Shoes for Two

“Success seems to be connected with action.  Successful people keep moving.  They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

–Conrad Hilton

Shoes for Two

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

Another little shoe ATC.   I really must paint more this weekend.  Digging into the archives is fun, but it’s not as fresh and lively as a brand new painting.  “Oh look, another shoe.”   Okay…. how about a frog? 

Lime Green Frog

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

(born Dec. 25, 1887, San Antonio, N.M., U.S. — died Jan. 3, 1979, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. businessman, founder of one of the world’s largest hotel organizations. As a boy he helped his father turn the family’s adobe house into an inn for traveling salesmen. After his father’s death in 1918 he bought several hotels in Texas, and by 1939 he was building, leasing, and buying hotels in California, New York, Illinois, and elsewhere. In 1946 the Hilton Hotels Corp. was organized; in 1948, as the business expanded overseas, the company was renamed Hilton International Co. Later diversification included a credit card company and a car-rental firm. His son Barron succeeded him as president in 1966.

For more information on Conrad Nicholson Hilton, visit Britannica.com.

Baby Shoes

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. And that is my religion.”
– Abraham Lincoln

Baby Shoes

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

Awwww, those are some itty bitty shoes. 

Is anybody working on their self portrait  for Linda Halcomb’s End of Summer Challenge?  I have painted 3 little attempts and the public opinion is that they do NOT look like me at all.  I need to re-think this and maybe paint my foot. 

About Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, the American president remembered as Honest Abe, is renowned for his strong leadership during the Civil War and for ending slavery in the United States. He was born in a Kentucky cabin in 1809. He taught himself law and passed the Illinois bar in 1837, the same year he first spoke out against slavery. The Southern states seceded in response to his election to the presidency in 1860. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, mere days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the war.

Very Fine Shoes

“Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the control of fear, mastery of fear.”
–Mark Twain

I didn’t know until now that Mark Twain and I share a birthday.  Cool!

Very Fine Shoes

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

I spent so much time on my Banty, that I didn’t get to paint anything else over the weekend.   I  guess we’ll tip toe through the shoe pile this week and see what else is hiding in there.  When I look at some of these shoes, it amazes me that I put so much detail in that itty bitty little space.  Fun!!! 

Last night, I made it to my flight lesson in McAlester, ready to go up with the remnants of my cold.  I did the pre-flight, the run-up,  and taxied onto runway 02, announcing my intentions on the radio.    All is well.  I begin the takeoff roll, when I notice the airspeed indicator is not working.  I pulled the throttle all the way back and slowly brought the plane to a stop.  No airspeed indicator, no takeoff.  So…. I taxied back to the hangar and we stowed the plane.

Even though it was sad that I didn’t get to fly, it was a great lesson.  It’s not often that a student gets to experience equipment failure in real-time.  We read about it and we are taught about it, but when it really happens, it is burned into our brain cells.  If I hadn’t noticed the airspeed indicator (yeah… like that would happen!),  my instructor was going to let me take off and then we’d learn about how to handle the failure in the air and get the plane safely back.    Maybe next time we can pretend. 

Mark Twain

• Born: 30 November 1835
• Birthplace: Florida, Missouri
• Died: 21 April 1910 (heart failure)
• Best Known As: The author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Name at birth: Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Mark Twain is on nearly everyone’s list of all-time great American authors. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and as a young man held a series of jobs which included work as a printer’s apprentice, a Mississippi riverboat pilot, and a newspaperman in Nevada and San Francisco. He moved gradually from journalism to travel writing and then to fiction, aided by the success of his 1869 travel memoir The Innocents Abroad. His humorous tales of human nature, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Huckleberry Finn (1885), remain standard texts in high school and college literature classes. In his own day Twain was a tremendously popular figure and a celebrated public speaker who toured widely. Other Twain classics include Life on the Mississippi (1883) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and the short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1867).

Twain was born and died in years in which Halley’s Comet passed by Earth: 1835 and 1910… His pseudonym, Mark Twain, was taken from Mississippi riverboat terminology; it’s a measure of depth… Twain married the former Olivia Langdon in 1870; she died in 1904, and the melancholy tone of Twain’s later writings is often attributed to his depression over her death.

What Was I Thinking?

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak… because in your life you will have been all of these.”
– George Washington Carver

“What Was I Thinking?”

8″ x 10″ Acrylic on Yes! Gallery Wrapped Canvas

I know, I know….. Must be because I’m sick.  I spent more hours than I can count on this.  I spent 4 hours on the Banty, before I ever added the quilt.  Huh???

This second photo is a little truer to the color.  I added a half a dozen blue glazes to the quilt to try to knock it back.

