3:28 pm: end of my painting day. the 2 details are cool i think.now i'm psyched about tomorrow's developments.
1:32 pm: sometimes artists get bored with their own paintings. in keeping with the transparancy i am attempting on this blog, i can tell you right now, i'm fucking tired of this painting. the intricate materials on the mother's clothing are intense, and i can't stay with it for too long before i start thinking about other things: mainly sex and watch straps. on the other hand, i love patterns. once i'm through the tedious part, this should be a cool painting. i've always been a huge fan of the patterns velasquez, hals, vuillard and so many other great painters have done.
i just walked over to the house to let mikela know she left the phone "off the hook." there is no more hook, but we still conveniently say that. on the way, i looked at crestone peak and it was surreally clear in a way that's impossible to describe. here's a pic, but it doesn't really come through. also, we got a call inviting us to a dinner & music event in alamosa this saturday night. normally, we wouldn't go because we're both working against deadlines & never take time off. but we did cancel our planned trip to the art aspen event next weekend, so taking a half day off on saturday could be fun. i suggested we go to the great sand dunes national park first. it's kind of on the way. we can see it from our living room! we haven't been there for years and we've heard recent reports that, with all the rain it's stunning this year. normally the creeks would have dried up by now, but we heard a report last night at the makers space meeting in alamosa that the creeks are flowing and it's gorgeous! so we'll probably go. BELOW: the sky i described, and the patterned clothing i'm currently painting in parade 49.
10:51 am: after a good talk yesterday with brian, one of the gremillion sales staff in houston, i decided it's a good idea to send a first group of the 25 completed parade paintings to the gallery sooner than later. i had intended to wait until a few weeks before the nov. 5 opening to ship them, but i realized in talking with brian that it would be better to send a selection....maybe 10-12, sometime in the next few weeks. things begin to pick up in the gallery in september, and it would be valuable for the sales staff to have a good selection to show interested clients, as well as being able to familiarize themselves with the new work. we also discussed putting together a media piece, especially since i have so much material. i have photos of all the stages of all the parade paintings. i even have many of the paper palettes i used, with notes as to which painting they were used for. i thought it would be cool to have two or three paintings with their respective palettes next to them. i'll continue thinking about all this, but i'm fairly certain i'll begin the process of unstretching some of the paintings & preparing them for shipment.
and now, back to work on parade 49.
more rain yesterday. some are saying this is the rainiest year they can recall, having lived here for 30+years. here's the 6am morning sky as we took our walk. you may notice, mikela is wearing her mosquito netting jacket. we had them tied to our waists, but half way into our walk we had to put them on; there were still enough of them to be annoying.
tomorrow morning between midnight and dawn will be prime time for viewing the perseids meteor shower. if the skies are clear, we'll be watching and report tomorrow. at our 8,000 ft. altitude, with very clear air, as long as there are no clouds, it should be spectacular. here's what keno, our local weather station has to say:
The Perseids is always the favorite meteor shower of the year for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, thanks to usually a great show, nice summer time temps, and this year, it's peak is on the same night as a new moon, therefore we should see lots of shooting stars (as long as the skies are clear). The Perseids come to us courtesy of the comet Swift-Tuttle, as the Earth goes through the most dense part of the comet's stream early in the morning on Aug. 13 (that's late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning), which makes this the prime time for viewing.
The Perseids meteors are green, red or orange. They are typically fast and bright and frequently leave persistent trains. They hit our upper atmosphere at about 134,222 miles per hour and they offer a consistently high rate of meteors each year, usually at least 50 meteors per hour - and in some years, as many as 120 per hour. They tend to strengthen in number after midnight, and typically produce the most shooting stars in the hours before dawn. These fireballs radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus the Hero, but as with all meteor shower radiant points, you don’t need to know where Perseus is to enjoy the shower; just look straight up and a bit to the east for the best views for this show.
Besides the morning of August 13, August 11 and 12 should also be good mornings to look upwards. This shower will combine this year with the on-going Delta Aquarid meteor shower to produce a even better show than average - we hope!