What….More Art???

Can’t this guy do something more interesting, like, politics or religion? Yeesh!!

Oh….wait…..

Art is a reflection of creation, thus a direct link to God, at least in my view. So, today I will share a few more photos of some of Mother’s paintings. (And, perhaps a Terry photo or two as well.)

I kind of want to do that because I’ve just had a comment from a new reader that liked the artistic things in life. So as to not disappoint him completely, he will get to see a bit of both painting and photography as art. I also recommend that he check out Richard Secor’s (RVPAINTER on the forums) blog, found at this link:

http://rvpainter.blogspot.com/

Now, Richard is unashamedly trying to market his paintings in a way that would be attractive to those in RV’s and suffering with a lack of space for paintings otherwise. He even has another blog devoted just to raking in the cash. It is found at this link:

http://art4rvs.blogspot.com/

Now, in that line, I hope to someday be able to sell some of my photos, most of which have not been seen online, especially those that I would call the best. I thought I had a secure way to share them without someone being able to “steal” them by “right-click/save as” with the mouse. But, alas, while the individual photos were protected from that, there was another way of viewing them where one could steal the photos. So, the better ones were taken off and until I get a secure spot on Smugmug, they will remain off-line.

So, let’s get right to Mother’s paintings. For the new readers, more can be read about my mother (and other family members) by going back to the beginning of this blog (meaning January) to find out about my roots. Anyway, Mother was a self-taught artist working with oil painting on canvas boards and stretched canvas.

Following what must have been a very rough year weather-wise, this painting depicts such western icons as a barbed wire fence with broken strands and a busted up windmill. (In the Panhandle where I grew up, we used to say that the only thing between us and the North Pole was a 4 wire fence and three strands of that were broken. But, I shouldn’t talk about winter. Richard doesn’t like winter.)

Autumn is another season, but one that I dearly love. I’m hoping that our late vacation this year will give me the opportunity to photograph Colorado in its finest glory. Until then, here is one of Mother’s works.

Here is a little more western motif, but with something that Richard doesn’t like in his paintings….critters. Even when I find them when he didn’t know he painted them. (See an earlier blog of mine.)

While we didn’t get to spend a lot of time near the oceans, Mother did have a love for the rugged coastlines, especially of Northern California and Oregon. The source of most of her paintings was from images found in magazines and calendars. Rugged is probably why I love the Rocky Mountains so much.

Then, to finish up with her paintings for this blog posting, here is one of her “monochrome” paintings, meaning she used fewer colors than normal. Oh, and it has a critter!!!

For the benefit of new readers, I have been working on a book with some of my photos in them, and since so much of what I take photos of are creations of God, there will be some with commentary as to how a particular photo relates to God’s willingness to share with us all. As a favored quote from Ansel Adams goes, "Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have someone click the shutter."

For instance, this photo is of a Mimosa tree’s blossoms. I was always under the impression that Mimosas tended to not bloom for several years. But, here was one in our front yard, less than three years old and already putting on blossoms. Since it was young, it had (and has) not fully formed, so there is this one measly little branch reaching to the sky as if to say, “Look, God. I’m reflecting your beauty.” This one may yet make the book.

Normally, I don’t take many photos of people, and when I do, I seldom share them as I usually don’t get signed waivers from the subjects. But, in this case I will differ from normal. While vacationing near Pagosa Springs in 2009, a family was camped right next to us. Mom, Dad and one little boy had come to Colorado so Dad could go Elk hunting. One morning, because of a chill in the air, the little boy was dressed more for cold winter.

I’m sorry, he was a delightful little boy but, doesn’t he look like a Jalapeno pepper?

OK.  With that piece of crud comment, I should hang it up and go to bed.  Tomorrow is Sunday and church day.  Maybe I’ll get a better attitude.