Turning a Photo into a Painting: Oils and Pastels

Back when I was painting (and I might take it up again, who knows), if I had a preference, I would do all art from life.  But that was not always possible.  So I sometimes took one of my photos and used it to remind myself of the color, texture, composition, etc.  Then, too, it was far simpler to use a photo than to schlep everything outdoors, sit there hoping the light wouldn't shift too badly before I got the basic sun/shadow patterning down ... and the bugs and rain would stay away.  Because of these various complications, one of my main considerations for painting outdoors became less the subject than the location.  (I figured if I was comfortable, something in the scene would lend itself to be painted.)  However, if the subject was really good but the location poor, I'd take a photo and work it up later.   

Here, then, are three oil paintings and three pastels that I did from photos.

The oil paintings (Vermont):

 

High Wind

Early Morning on Kipling Road

Peach Orchard

The pastels (Santa Fe):

Camino Lilacs

Camino May

Gallery Roses

Next week:  Turning a Photo into a Painting:  Watercolors

The Way of Conversation

(I'll be away next weekend so look for my next posting the week after that.)



I've always enjoyed a good conversation, even as a child--sitting listening to parents or relatives hash things out at the dinner table or in someone's living room.  It's how we children learned about life (that and going to the movies) and heard the old family tales about where we came from and what our elders thought about things.  Then, as an adult, my family and I always sat together at meals and expounded on this or that!

Too, a lot of conversations took place over the phone.  But then, as the years went on and land lines (as they came to be called) gave way to cell phones, those conversations became harder to hear, as if they were originating from the bottom of a well or off in the middle of an ocean.  And phone chat from a car was constantly breaking up.

Then emails came on the scene.  And as tablets and smaller and smaller devices entered the picture, smaller and smaller keyboards made it more and more difficult to write much more than an indecipherable short hand.

Emails are excellent for the easy exchange of info but not much good for dialogue.  "Oh, you say you spoke with her.  Do you mean that you went to see her or that you spoke over the phone?"  So you email your question back.  No answer.  In time, you learn not to even try for a response.  The person is too busy  ... they figure they answered you ... they don't want to be too precise.  Take your pick.  At least on the phone, if you ask a question, more times than not, you'll get an immediate reply.  You don't have to do Follow Up. 

Of course, a good conversation means that one has to be able to talk, to be able to come up with ideas.  I recently saw that movie, Nebraska, where the siblings all got together for the first time in a long time and had nothing to say to each other, other than ball scores or car parts, and so just sat in the front room silently watching a ball game.  Conversation had gone the way.  One no longer had to converse; we'd given that away to media personalities.  And modern day gadgets seemed to help reduce the very communication it had set out to make easier.  A bit like Morse Code.  Dot-dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dot-dot-dot.  Which spells SOS.

Apple Picking Time

No city scene here:  with only a five-minute drive we're in apple country where we can take baskets up to the orchard, carry our pickings home, make crisps and pies, or just munch on lovely, fresh apples.  So this past week, the season just starting, some of us did just that.  Though the peach harvest around here did not fare well this year--too cold a winter--the apples are doing just fine.

For the PYO option--Pick Your Own--you carry on up the hill, open the gate, and there's the orchard

Then you trot everything back to the road where you pay the woman in the barn

Or you can buy them already picked.

There's something about apples  ...

Still Lifes: Seven Oil Paintings

Two Pears and a Chinese Bowl on a Kitchen Stool

In doing still lifes, I always seemed to want to get to the painting itself rather than spend much time figuring the set up--the color combinations, light source, design element.  I'd fiddle around a bit until I came up with something I thought I could paint--nothing too complicated since I didn't want to get lost in intricacies, preferring layering color on color.  I also paid attention to painting a bit of the object's reflected color into the shadow as well as a bit of the shadow into the object itself.

Here, then, are seven still lifes, all in oil.

Hot Peppers

Apples, Pears, Plums, and Pomegranate

Chiles on Tissue

Diane's Cauliflower  (a quick sketch)

After the Market

Onions on Foil *

*This isn't painted on aluminum foil; it's painted on canvas.  It's the set up that's on foil which enhances the design element.

