I knew a writer who wanted to transition from the technical documents that he wrote to pay his bills to fiction. His vision inspired a whole universe; not one novel but a series. He spent what little free time he had as a single dad and technical writer working on his project. I admired his…
current affairs, Politics, Uncategorized, war
They lost Jeffrey Sachs
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•Six months ago I would have described Jeffrey Sachs, the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as the consummate insider. For the past 30 years Sachs has taken leadership roles in economic and public health issues with Africa as a special focus. After the adoption of his Millennium Village goals in 2000, he…
Amusement Park series, materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Winner!
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•The first painting in my Amusement Park Series, Winner!, is moving along. I finished the underpainting and moved onto the overpainting, as you can see in this photo of the canvas. Yesterday, I strecthed a 40″ x 54″ canvas for another painting intended for the series. I also prepared the stretchers and cut canvas for…
materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
The problem with blended commercial oil paint
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•The ideal palette consists entirely of single-pigment colors. Such an ideal palette provides artists with total control over values and tones. This is especially important for artists, like me, who use lead white. These days, even high-end brands use titanium white in their multi-pigment colors. Old Holland, for example, uses a blend of titanium white,…
Amusement Park series, Art history, Drawings, materials, Paintings, Photography, Shop Talk
Amusement park series
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•I visited Lake Erie’s preeminent amusement park, Cedar Point, five times this summer. I am using the thousands of photos that I took from these visits as reference material for my new series–Amusement Parks. I have 10 finished designs and I’ve started the drawings on several canvases. Yesterday, I finished the drawing for the first…
Bio, current affairs, Politics, Uncategorized, war
So, war it is
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•Books, Fiction, Grumpy review, Reviews, Uncategorized
Book review: Ink Black Heart
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•I recently listened to the audio version of the detective novel The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith is the pen name used by J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. This novel is the 6th and latest in this series for adults. In these novels, Galbraith chronicles the adventures of Cormoran Strike’s London-based detective…