First Drawing

A little reminiscing on my birthday - my very first drawing. Apparently I enjoyed primary colors at 11 months old. I think I was looking at a lot of Cy Twombly at the time.

Weekend

We spent another weekend in the Leadville area and half our group conquered Mt. Elbert - Colorado's highest peak (the rest retired early). Here's a photo taken by Lorna of the crowd at the top.

It was a perfect day for a long hike and we also caught the last of the golden aspen leaves:

and a beautiful evening next to Twin Lakes:

Tonight

Another moment of Aspen leaves

photo by Lorna Cochrane

Tonight at the Botanic Gardens

I saw Pillow Garden play a few weeks ago and it was really pleasant. You can download their airy ambient music for free here.

Big week

I've had a lot of great artists into "Art Appreciation" this week:

Wes Magyar:

The Wreck (after Friedrich), oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

Alan Kitchen:


Michael Dowling:

, originally uploaded by Pitchpot▼.

(Untitled)

(Untitled), originally uploaded by nathanabels.

another very small drawing of a tank being dumped into the ocean to make a coral reef

"After Andrey Rublyov"

"After Andrey Rublyov", originally uploaded by nathanabels.

very small drawing.

Your Moment of Apsen Leaves

took this next to the Twin Lakes near Leadville on Saturday

New interior pictures

Our living room- Iron folding chair is from an antique store in Central City, the bench is from a used furniture store in Denver, the credenza is from ModLivin, the long highway painting is mine, the chairs are vintage - found in Savannah, Georgia and the coffee table is Lane.
The view from the living room looking towards the dining room - the dark painting in the dining room is mine and the framed painting in the dining room is by Alan Kitchen.
The couch is from Room & Board and there's a Mammoth tusk in the window sill on the left. The dining room table is from ModLivin. The painting above the couch is by Kay Tuttle.
The dining room - with a cast resin antler by Lauri Lynnxe Murphy. You can see the pigeon racing trophies in the window sill on the left. The room on the right of the photo is my studio. Our place isn't usually quite this clean - ha ha.

Pigeon plates

New work from Brooklyn Rehab - but not on her etsy quite yet. As many of my regular readers remember - I'm a big pigeon enthusiast and did a art show on the often misunderstood bird a couple of years ago. You can browse more pigeon related posts of mine here.

Town Musicians of Bremen

I ran into the above image online somewhere and it reminded me of Kay Tuttle's series also based on the town musicians of Bremen. It also seemed a bit Lynchian, which of course I enjoyed. Kay said this painting of a swan, fox, and polar bear was her white-on-white:

Kay Tuttle, "Polar Bear, Fox, Swan"; ink on paper, 24” x 30”

Otis Redding. source.

Two Grays

Ellsworth Kelly, Two Grays I, 1975, Oil on canvas, two joined panels, 92 x 102 inches

Spiraling

I was just talking about the golden ratio and the Fibonacci spiral in "Art Appreciation" yesterday and the Astronomy Photo of the Day is a spiral:

Reminds me of last year's mysterious spiral over Norway:

Wooes

(photo from last year - the Aspens are nearly in season this year already)

And the wind, full of wantonness,
wooes like lover
The young aspen-trees till they
tremble all over.

- Thomas Moore (From Trees of America) via Design Squish blog

Found Photo

found at Uncertain Times

Anna Kaye opening tonight!

Anna Kaye, "Kindling," Charcoal on Paper, 50 x 16 inches each

Sorry for the late notice - but Anna Kaye will be showing new works at Sandra Philips gallery tonight in an opening from 6-8 pm.

Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder, Colorado

Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder, Colorado, originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

I can smell this fire in Denver. There are some amazing and tragic photos of the fire area on flickr - follow this link. How to help.

Noah Davis and Herbert von Reyl-Hanisch

Noah Davis, "The Narrator", 2010, Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in
This portrait vaguely reminded me of 1930s portraits like these by Herbert von Reyl-Hanisch:


Herbert von Reyl-Hanisch, Portrait of the Mother, c. 1930


Herbert von Reyl-Hanisch, Portrait, c. 1930

Time Lapse of Boulder Fire

I based this painting off of a fire in the Boulder area from a year or two ago:

There is another fire in the area right now and someone took this amazing time lapse night shot of the fire in four-mile canyon outside Boulder Colorado:

Grand Lake and hints of Autumn

We hiked 8 miles or so in the west part of Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday - by Grand Lake. It was a perfect cool fall day without a cloud in the sky.

Grand Lake (photo by Lorna)

Interesting moss on some of the dead pines (beetle kill) in the park

A pretty bad photo of the bull moose we saw from the road as we left the park. He had his head in the bushes most of the time but we got a good look at him through binoculars.

Artlink Show

EOS20100903_9324, originally uploaded by tomabels.

at Arlink in Fort Wayne, Indiana - the three paintings on the left are by Eric Tarr and the two on the right are mine.

Hubble-inspired clothing by Christopher Kane

Hubble-inspired clothing by Christopher Kane - more here.

Manicured Lives

painting by Keltie Ferris

Here's an interesting article by Jonah Lehrer - Author of Proust was a Neuroscientist.

“And this is why we should all follow strangers on Twitter. We naturally lead manicured lives, so that our favorite blogs and writers and friends all look and think and sound a lot like us.”

Read the whole article - it's really fascinating. In a way I think art can act as the "stranger" on twitter - introducing ideas/images/emotions into our otherwise predicable days and as he says, "expand our creative potential."

The Non-neutrality of White

Robert Ryman

[like] “Inuit who can read with precision a comparably narrow spectrum of snow and ice, Ryman has cataloged white’s actual variety, thus ironically demonstrating its latent non-neutrality when seen in relation to itself.”
~Robert Storr

"Why is it Art?" at Foothills Art Center

photo source.

I'm teaching two different series of classes at Foothills Art Center this fall - the first one begins Thursday (tomorrow) night. The class is called "Why is it Art?" (4 part series) and will focus on minimal/abstract paintings this week -performance, public works, and installation will be covered in later classes. The other class I'm teaching is going to be about drawing with charcoal from photographs - from September 15-29.