29 Movies I've Seen This Year That I Recommend

(Next posting will be in two weeks)

I've written it before:  I don't seem to go to movies in theaters anymore, preferring to rent them by mail.  (I used to rent them locally, but over the years, our three video stores closed.)  Anyway, by evening I just like to sit in my chair and be cozy--or even turn the movie off and finish it another time.  In renting them, I put a good number of the 5-star ones in my queue as well as many with 4 stars.  Generally, I don't bother with the less-well-rated.  And regardless of rating, I skip those with violence.


Since I'm always on the look-out for good movies, I thought I'd return the favor and pass along this list which, despite flaws in some, includes a whopping-good batch.

Here, then, is my 2014 list to date--those that I thought were either well acted, well cast, well written, well photographed, or worthy in their particular way.

1.  Several were about World War 2:
The Book Thief (US/Germany).  Perhaps should have been titled The Book Borrower.
War of the Buttons (France).  Boys in neighboring towns during the occupation of France.
Winter in Wartime (The Netherlands).  Bleak but gripping with an especially appealing young actor.
The Monuments Men.  More a docudrama but an interesting topic.  Good cast.

2.  Good foreign:
Barbara (Germany).  The cold war, set in East Germany.  Good story.
The Past (Iran).  Slow.  Intelligent script.
The Well Digger's Daughter (France).  A bit over-the-top acting by the director/actor plus somewhat stereotypical story-line.
Like Father, Like Son (Japan).  Poignant tale of two families discovering that their now-6-year-old sons were switched at birth.
The Lunchbox (India).  A widower mistakenly receives the daily lunchbox of a young wife intended for her husband ... with a growing friendship and correspondence between the two of them.  Set in Bombay.  

Fill the Void (Israel).  A young Israeli woman's wedding plans change when her older sister dies.  Wonderful view of an Orthodox family in Tel Aviv.
Still Mine (Canada).  A splendid (and true) tale and a splendid rendering of it.  An old man battles government bureaucrats for the right to build a new house for himself and his ailing wife when their current house no longer serves them.
Two Lives (Germany, Norway).  The tale of a now-grown child of a Norwegian mother and German soldier is slowly revealed, tangling several happy lives in Norway.

3.  Good U.S. movies:
Nebraska.  Talk about bleak!  But well-done bleak, even amusing in parts.
Dallas Buyers Club.  Well done.  Though there would be no script without the f-word.
American Hustle.  Ditto.  Much more amusing than I'd expected.  Well cast.
All is Lost.  Robert Redford alone and lost on the seas.  Even after just 20 minutes, this was so gripping I didn't know if I could carry on or not.  But I did.
Too Big to Fail.   More a docudrama.  Well cast.
Enough Said.   The lightest of the bunch.
The Yellow Handkerchief.  An indie film, first shown at Sundance.
The Company You Keep.  Intelligent rendering, fabulous cast, good script.  Redford acted and directed. About an anti-Vietnam War militant who's been hiding out for 30 years.

4.  Those already recommended this past spring on the side bar of this blog:
Border Cafe (Iran).  A rather sweet movie about a widow trying to make a life for herself and her children.
The Pool (U.S., in Hindi).  Set in India.
Delicacy (France).  Audrey Tautou in a romantic comedy-drama.
Sarah's Key (France).  One of the most heart-rending films I've ever seen.
Love is All You Need (Denmark).  A love story with Pierce Bosnan.
The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Mongolia).  A dear film about family life in a yurt.
Oranges and Sunshine (UK, Australia).  About the children's replacement program from the U.K. to Australia.
Philomena (US, UK, France).  A woman's attempt to find the child she had to give away.
Made in Dagenham (UK).  The effort of factory women in Dagenham, England, to better equalize their salary with that of the men.

A Gallery of Photos: Ogunquit, Maine

Near Perkins Cove

Maine isn't that far away--three hours at its closest spot, but that's following little two-lane country roads plus on/off connections to three interstates plus hoping not to get involved with too much construction or Concord, New Hampshire's, rush hour.  But then, there it is:   the sea air!  The wide Atlantic.  The sound of the surf.  And, of course, this time of year, the massive number of people who fill up the massive number of motels, inns, and bed-and-breakfasts.

I just returned from spending a few days there, re-connecting with the sea, walking the beach, and doing my usual thing of taking lots of photos--fortunately taking two cameras this time because (unfortunately) I found the sensor of one defective.  The days were totally sunny, surprisingly hot (85 degrees), and really quite splendid.  No, I didn't go swimming, keeping to long sleeved shirts and a hat.

