Dining, santa fe to woodward, ok.

Evening sky coming into Woodward, Oklahoma. Ate like a pig at big Dan's steakhouse, where food happens fast.

Santa fe was white with snow and red with the best chili I've ever tasted. It took 33 years but I finally made it to the Shed (superb chili and tequila) and to the bistro at la casa sena (Broadway vocals and great piano man). Enjoyed the Huey gallery on Palace ave, speaking with Keith Huey and seeing early Scott Christianson plein air oils, as well as continuing my survey of pueblo pottery at the legitimate Andrea Fisher gallery. 

Left the Nedra Matteucci gallery through the side garden gate. Couldnt take the chance that my soaking wet 4  legged companion would shake off on a half million dollar painting or two. ( matter of a duck pond in the sculpture garden).

Then off to Taos via Chimayo and the high road for green chili stew and textile shopping. Pictured above: church in Chimayo.

Helped kick off a jazz fest in taos and hit the road for the oxygen rich okie atmosphere.

Gallup flea market - pinon to pig

Gallup flea market; big and dusty and bold. Hay for sale. Get your eats. Spend the day.

 Fresh crop of pinon nuts out of the Navajo Nation. Roasted. Salted. Eat em like sunflower seeds.

Pigs for sale. Also tools, clothes, shoes, music cd's, jewelry. Lots of tires.

Anywhere, west of Albuquerque. Lots of grass, but no cattle in sight.

Hotel view of cathedral: Snowy impression, Santa Fe november morning

Gallup lullaby

Route 66 lodging in Gallup, NM is located along the main line.  At 6900 ft above sea level, Gallup is the epicenter of native/pueblo art.  Earls restaurant is a good place to meet local artisans.  Richardson's has a wide selection dating back 103 years. Perry nulls is a good stop. South of town on the way to zia, Joe _______'s had good value. 

These rocks guard the entrance to acoma 's sky pueblo.

The pueblo sits 400 feet above the valley floor on a mesa. 

Frontier Woman - Requiem

I must have made about a million pots.  Some I don't remember.  Some I liked good enough to keep. From some I made images. Others left so quickly I didn't take the chance.  Others just hung around, becoming part of a great fragile, ever changing psyche (sigh key), becoming a part of my space and story.  Here, then is the story of three pots that just hung around until I couldn't bring myself one last time to bring them back to the storage shelves.

Frontier Woman - Requiem.

I sold a lot of stuff, but I couldn't sell that.  Saturday was a requiem for sculptures that hadn't found a home.  Pioneer Woman. Ice Skater.  "This Big" - The Orator.  I apologized; threw them on the shard pile.  Their failure was not one of process  but one of space.  Time to move on; to give up that hope. Time to feel the loss.  Sometimes, you have to let it go.   

I listened to a speaker yesterday at the University of Tulsa College of Law Symposium on Copyright Law.  J. Silbey presented on alternative intents for uses of copyright laws.

Parts of Silbey's research have resulted in a book based on needs of 'content creators' as they relate to copyright law. (hope this synopsis is at least partially accurate)  Her interviews with artists produced a short list of basic/integral needs. Space, privacy, integrity or control come easily to my mind in this regard.  When you run out of space . . . sometimes it has to go.

Thankfulness and a lucky Penny

in the studio today we are thankful for all that the year has wrought.  Already, hot weather is becoming a fond memory.  The sunny days of a younger summer.

Although I have been very busy potting, some paintings have made progress - even if its the backwards progress of a scrape job.

Pottery sales have been great; the Cherry Street Farmers Market had a bang up promoter named Penny; who of course is being promoted.  Her private name will be "She did a great job."

I've been playing nurse to a lower leg (not mine) impressed with the design of bicycle gear brackets. That's the leg without the turned ankle.  Whoo!

Here are some paintings, some of which have been redone yet again!

