March 2011
27 posts
Painting accepted
It’s always lovely to get a painting accepted, and the Eastern Connecticut State University gallery has turned out a nice poster for a show of local artists. There are a lot of painters, photographers, and sculptors out here in the lower rent district of Connecticut, not to mention the hordes of art students at the various colleges and universities.
Ducks on the pond
One of the sure signs of spring are the small bands of migrating waterfowl in our area. I saw a hooded merganser earlier in the week and today there were nine or ten ring necked ducks on the big pond of a local reserve. The ring necked male is a handsome bird, with a black head and a white body with a black center stripe. The female has a similar pattern but with a brown head and a more subdued...
Chicago Bridge
I don’t do too many landscapes and hardly ever what might be called ‘scenery’. But whenever I am in Chicago, I find the many bridges irresistible. The big swing bridge by the Continental Paper Grading Co., is definitely a prospect. Normally, I hate painting from photos, but rain, wind, cold and limited time made a snap a necessity, especially with such a complicated mechanism....
BSO Concert
We went to the performance last night by the BSO of two of Thomas Ades works, his violin concerto, played by Anthony Marwood, for whom it was written, and scenes from The Tempest, with four guest soloists, along with incidental music for the tempest by both Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. This was a terrific performance, as Ades’ energy on the podium drew great work from the orchestra. There are...
sketching
Despite all that’s written about our hunter-gatherer ancestry, it is clear that we must have spent many eons as prey animals. Ask any sketcher. Two minutes max is the limit before the person being drawn begins to fidget and seem uneasy. For this reason, airports, with their stupifying air and personal electronic devices are a boon, as are subways with the ubiquitous cell phones. Add at least...
Old Quarry
The old quarry at Halibut Point is a nice stretch of undeveloped land surrounded by housing. Looking over the scrubby slopes to the rocky shore, you can easily understand how so many of the early settlers died in the first few winters. The water is cold and rough, the soil rocky, the vegetation low and sparse.Charming now and full of birds in another six weeks, but formidable during winter.
Seals
I like all animals, including seals, which were one of the highlights of a long ago trip to San Francisco. Sure the city is charming; the bay lovely, if smaller than expected, and the famous bridge almost as nice as the one over Narragansett Bay, but the resident seals along the waterfront are the real draw. Now, in the current New Yorker, I read about a Bostonian harbor seal named Hoover. Long...
Lambs
The sheep farm up the road will soon have lambs. The immensely fat ewes are out now, and they will be joined by white, brown and black lambs all protected by the fluffy white guard dogs that accompany the flock.
Insomnia Cure
The interminable discussion of the basketball brackets is already getting old. March Madness, bracket-ology, the endless gloating, whining and analyzing are enough to paralyze the mind. Bread and Circuses we can apparently live with; perpetual analysis may be another matter.
Pretty Skunk
I saw the prettiest skunk yesterday morning. It ambled from the stone wall at the side yard, past the shed, where I was momentarily afraid it would take up residence, and then hopped along the driveway. With its big furry white striped back and black sidewalls, it was a handsome animal, observed with great interest by Marcel Proust, the resident cat. Fortunately, although a city feline, Marcel was...
European Cycling Season Opens
Spring is around the corner, for the European Cycling season is in full swing now with both Paris-Nice, the Race to the Sun, and Tirreno-Adriatico started. This is when the big cycling teams get into shape, young hopefuls make their mark, and the elder statesmen of the sport test their legs for yet another season. Both Jens Voigt, one of the oldest cyclists in the game, and Andreas Kloden, who won...
Sharpshin Hawk
Nature red in tooth and claw yesterday, or perhaps I should say in talon. The bird feeders which bring such joy with the chickadees, juncos, titmice, woodpeckers, sparrows, cardinals, jays and doves also attract bird hawks. This season we’ve had a handsome juvenile Cooper’s take a song bird and yesterday a mature Sharpshin was lucky hunting. There it was crouched in the snow with some...
Successes and Failures
I think it was Kierkegaard who wrote that what matters is how a thing is thought. That’s certainly true of successes and failures. Get a rejection and for a day or two, all your work seems lousy. Sell a story or a novel, or get a painting into a good show as I did recently, and suddenly everything seems wonderful. Who knew your work was that good, those colors so rich, that design so strong?...
Red winged blackbirds
Out over the icy snow this morning to the bird feeder and suddenly, a sign of spring: the liquid calls from red-winged blackbirds, dozens of them in the maples along the road. These are the male pioneers, off to the north to the best breeding sites. They are hoping that an early arrival will secure them the real estate fit to impress the females, who will set off from points south somewhat later....