I know…. “What was I thinking?” 

I fell off into a folk art mode.  I really must shake this cold.  It’s messing with my head.  hahaha 

George Washington Carver

• Born: c. 1860
• Birthplace: Diamond Grove, Missouri
• Died: 5 January 1943
• Best Known As: America’s great peanut innovator

George Washington Carver was a celebrated botanist and inventor at a time when it was still rare for African-Americans to reach those heights. The son of a Missouri slave, Carver grew up to attend Iowa State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1894 and a master’s in 1896. He then joined the faculty of Booker T. Washington‘s Tuskegee Institute. His attempts to find crop alternatives to cotton led him to the peanut; eventually he created more than 325 products from the humble legume, helping to create demand for the plant and establish it as a major American crop. Carver also worked with sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans, among other plants, and is often credited with changing the face of agriculture in the American south.

Carver’s exact birthdate is unknown; a Missouri census record from 1870 lists George Carver as 10 years old; a photo of that record can be found here… He was an accomplished artist who displayed paintings at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair… Carver is often credited with inventing peanut butter, but it seems others had created that product before Carver began his work with peanuts… He is no relation to President George Washington. According to the Wikipedia, Carver began to use the name George Washington Carver at Iowa State “to avoid confusion with another George Carver in his classes”… Carver was posthumously awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Iowa State in 1994… Another brilliant botanist of the same era was Luther Burbank.

Purple Shoe Laces

“It’s tempting to sit and wait for life to come to you, but it can’t.  It’s too busy.  Life is out there.  You have to go for it.”
–Harry Beckwith

Purple Shoe Laces

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC

Another painting from the archives.  I have noticed that when I paint larger, I don’t have time to do as many.  *sigh*

I have been battling a cold since Sunday.  I even declined an opportunity to go fly last night, so I must be sick.  **gasp!**  I somehow make it through my work days, but I’m exhausted!   Anybody have any good cold remedies?  I’m scheduled to fly on Monday and Tuesday, and I’d like to be cured by then. 

Harry Beckwith

Harry has addressed or advised 31 Fortune 200 companies in 17 countries, including Target, Wells Fargo, and Microsoft, and over sixty startups.

His four books have earned over $21 million in sales in 24 translations. His first, Selling the Invisible, spent 36 consecutive months on the Business Week best seller list, and appears on numerous “best business books of all time” lists. He also is featured in The Ten Secrets of World’s Best Business Communicators and dozens of other business books.

Harry graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and from University of Oregon School of Law.  This led to a law clerkship to a federal judge , followed a brief career as a fish out of water, practicing law.

The fish then found his water in the most logical place: The land of 10,000 lakes, where he began his advertising career in 1982. Just over three years later, he was named creative supervisor of Carmichael-Lynch, four times Advertising Age’s choice as America’s most creative midsized agency.

Harry serves on the Board of Directors for the Stanford University Department of Athletics and teaches second grade part-time. He co-founded one of the world’s premier road races, the Cascade RunOff, and since 1975 has run or walked more than two-and-a-half times around the world

He is the thrilled father of four and currently lives with the world’s only flying cat.

Little Pink House II

“Just don’t give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
– Ella Fitzgerald

Little Pink House II

24″ x 48″ Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Well, I have started.  This is so huge for me.  I was intimidated by the large size, but once I started it, I was fine.  All I have here is the blocked-in base coat.  If you look close, you can see the original 4″ x 8″ painting at the top of the easel.  The reference photo by Valri Ary is at the bottom.

Here is how well it fits into my studio.  I think it’s going to be okay.  My studio is an odd shape and not very big, but the painting is right behind my desk, so I can use my wheely chair or stand comfortably.

Check out that jar of gray goop that the brushes are in.  That is a bar of Ivory soap and water.  I soak my brushes for a bit before I clean them at the end of a painting session, and they come out sparkly clean and baby soft.   I learned that on a blog somewhere and I wish I could remember who to thank.  *sigh*

The commission for this painting was withdrawn before I even got the deposit, due to a financial emergency in the buyer’s life.  I decided to paint it anyway and grow from the experience.  In fact, being the optimist I am, I bought a three pack of these large canvases.

**doing a happy-dance** 

About Ella Fitzgerald

With her three-octave range, a purity of tone, and a wonderfully expressive voice, singer Ella Fitzgerald has been called the voice of American jazz. She was born in 1917 in Virginia and began singing professionally at age 16. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” launched her stardom. Her best known recordings include the Cole Porter and George Gershwin songbooks; she also toured with Duke Ellington’s band. She died in 1996.

