Sparrows

First painting of 2019.

Last of 2018

Stuff from 2018 that didn’t get posted:

Wickford

There are Cows in Attleboro!

Mowry Reservation

Sara’s Garden

The Taunton River in Dighton

Ivy

Wareham

Charles River at the Newton-Needham Line

Duck Skull

Bruce

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.

Recent Stuff

I always forget to update this blog. Here’s some new stuff since October:

Dauna

Tomatoes II

Hatch

Paul

The “Tomatoes” watercolor is a replacement for another painting of the same subject I sold. Dauna, Hatch, and Peter are from Kate Huntington’s portrait painting session. I’m experimenting with imprimaturas again (every 40 years, need it or not). I can’t help but feel it’s cheating.

Coupla New Watercolors

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

Some Watercolors

I sold a watercolor of my goat skull, so I did a replacement. The other piece is entitled “Ancestors,” because reasons. That is a vervet monkey and a hyrax skull.

Bad Dog

Baboon

Cause of Death

Goat

Bear Skull with Dominoes

Badger

Skunk with Netsuke

Klipspringer with Apple

Raccoon

Fruit Bat

Crocodile

Horse with Salt Shaker

Comp Anat

Carnivora

February? I haven’t posted since February?

Well, it’s September now. Better start in on the backlog.

Here are the rest of the skull watercolors I’ve done to date, in the order done. Got busy with other stuff, but that will be the next post.

Deer and Ostrich. The ostrich is a little weak.

Pig, Seymour (Bones), and Three Views of a Human Skull:

The pig painting was thoughtfully ruined by my cat.

 

Squirrel and Cheetah:

I wasn’t really happy with these last few, so I took a little break from the watercolors for a few weeks. And then my birthday came.

The thing about birthdays is, if you want something for your birthday, you should get it for yourself. I happen to collect skulls and so every year I treat myself by buying one skull.

Oops. Got a little carried away this year.

For starters, I knew I wanted a monkey. I also knew I didn’t want to spend more than $150. I posted on a bunch of Facebook groups where people buy and sell skulls, but no response. I started looking around for alternatives.

I found an interesting skull, a good addition to my collection, on a wholesale skull-and-shell site. And it was only $45 too! Bonus! I went to check out… and found that I had to buy a minimum of $100 worth of stuff (wholesale, remember?). No problem, $100 was less than I was planning on spending anyway, so I ended up getting this:

Clockwise from the left, a gar, a bat skeleton, a hyrax (the original impetus for my purchase), two chicken skulls and two turtle (“cooter”) skulls (these last were minimum purchases). Cost me about $115 plus tax. I gave a friend the surplus skulls, then painted these:

Hyrax, Gar with Tape Dispenser, Cooter, and Two Views of a Chicken Skull:

The hyrax looks like a rodent but is actually more closely related to the elephant and the manatee.

And then… someone contacted me with a monkey skull for sale. It was half price, $75… I just couldn’t resist…

Vervet Monkey

Skulls Again

I’m reposting my skull watercolors because I took better photos of them; plus some new ones.

Alligator (Aligator mississippiensis)

Otter (Lantra canadensis)

Opposum (Didelphis viginiana)

Beaver (Castor canadensis)

Mink (Neovison vison)

Coyote (Canis latrans)

Caracal (Caracal caracal)