Cat Trying To Catch A Fly

“A beautiful painting depicts the harmony between nature and imagination.”  Lian Quan Zhen

Lian Quan Zhen is one of my favorite contemporary artists. He creates amazing watercolors using only the three primary colors.  From this simple palette he miraculously creates paintings that glow with all of Mother Nature’s hues.  I really admire his work and  have found myself using increasingly fewer tubes of secondary and “designer” colors in my own painting.

Creating a beautiful spectrum of colors by letting just three of nature’s brilliant colors mingle, suspended in a pool of water is an exciting alternative to choosing from a palette of many colors.

My first palette had 17 wells for holding paint and two large areas for mixing.  I filled it with Windsor Newton Professional Artist’s watercolor paints,  two of each primary color, several “earthy” shades like Sepia, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber, Sap Green and Veridian and a…

Cat On A Cushion

I was in a lecture the other day that involved a variety of strangers discussing a serious topic in French. While I was in Lost Anglo mode, I found myself watching the body language. How the audience was listening so raptly, and the presenter was delivering so intensely.

The pen is  always moving. Logging more mileage. Doing the ‘hard yards’ as the Aussie say. I can feel my fidelity with faces and expression, inching upward. Faster than my French.

I created the image below with a canvas of deep pink in PicMonkey, then simply fiddled with all the gizmos on PIcMonkey, Pixlr and BeFunky to create the background images and patterns. And over those I added an overlay of a digitally altered photo of a firework taken during one of the fireworks displays put on by the Merit Hotel close to us here in Alsancak, North Cyprus.

Once again, the name popped up: In The Summertime, and it seemed pretty appropriate to illustrate how we cheer up in the summer, get out and about, do gardening, travel, take holidays and generally feel pretty cheerful about life. There are, however, dark areas in the painting to remind ourselves that not all on this planet of ours are able to embrace the joys of summertime, the shadow side of our summer world.

Music? Well, of course, it’s Mungo Jerry’s “In the…

This seems to be the biggest challenge facing an aspiring comic book writer – locating an artist to illustrate your work who is available, and whose style suits both your tastes and writing/genre. There seems to be a few avenues I’ve located so far (Digital Webbing and PencilJack mainly) where artist and writers can hook up. But a lot of these artists ask for payment before they’ll agree to be part of the creative process. For a new creator like myself, this seems a fairly risky. Basically, I’d be paying for something that, in all likelihood, won’t be published. For me, at the place I am in my writing career, is simply too much give for not enough return.

What, or who, I’d like to meet would be an aspiring artist for was willing to have a look at my material and see what they can make out of it…

If you haven’t read yesterdays post here’s the link:

Racism And Me 2: Prejudice

You might want to read it first before this one…..Continuity, back story and all that jazz.

So, after the adrenaline settled down and the asshole left the restaurant, it took about 10 minutes for everything and everybody to mellow out and get back to the business of breakfast….

I didn’t say anything further to the group of Amish, they said nothing to me.

I wasn’t looking for thanks or a pat on the back.

Besides, I think that those Amish fellows had plenty of righteouness to throw down if it came to that.

When I got thru with my breakfast I left my tip and headed for the potty.

Truck stop food does that to a guy….

In one hole and out the other in less than five minutes.

No need in wasting energy with digestive…

I can’t say I was thrilled when I heard Stephen Colbert was taking over for Letterman next year. Not that I minded (The Popcorn Scoop recommends: “It doesn’t actively appall me!”) but I’m finding it really hard to muster up any kind of enthusiasm about this. My reservations are the ones many people have brought up – first, obviously, the diversity question, because it’s just so absurd at this point. Now, I have heard and I appreciate the argument that the only people experienced enough to take this kind of high-profile position are middle-aged white men (though I’d like to introduce you to my friend Ellen or, hell, if you really want to play this game, Oprah), but it’s still disappointing. I do, however, understand that CBS must make every decision with the understanding that ninety percent of their audience would rise up (very slowly, but still) and rebel at…

When I think about my Asperger’s, I rarely think of it as a disability.  Most of the time, I don’t feel disabled.  I’m definitely differently abled.  There are weaknesses, but there are strengths too. I choose to focus on my strengths and work on my weaknesses.  Even though I prefer not to look at myself as disabled, there are things that friends, coworkers, and family members do that make me feel disabled and incompetent.

You don’t recognize that my body language is almost incapable of lying.

With practice, I have learned the art of conversation. Time has taught me that people really only want others to agree with them.  I can find a way to avoid hurting your feelings by complimenting your ugly dress without lying when you ask “Don’t you just love it?”  I can reply truthfully “That orange color is so bright and perky!” (Yes. The color…

In the morning I awoke to the train clumsily arriving in Denver with the blood orange sun rising in the east. Most of the night was spent alternating between sleeping across the seat I commandeered next to mine or sitting upright, lazy boy style. Neither of those strategies were too effective.  On a bus ride to New York City some years ago I arrived at a stop in Philadelphia in the same sedated state and I still can’t decide if I can say I’ve been there or not.  Denver looks tyrannically boring. I had read it is best to get a seat in the observation car upon departure from the “Queen City.” Apparently everyone else read this as the car was packed full of geriatrics. A tour guide soon grabbed the mic to narrate our journey and it became apparent he planned to rant for some time. He informed us…

Crow’s Feet
 Kråketær
Pattes d’Oie

29 x 18,5 cm

Watercolour original
Akvarell
l’Aquarelle