Lasting Love

“Laughter is the closest distance between two people.”
– Victor Borge

I LOVE that!!!

Lasting Love

4″ x 6″ Watercolor Postcard

This is the same couple that I made Mr. & Mrs. Claus from, that I posted yesterday.  The photo is from Katju at WetCanvas.    The man reminds me of my Dad a little bit, in his later years.  Everybody at WetCanvas loved this couple and a lot of people painted them.

I hope Katju does a gallery so I can see them all together.  A gallery is optional for each host and most don’t do it, because it is a lot of work.  It shows every painting done over the weekend, grouped by subject.  I always do the gallery when I host.  Here is the one I did last time.

About Victor Borge

Danish pianist Victor Borge was affectionately known as the Clown Prince of Denmark. Born as Børge Rosenbaum in 1909 to musician parents, he began playing piano at age three. After a stint as a classical pianist, he began combining music and jokes. His anti-Nazi jokes landed him on Hitler’s enemies list. In 1942, he was named Best New Radio Performer by the American press. His Comedy in Music show on Broadway was the longest running one-man show in the 1950′s. He died in 2000.

Santa at Cape Cod

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
– Annie Dillard

Santa at Cape Cod

10″ x 14″ Watercolor and Sharpie on 240# Cold Press

Did you see all the little elves?  It’s a vacation getaway for the North Pole crew.   Mr. & Mrs. Clause have lost some weight over the summer, too. 

This was fun.  I drew the whole thing with a Sharpie, before I painted in the watercolors.  When I did “Montreal in Color”, I painted all the lines in with black acrylic.  I got much smoother lines with the acrylic, than I did with the Sharpie.   It takes a little longer, but the quality is better.    If I wanted even better lines, I guess I’d have to change the paper to a hot press.   As much as I experiment with mediums, I really don’t play around much with different papers.   Perhaps it’s time? 

About Annie Dillard

American author Annie Dillard rose to fame with her first book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which weaves theology and meditations on nature into an account of a year spent in the country recovering from pneumonia. Writing the book so fully absorbed her that she forgot everything else; she lost 30 pounds and all her plants died. She was born in Pittsburgh in 1945. She married her college writing teacher but later divorced him. She remarried and lives in Connecticut.

Flip Flops

“When the same problem comes up again and again, I remind myself that it is my thinking that is flawed, not my life.”

Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
from The Don’t Sweat Affirmations”

Flip Flops

2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor ATC on Strathmore Textured Paper

Flip flop season is about over.  It was 66 degrees this morning when I went for a flying lesson.  It’s amazing how much more responsive the plane is when it’s cool.  I have had all my lessons in really hot weather and it’s like the plane woke up.  That little Cessna 172 got downright zippy!  It was windy and bumpy, but waaaaay fun!!!  Too windy to solo, but I’m oh so close.  Maybe next week. 

About Richard Carlson

Richard Carlson, Ph.D. (5-16-61 to 12-13-06) was considered to be one of the foremost experts on happiness and stress reduction in the United States and around the world. As the author of thirty popular books including the runaway bestseller, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and it’s all Small Stuff, he showed millions of people how not to let the small things in life get the best of them.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff made publishing history as the USA Today’s #1 bestselling book for two consecutive years. The title spent over one hundred consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and is considered one of the fastest selling books of all time. In 2004,

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff was voted one of the top ten most read books in the past decade! Richard is one of the few authors in history to have two different titles at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, in soft cover and Don’t Worry, Make Money, in hardcover.

More…..

Jeepney

“A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.”
– Abigail Van Buren

Jeepney

4″ x 6″ Watercolor

A Jeepney is a common Filipino transport.  Agnesdale from WetCanvas posted it for us to paint last weekend.  I enjoyed doing this so much.  I used teensy little brushes and paid close attention to the details.  I did the “chrome” last, because I realized that I didn’t know how to do chrome.    I think this little painting took me over 4 hours.  It drew me in and kept me entertained. 

My friend May is from Cebu, in the Philippines.   Her husband tells me that they take army surplus jeeps and attach stuff all over them, like the Mercedes emblem.  He said they are wonderfully gawdy and filled with people.  You have to love that!

About Abigail Van Buren

Pauline Phillips, better known as Abigail Van Buren, wrote the syndicated “Dear Abby” column for 46 years. She was born in 1918 in Iowa. She had never written professionally when she contacted the San Francisco Chronicle’s editor and said she could do better than their current advice maven. Her version was an instant success. Her twin sister, Esther Lederer, became an advice columnist under the name Ann Landers. Phillips retired in 2002; her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, took over her column.