Pick Up, and Hug Your Kid

This is something that only a grandpa would think of, I believe--or possibly another artist. Certainly, it takes an older person who is less involved with the daily work force to entertain such a thought as that of mine, which follows.

We babysit our two youngest granddaughters for my son and his wife about three days each week. When my daughter-in-law's van rolls into the driveway, I am almost always the first out of the door to greet my grandchildren. One little girl is now four, and the other about a year and a half. The little 4-year-old raises her arms to have me pick her up, and I pick her up while her mom unloads the car, (and the other little girl), and I hug her, while she snuggles her head on my shoulder. She is not a "morning person," and she usually likes to cuddle, pretending that morning is not really happening, I suppose.

The thought I had, today, while holding her was that kids grow up, and much too soon, of course. But, somewhere between her age right now, and, let's say 18 years old, there must be a specific moment in both our lives at which she is too heavy and big, and I'm too old to lift her up, any more.

I got to thinking how profoundly sad that really is. I realize that at some moment in both our lives, I am going to cease picking her up any more. The day before, I may have picked her up, but perhaps today I won't. That one day of picking her up and giving her a big hug when I did, may come to an abrupt end, without either of us having ever realized it. And, THAT is the really sad part.

It will have been the very last time that I picked her up, never to do so again, and that fleeting moment will be lost in the history of our lives, never to have been appropriately celebrated, or even acknowledged by either of us.

Personally, at 72 years of age, I plan to pick up, and hold my granddaughters as often as I possibly can, while they are both small and light enough for me to do it. I want there to never be a time when I won't do that, although I know for sure that time will eventually arrive.

And, when that saddest of sad times arrives, and passes.....neither of us will have noticed. Well, perhaps I will have; I'll be the one with a tear running down my cheek.

Pick up, and hug your kids/grandkids. You'll never get another opportunity.

Bill

MY PHILOSOPHY OF COLOR

I changed my font at thecutestblogontheblock.com




While the application of color may be limitless, the understanding of the behavior of color is quite logical, rational, and relatively easy to comprehend. Color behaves in a predictable, consistent manner, bounded by the laws of physics rather than by mysticism, intuition, or supernatural phenomena. The visible colors of the white-light spectrum have definite bounds, which can be located, measured, quantified, identified, and controlled, at the will of the knowledgeable artist.


Of all the aspects of creating two-dimensional art, color is one of the most dependable. Even though we, as artists, are forced to work with the limited capabilities of pigments, the simple and understandable laws of the colors of light prevail, and they are not violated because of our use of pigments--pigments which are a bit limited in their capabilities. After all, the colors that emanate from those art pigments, are, in fact, still colors of light, in reality, and those laws of color behavior are not violated, nor do they somehow change or bend in their inflexibility, just because the medium selected (pigment) cannot totally serve the behavior of spectral color.

Here is an interesting question:

Can we, as artists, produce or re-create every hue in the visible rainbow, or spectrum?

Yes, ........and one that isn't ! !

You can e-mail me for the answer, regarding what that color is, or put it in "comments".

Desert Island Light

This painting is the result of a demonstration that I presented to my oil painting class. It is a 16" x 20" painted on canvas, and I call it, "Desert Island Light".

Rose Emerging

I had a lot of fun painting this one. "Rose Emerging" is 16" x 20". It is painted on linen. SOLD

Some of My Tools

It is often interesting to others to see the tools used by artists for achieving the paintings that are so interesting to them. I work with two palettes (only one at a time, of course), which I hand-hold. I am a lefty, so I hold the palette in my right hand when I paint. Each of these is a thin, mahogany, plywood palette--one in a larger, rectangle shape, and one in a smaller, kidney-shape, most often associated with the "normal" palette shape for most artists.

These are each polished like fine furniture, and all without having applied any sort of a formal, "finish". The sheen and patina on these palettes has evolved through nothing more complicated than the simple squeezing out of paint onto the palettes, and then using them for mixing. When finished, I just scrape off the remaining paint with a putty knife, and then, using no solvent, simply buff the residual paint film off, with a paper towel.

After a few dozen cleanings after the end of each painting session, the sheen of the naturally-created patina begins to appear.

Lady Of The Lake

I really enjoy painting flowers, but to place one upon a nice landscape, as well, is even more fun.

This painting of an iris is just that, and is one of those that I had a great deal of fun painting.

"Lady Of The Lake"...16" x 20" oil on canvas

I just recently had this painting juried into, and sold at the Glendale Art Competition.

SOLD

Dahlia

This is one of my most recent paintings. It is a 16" x 20" oil on canvas, entitled, "Dahlia". SOLD