xxx concert" etc. We scored tickets to the ZZ Top show in Biloxi when we lived in New Orleans, however, traffic was so bad (Shocking for NO, right?) that we missed the backstage pre-show. So, she flew to Boston for the initial night of the US tour to check it out. When she was to leave Phil said "Where are you going?" She explained that she had a family back in Saint Louis. Short of it, they persuaded her to travel with them, and at their accommodations, travel arrangements, perks, etc. The only downside was that we lived in Albuquerque which was not on the tour schedule, and even though we got back-stage passes, etc for friends and relatives around the US, all we got was the proverbial tour jacket. And lots of stories to share at a later time. Below are some of the tour mementos I recently ran across:

Getting Involved: For the past year I have been searching for an area in which I can get involved since I have more free-time. GiGi's is a national entity, with a brand new Fort Myers facility (July 2017). They provide a safe facility for children - to - adults with Down's Syndrome... classes, play sessions, a place to hang out for the adolescent and adults. I attended their Gala last week and won the Bucket Of Booze raffle for a $25 ticket. The amazing thing is that I NEVER win raffles, anything really except an occasional free ticket in Powerball. 

So here is some info on GiGi's. Saturday morning I spent my first day at a play session for the 0 - 5 year olds and their parents. They drafted me to be the session photographer, maybe because I am so much larger than the little ones? Afraid I will break one. At some point down the road I just might be asking for donations for the Ft Myers location.😎