• I found that there were a good number of Québécois there, both from the number of license plates as well as from overhearing wisps of a language that, to my ear, sort of resembled French.
• And then I saw a young man riding his bike no hands ... because he was texting.  And ... concentrating on his i-phone the way he was, he wasn't looking where he was going but seemed to have no problem with that.
• I also discovered that there's such a thing as gummy lobsters.  I had a request for some and, yes, they do exist. 

A note about some of these photos: 

Ogunquit has one of Maine's great sand beaches--which are all concentrated in the southern part of the state since the coast becomes rockier as one goes north.  But, sorry to say, I lost all the shots that would give any indication as to just how extensive the beach is.  The ones I've included here, however, do show an end sand bar that gets completely covered at high tide--thus you can see rivulets that remain after the tide has gone out.

The sea and waves are in the far distance.  The Ogunquit River is in the foreground.  The sandbar in the middle is covered at high tide.

Ogunquit also boasts the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.  This is a piece by Bernard Langlais.

Just so I don't forget, besides the art museum (with a current exhibit of Andrew Wyeth's works), Ogunquit also has a summer playhouse, a splendid 1.5 mile oceanside cliff-walk called the Marginal Way, and a dear little cove, Perkins Cove, where you can look at the boats, get lobster rolls, and peruse the shops.  Alas, the town's bookstore that I once enjoyed has gone out of business.  But there is a handsome library just down the road.  And good ice cream shops.

An August Supper

A few nights ago a family member joined me for supper, giving me the opportunity to make a couple of favorite recipes--ones I seldom make just for myself.

Since I had recently resurrected my old hibachi, setting it out in the garden where it wouldn't set fire to anything, I decided to make Middle Eastern kebabs from a packet of ground lamb that I had in the freezer.  Being tomato time, it seemed perfect to add a fabulous tomato pie to the menu that I hadn't made for more than a decade.  Then, with cucumbers plentiful, I could toss in a nice cooling Middle Eastern yogurt/cucumber side dish.  So I put on my apron and set to work.


Middle Eastern Ground Lamb Kebabs

1 pound ground lamb
1 slice of white bread, no crusts  (I used a nice, firm sourdough)
1/4 t. ground cumin
1 t. paprika
1 t. salt plus some pepper
A large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 T. tomato paste
1 egg, beaten

Put lamb and bread (torn up) into a food processor and mix well, at least several seconds. (You want to mix the meat and bread but you also want to break the fibers down a bit so that the meat can better stick to the skewers.)  Put into a bowl, add the remaining ingredients, and use your hands to mix well.  Then mold onto your skewers.  I only had 6 so formed the remaining mixture into two patties.  Put on a grill and cook.  This amount could serve 3 people well.

Yogurt and Cucumber Side Dish

Simple.  Grate a couple of small cucumbers.  Mix in some plain yogurt.  I used sheep yogurt, but goat or cow would be fine.  Add a bit of salt and pepper.  And there you've got it.

Tomato Pie

First, make a quiche crust.  The recipe I used for an 8" pan follows:
1 & 1/2 c. flour
1 stick butter
5-6 T. ice water
1/4 t. salt
Prepare as you would any pie dough.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Roll out, arrange on pie plate, prick bottom of crust, and pre-bake for around 8 minutes.  I put a few of those little round pie weights in the bottom but am never sure if I need to.  Take out of oven to cool.

Then, make the filling.  This takes awhile.
3 lbs. of tomatoes.  Drop 3 at a time into boiling water for 10 seconds, take out, peel off skin.  Then cut each in half and squeeze out juice and seeds into a bowl.
1 medium onion.  Dice and saute in olive oil.
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped.  Add to onion.
Chop the tomatoes and add to the pot along with: 
Salt and pepper
A pinch of dried oregano
3 T. chopped fresh basil
Let cook a bit.  Then remove from heat and put onion/tomato mixture into a colander.  Collect the juice underneath the colander and pour that back into the pot to reduce down until it becomes a thick sauce.
Transfer onion/tomato mixture to a bowl and pour in the reduced juice.
2 eggs.  Beat and add 1/3 c. mayonnaise.  Add this to the cooled tomatoes and reduced juice.
1/4 lb. sharp cheddar cheese.  Grate.  Put half into tomato mixture.
Spread that mixture into the crust and top with the remaining cheese.
Bake 30 minutes at 375º

Here 'tis.  I have to say it was fabulous!