Sunset: State of Washington

picture credit Betty Dalsing

oil on board 8" x 10"

2015

Sunset: Bay of Fundy

St. John, New Brunswick

oil on board appr. 5" x 10"

2015

needs purples in the grass

Blue Ridge Mountains

Oil on Paper

wip

still needs some foreground work

"By the Silvery Sea"

available in print only

(ha ha)

Fall pottery follows summer vacation.

Ok - crow - HOMA mugs.

Next:  'buckle up' mugs featuringf a horse rampant over the state of Oklahoma.

Re-order of the popular Okie Rainbow mug.

New order of mugs going to the Atlas Gallery and Betty Dalsing. 

This is what you may get when mixing a painting regimen in with pottery.

"Next to Dead Man"s Pool"

Charlottetown, PEI. CA.

A rosy day in the northern summer.

Smoky Mountains on paper. I'm liking this.  

Go Pokes.

Good work by Jacob MIngs hanging at AHHA gallery till 11/22.

Best of Show 2d (according to me).

Price - way too low.

Moonrise. Osage County, OK

On Sunday, the lunar eclipse lured us to lake Keystone west of Tulsa.   The equinox sunsets between Tulsa and the lake are always striking. 

Lake keystone from bear's Glen exit. I've painted from this location before, but always overlooking the dam and the other branch of the lake - the Cimmaron.  

Final Draft - looking for the light.

Good evening moon en plein air.  There was little time between moon rise and dark.

A familiar place, an okie scene, and coffee ville blues

Tulsa to KC, mo. Friday in the pm. Had a late start after sipping fully from the local cup. Yoga with sunny, massage with karen, and lunch with a dead pig. Left the paints home. Planned to follow the storm into KC, but ended up racing it instead. Tornado arrived in Paola as i was leaving. Fifteen miles of heavy rain on I-35. Felt good as i pulled up to the big fountain at 50th and main; like coming home to a familiar place.  Salad, dessert and good spirits for dinner.

The crowd at the unplaza has changed - or I'm just out of touch. Mini mugs have lost their mojo, the Terra cotta was stale, and they missed my classic glass.  So i worked all weekend and didnt get to pay myself.  Dinner and drinks at trio on friday night notwithstanding.

Wonder of wonders - marc and Angela from DC knew what they were looking for (and at) and purchased a lake keystone dusk scene. Thank you.Please write.

WIP view of Lake Keystone dusk

8" h x 10" w

Oil

The road home was a breeze, with a fast start, a single interruption (imagine a town between two states, bracketed by Potato and O Possum creeks and bisected by the union pacific rail yard) (thats mr opossum to you and me) and a dark finish.

The true highlight was a spectacular highpoint view of the prairie hills sunset. The only hint as to location is the availability, from Monday to Saturday, of a frosted mug of ice cold draft beer in a tropical setting.

Monday morning - Tulsa

Riverside of Austin visited this weekend for the third straight year for regionals. Don't know how they played Frisbee, but Saturday night was an enjoyable party.

And now its Monday morning in the rain. Time to pack for Kansas city and the unplaza art fair.

Osage County

Oil on wood panel

16" x 20"

Road Home. Near Haynes Junction.

5.5" x 10"

Thank you to Gary who purchased this painting at market on Saturday.

Maritimes palette

Add tripod, trashbag, rags, solvent, medium, umbrella and bug spray.  If you can carry a chair more power to you! This is the kit.

St John New brunswick. S of twon on old Hwy 100.

Oil on board from field sketch.

As I look through the trip pictures, I find the gettysburgh battlefield photos are the hardest to weed out and cut away.  The union held the high ground, and had a close battle even so.  Thats where the trees are planted. Near the graves.

McDonalds announced they will have cage free eggs in 10 years. . . sometimes I wish I were/was a comedian. How many chicken generations is that?

Granny bring the biscuits

 Granny. Bring the biscuits!

Fifty miles west of Knoxville, we saw mid western skies.

We drove the blue ridge parkway.

We saw the smoky mountains.

We climbed the hills.

But now we're on I-40 west of Knoxville.

Nashville, Jackson, Memphis.

 Music highway.

 Beale Street: no animals or snakes allowed.

 Tickets for your dog pissing there.

