Saturday, July 30, 2011
Joseph Zbukvic
An artist is a combination of the poet and the surgeon. - Joseph Zbukvic
This Yugoslavian born, Melbourne Australia based artist whose landscapes are delicate, while still remaining loose and showing off the best of the medium. He excels at capturing a wide range of values but my favourites seem to be middle valued paintings with subtle variations. Quite delicate and sublime. I've seen to of his videos and unfortunately the demonstrations mostly fell short of the mark. His one and only book "Mastering Atmosphere and Mood" has a number of good demonstrations that while staying rather vague are still good learning opportunities. Sadly the book is long out of print and only available as a download of dubious quality and legality. (I've added to this post to make it more obvious that the works below are those of Zbukvic and not mine, my apologies if in my brevity I misled anyone. 8/28/11)
This Yugoslavian born, Melbourne Australia based artist whose landscapes are delicate, while still remaining loose and showing off the best of the medium. He excels at capturing a wide range of values but my favourites seem to be middle valued paintings with subtle variations. Quite delicate and sublime. I've seen to of his videos and unfortunately the demonstrations mostly fell short of the mark. His one and only book "Mastering Atmosphere and Mood" has a number of good demonstrations that while staying rather vague are still good learning opportunities. Sadly the book is long out of print and only available as a download of dubious quality and legality. (I've added to this post to make it more obvious that the works below are those of Zbukvic and not mine, my apologies if in my brevity I misled anyone. 8/28/11)
Friday, July 29, 2011
Foot powered...on the Potomac Heritage Trail
So this blog is suppose to be about a few other things than watercolor painting so I thought I would write a small trip report of my hike/run on the Potomac Heritage Trail between Scott's Run and Roosevelt Island last week.
Anyone in DC knows we've had multiple triple digit temps and extreme humidity. Normally things I don't tolerate at all. For some reason my body is finally getting used to the heat and this summer I've been more tolerant than any other summer since moving south of the MD line. Anyways the reason I mention it is that Sunday was suppose to be a respite from the heat. I had planned on leaving early in the morning, but somehow early with Leila meant getting to the trailhead at 8 vs. 6. And it was hot and humid...so much for cooler temps.
I knew the Potomac Heritage Trail (PHT) trail somehow linked in to Scott's run but I had failed to bring either map or guidebook or read any recent trail description....yikes, talk about bad preparation (more to come on that topic) So I probably ran about a mile in Scott's run heading east and North towards the river hoping to run into it. BTW the maps at Scott's Run make no mention of the PHT so don't count on them being any help. My instincts proved correct and I did intersect the green blazed trail down by the overlook near the river. Once I got on it I mostly backtracked uphil and south towards some private pool club and a residential area. GAIA GPS on my iphone soon came in handy and showed me both the trail and the stretch of pavementt I would need to do to get to the real trailhead at the end of Live Oak Dr. right next to 495 here.
From this point is 10 miles to Roosevelt Island! If you start at Scott's run it's more than 10 miles so plan accordingly for water and stamina. The trail is in good condition but heavily blocked by thick layers upon layers of spiderweb. Between this trailhead and Turkey run I had to wave a branch in fron tof me to clear trail most of the way. It made for a slow 4 miles (1.5 hours). I passed someone's stashed water jug near some cliffs and thought what a good idea...although I assumed my 2 litres and planned 3 hour finishing time to be sufficient and left it alone...Not my water anyways. I was to think about that water quite a bit.
I don't want to detail the trail turn by turn but lets say that it is a good variety of terrain with great views on the Potomac.The stretches along GW Parkway are annoying but at least spiderweb free. From Turkey run onwards I made much better time but I ran out of water after 3 hours. My legs started cramping shortly after that and I got to Rosslyn in 4 hours, dehydrated, probably a bit heat struck and barely standing. Every piece of clothing soaked. I ran bare chested the last hour as my nipples were so chaffed from the wet top. I lost 5 pds in 4 hours.
I suggest waiting for cooler weather to repeat, to cache water and to have at least 2 liters when starting with another 1-2 liters available along the way. Its definitely a nice trail although I could do without the sandy stretches and the cobwebs.
Anyone in DC knows we've had multiple triple digit temps and extreme humidity. Normally things I don't tolerate at all. For some reason my body is finally getting used to the heat and this summer I've been more tolerant than any other summer since moving south of the MD line. Anyways the reason I mention it is that Sunday was suppose to be a respite from the heat. I had planned on leaving early in the morning, but somehow early with Leila meant getting to the trailhead at 8 vs. 6. And it was hot and humid...so much for cooler temps.
I knew the Potomac Heritage Trail (PHT) trail somehow linked in to Scott's run but I had failed to bring either map or guidebook or read any recent trail description....yikes, talk about bad preparation (more to come on that topic) So I probably ran about a mile in Scott's run heading east and North towards the river hoping to run into it. BTW the maps at Scott's Run make no mention of the PHT so don't count on them being any help. My instincts proved correct and I did intersect the green blazed trail down by the overlook near the river. Once I got on it I mostly backtracked uphil and south towards some private pool club and a residential area. GAIA GPS on my iphone soon came in handy and showed me both the trail and the stretch of pavementt I would need to do to get to the real trailhead at the end of Live Oak Dr. right next to 495 here.
From this point is 10 miles to Roosevelt Island! If you start at Scott's run it's more than 10 miles so plan accordingly for water and stamina. The trail is in good condition but heavily blocked by thick layers upon layers of spiderweb. Between this trailhead and Turkey run I had to wave a branch in fron tof me to clear trail most of the way. It made for a slow 4 miles (1.5 hours). I passed someone's stashed water jug near some cliffs and thought what a good idea...although I assumed my 2 litres and planned 3 hour finishing time to be sufficient and left it alone...Not my water anyways. I was to think about that water quite a bit.
I don't want to detail the trail turn by turn but lets say that it is a good variety of terrain with great views on the Potomac.The stretches along GW Parkway are annoying but at least spiderweb free. From Turkey run onwards I made much better time but I ran out of water after 3 hours. My legs started cramping shortly after that and I got to Rosslyn in 4 hours, dehydrated, probably a bit heat struck and barely standing. Every piece of clothing soaked. I ran bare chested the last hour as my nipples were so chaffed from the wet top. I lost 5 pds in 4 hours.
I suggest waiting for cooler weather to repeat, to cache water and to have at least 2 liters when starting with another 1-2 liters available along the way. Its definitely a nice trail although I could do without the sandy stretches and the cobwebs.
Friday Off
So that means painting between feedings, diaper changes, laundry and getting pho with Y and L....not my best work but still I got to paint today!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Sierras
On strahmore with MG palette. Experimenting with WN Pyrelene as well.
A beautiful color. Trying to figure out what I can mix it with to get
nice cool greys.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Saturday, July 02, 2011
First.
based on an image from Eric Valli's Dolpo book. MGraham palette and
cheap paper. Nothing fancy, it just feels good but selfish too to take
a few moments to try and calm down enough to put brush to paper and be
able to enjoy both the process and the results. I am a happy and lucky
man today.
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