F.A.C.

A note from today's meeting of the 

Friday Afternoon Club.

companion planting

I planted three datura 

next to the barberry bush this summer.

Now the barberry is, as they say,
 totally tripped out.

These photos were taken today with my old iPhone 4

and shown as they are.

Yes, the camera really is that good,

and the bush really is this, well...

   psychedelic. 

last call

Last Sunday dawned warm and golden
up at the ranch.

We grabbed our cameras

and went out into the first light.

It was spectacular.

By the end of the day,

the leaves had all blown away.

Tonight, snow will cover it all.

big red

The garage was painted in May.

I smile every time I get the car out.

What's the biggest thing 

you've ever painted

 red?

we're outnumbered

Super Sweet 100s and SunGolds

4 quarts a day

edge of the world

dream come true

Today is my birthday,

and I woke up early to my dream coming true.

Rain, real live rain!

Lots of it.

Bayou-busting, swamp-flushing, frog-strangling

rain,

the stuff that made man build boats.

It's a beautiful thing.

Because a cool and rainy day is just what I'd wished for,

I'm choosing to take it personally.

You're welcome.

For openers, we went to Lucile's for breakfast.

Smoked eggs, trout Pontchartrain and grits.

Laissez les bontemps rouler, etc.

Happy birthday, everyone...

whenever it is.

butcherman

I considered stuffing this into the meat locker, 

but what the heck.

At least the butcherman

 is no longer a lollipop,

but he's definitely still a fathead.

Hey!
Give the poor dog a bone!


And because this is my painting,
I get to do stuff like this...

which I like as well as the original.

upland

I used the drawcast app on my iPhone 

to build this upland in three parts.

 Which do you prefer?  

lollipop

It all started with a fresh white sheet of Rives BFK.

I used a rag, a big brush and my elbow

to spread color everywhere.

Looked at it for a while from every direction.

Kept looking.

Eventually, an image appeared.

Once it did, I knew it was there for good. 

I did an idle sketch of what I saw.

Then I drew it on the BFK.

I liked everything about it,

 except, egads! 

This guy has a head like a lollipop!

And just look at that poor dog... 

no doubt checking for exits.

Me, too.

The guy in the sketch is moderately funny-looking,

in a goofy character-y kind-of-way,

but that fathead in the painting is a total sucker.

So far, I think there might be enough to this painting

to make it worth saving.
 But the outline was a mistake;
I should've worked with masses.

I sometimes wish there were such a thing as

 someone who'd swoop in with

  some good advice, maybe a nice glass of wine

and another fresh sheet of Rives.

Put me and The Sucker out of our misery.

The dog can stay.

Wish, wish, wish.

dogscape

Celeste says she wants more puptraits.

We aim to please.

Think of this as sort of a dogscape.

With a lighthouse.

Sort of.

puptrait

Sometimes I paint a puptrait

of my dog.

No, really...

joe

Our good friend Joe Kennedy,

 archeologist extraordinaire of all things Polynesian,

especially all things Hawaiian,

died in his sleep a month ago.

Considering Joe's larger-than-lifestyle,

 my portrait is not exactly a likeness.

But it's close enough to remind me of him.

Besides, he'd be glad to see the pounds gone.

scarecrows

My neighbor has scarecrows

in her garden,

so crows come from all over

 to feast their beady eyes on them.

The crows scare them,

 and they run for cover.

That's why we call them scarecrows.

in the key of blue

Yesterday in his blog, Casey Klahn published 

an "Ode To Blue". 

I thought I would, too.

Performed on my iPhone 

"In The Key Of Blue"

chair

I put a chair out in the garden.

So far, no one has sat in it.

I will paint whomever does first.

red dawn

Now that the Olympics are over,

 the media has remembered that the West is burning.

Giant wildfires rage in

California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Idaho. 

Even here, the air is thick with smog, 

and the moon is orange. 

At dawn, the red sun rises

in a rare puddle. 

 Cool picture.

I love the abstraction.

Hmmm... what if I flip it?

Or, how about?... 

Just fiddlin' around over here 

in Nero-Nero-Land!

wavelet

The big waves get all the attention,

but even a wavelet is tsumatic 

to someone.

me and magritte

My reflection in my studio window.

The small square is another window

on the far side of the studio

 looking out on the far side
of the garden.

No smoke.
No mirrors.

julep

Julep,

from Middle English,

from Middle French,

from Arabic julab,

from Persian gulab,

from gul rose + ab water.

I love etymology.

And mint juleps.

high tops

I'm surrounded by stacks of trashed paintings,

scrawled notes, muddy colors and high hopes.  

Like this guy, I'm waiting for the next bright idea.

In other words, I'm stuck.

peachy

I planned to take a picture of 

this gorgeous Kokopelli peach

before I ate it.

That's been my plan all along,

all the way through the past first dozen or so.

Well, now that the season is well underway,

I'm not promising nuthin.

lunatique

rain

When the rain finally came back, 

everybody smiled.

Still are.

100 artists

Think you can't come up with a creative idea?

It might be because Shea Hembrey

 has used up all the good ones.