Mac's bbq on Hollywood in Jackson, Tennessee.

  A gracious host.  Friendly folks.

William Jefferson Clinton's library in Little Rock.

 No books in sight.

 Times have changed since Jefferson, Madison and Lincoln.

 We saw the unlovable children of mountain men in Asheville.

We wondered, at the unspoiled doorstep of the smoky mountains in wayneville, why main street wouldn't open the morning we were there.

 We ran the gauntlet of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge;

headed west with purpose.

We're on I-40 west of Knoxville.

Tomorrow we'll cross into Indian territory beneath a furnace Okie sky.

So granny bring the biscuits and we'll have a little pie. 

So Granny bring the biscuits, 

and we'll have a little pie.

Asheville, nc

Downtown Asheville, NC. Sculpture and sign.

 No straight roads, no level spaces along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but people here like dogs. After an hour on the streets people were greeting our gsd by name.

 We sat on a downtown street. Felt like home. Just don't know what all those other people are doing here.

Cornelius Vanderbilt home south of town. Self guided tour of 41 rooms out of 200. Visit gardens. Hike through the deer park. Visit the winery. Fifty bucks per person. Thumbs up on the day.

Hard work fun

Hiked to top of humpback rock near Waynesboro, va on blue ridge parkway. Last time I was here was 40+ years ago. Last time I remembered the view.  This time I'll remember the climb.

Escape from new England; clouds over land.

We drove in Rhode island, Connecticut, new York. New Jersey and Pennsylvania today. Heavy traffic most of the way. Crossed the Hudson River on the Tappan Zee bridge (new york city skyline in the distance) and the new York state thruway.  Shortly thereafter we picked up a piece of metal in the left rear tire. Got up a ramp to safety.  Very lucky. Changed the tire. Half hour later we were on our way - to open spaces visible from the highway. Mass tpk and NY thruway very intimate.

Below - last images of new England.  We missed the mills in Rhode island, but did stop for a stroll across the Boston commons, atop the subterranean parking garage there.

Boston commons 1630: "this looks like a good place for a wading pool."

Boston commons now.

Nyet doggie

the reversing falls in St John, NB are just downstream of the huge Moosehead brewery. Downtown is old, with green squares and fantastic brick and stone facades marching down the hill to the harbor.  Cargo ships lay at anchor on the horizon in the bay of fundy. They leapt to prominence in the slanting rays of evening sun.

Crossed into Maine, the USA, at Calais. Border guards looking for fruits and hard liquor. "What's the weather like in Oklahoma? Be sure to visit east bay."

Visited East Bay (the easternmost city in the country. And St Andrews (lighthouse pictured on distant spit below). We followed low tide along the coastal drive.

Spectacular suspension bridge over the Penobscot Narrows.  Wish I could tell you where.

Belfast, Me. Lobster on the wharf just like you always knew it could be.

We stopped in Portland for lunch today at a diner on the wharf. Found a very old Unitarian Church and relaxed in their gardens.

Next stop shb to take cross sound ferry to orient point, long island and stay on south shore, but we couldn't find lodging that didn't say nyet doggie. So it's the I-95 corridor for us. Boston tomorrow.

PEI - shingles to spuds

Wood shingles meet asphalt on the streets of Charlottetown.  Most siding shingles are painted, and it is easy to imagine Vincent van Gogh staying under one of these roofs. 

The shingle at Argyle beach just after low tide.

With a nod to David Hockney, the north coast view on the east part of the island scenic drive.

Sailboat, dead man's pool, Charlottetown, PEI

We walked out on this beach at low tide. Later, walking in town, I discovered that my sandal straps had turned to sandpaper. Ouch.

Very steep metal steps down to the beach. Nice facilities in the provincial park (shown here) which was set off from the neighbors by white posts and cable.

Coming home from the beach we were happy to see the local Lions club selling fresh cooked lobsters at roadside. Add some fresh green beans and voila. Dinner.

Bam Burger gets our vote for best in town.  The restaurant was filled with bags of new pei spuds waiting to be french fried.