Random Musing No. 1

The human eye has a range of 120°, mostly peripheral vision, compared to the camera’s typical 200° or more. That is why the figures sometimes seem distorted at the edges of a photograph. We make up for this seeming deficit by moving our focus (in movements called “saccades”) around a scene to build up a gestalt awareness of its appearance.

A painting, curated by human intelligence, is superior in every respect to a photograph, except for how long it takes to make it. If cameras took three hours to create the exact same image as they do now in a split second, there would be no question as to which medium people would choose when they needed an image recorded.

Coupla New Watercolors

Painted and sold all within three days. Thanks to my very good friend Caterina.

September – Part 2

Some more paintings from the past few weeks. FYI, I now limit myself to one self portrait per yer.

Rumford River, Norton

Emma’s

2017 Self Portrait

Gray Goo

I keep a jar in the garage for cleaning my brushes. I put some hardware store turp in it and, as it evaporates, just add a little more. I then rinse out my brushes before washing them with soap and water.It doesn’t really matter how dirty the turp is, I’m just going to squeegee it out of the brushes with a paper towel before washing, and since I’m reusing it over and over, there’s no need to dispose of dirty turp into the environment.

Well, it’s time for the Changing of the Jars (interestingly, I’m going to swap in a new jar for my medium too). The gray sludge at the bottom of the jar is now so thick that my brushes get stuck in it. So here is my pristine new jar and the old, soon-to-be-retired jar. And what will you do with the old jar, you ask? It goes up on the shelf to, um, season. After a couple of years I may throw the hardened mass out in the trash but to be honest with you, I keep forgetting to and I probably have half a dozen of the things hidden away on shelves. Eventually they’ll all end up in a landfill but I’d have to say my environmental impact is fairly benevolent.It’s the oil painting equivalent of embedding radioactive waste in glass blocks.