Who’s got the time? Mexican food in WNC (a sorry state) and bears

“Waiting” 22 1/4″ x 15″ watercolor on Arches 300# cold press

I’ve always wondered this?  I guess I am too old to write “U” for “you” and “Ur” for “your”.  Unless you’re on Twitter, why would you write this way?  WHY?  Or should I ask “Y”???

On a completely unrelated note, Mexican food in Western North Carolina (“WNC”) is a sad state.  (And don’t even get me started about pizza, which, for the most part, is just vile here.)  There’s a restaurant not far from our house where we go to sometimes.  It makes me crazy that they offer rice OR beans with their meals.   RICE OR BEANS ? EVERYONE knows that it’s Rice AND Beans. They go together.   Like cookies and milk,  peanut butter & jelly, wine & cheese.

Ugh! Rice OR Beans!  Makes me crazy.  I give them a lecture whenever I’m there.  Like they care.

Waiter thought bubble: “Shut up crazy gringo lady.  You want rice AND beans, order the rice and get beans on the side and get over it.”

OK,  I’m over it.  In Maine where my old dog walking buddy Charlie and his wife Liz now live they have a Mexican restaurant called El El Frijole (LL Bean).  I laughed and laughed when I heard this. Maybe they can’t cook Mexican food well in Maine, but at least they have a sense of humor about it.

Finally, the bears have returned.   We saw a mama and cub crossing the road on the late dog walk about 2 weeks ago. Seeing them announced the arrival of spring and also had us quietly but quickly backtracking back to the house. As soon as we saw them, we noticed the trees started blooming and the daffodils and crocus have come up.  Groundhog Schmoundhog. We got bears!

The above painting was one I posted sometime last year but it wasn’t quite finished, but now it is. And for no reason here’s a painting of an Asheville fire hydrant:

Asheville fire hydrant – 9″ x 12″ watercolor on Arches 140# coldpress

It looks a little drunk but it was fun to paint.

Thank U for visiting.

 

 

Longing for the old days

Smith 9th Street “Waiting for the F Train” – 22″ x 15″ watercolor on 300# Arches cold press

My sister recently sent me this picture of our old Hitachi TV remote.  She wrote:

“Remember this remote? 

I think we had the same TV in the 80s.  I took mine to Alaska and back.  It’s gone now but I just found the remote.   Power. Mute. Channel. Volume.   That’s it.

I want that TV back.  Our remote now looks like it could launch the space shuttle and I can never figure out how to do anything with it.”

Yes, Alice.  I remember that remote.  And I too long for the old days.  I have a Smart TV.  I am an idiot and don’t know how to use it.  I was at a friend’s house with the same smart TV.  He showed The Husband and me how you take one cable, connect it to the back of the TV and the other end to your computer and voila!  You can get your computer pictures, play video games, watch Netflix, order from amazon, control the Mir space station and the Hubble telescope and who knows what else.

I can turn my TV on and off.  And sometimes change the channels.

The above painting was done over a number of months.  Now that it’s complete (maybe) I want to think about whether or not to deconstruct it like I did here and here.

Normally I would do the whole painting in a grisaille first and then add some local color. This time I thought I would switch it up a bit.  I started it as a grisaille and I then added color with the grisaille.

It’s finished.

For now.

(Subway) Girders and Cans

Subway Girders – view through the F train window coming into the Smith 9th Street Station – watercolor on 300# Arches 

Once again I started this painting with a grisaille (a gray value study). Which you can see below:

I then dragged a large soft brush with clean water down the paper from the top to the bottom to spread some of the paint around.  This is slightly different than what I did in previous paintings seen here and here where I waited for the grisaille to dry and then splashed it with clean water followed by very diluted paynes gray and very diluted raw sienna.  The dragging of the water gives the painting a look of grittiness since this view is through a subway window.  To me it also adds a feeling of movement.

I then went back in and added local color.  Some green and rust to the girders and some more paynes gray to re-establish some darks and details.

Finally I finished it with a little more detail to the paynes gray girders, local color and I added a raw sienna sky.   Cause really, wouldn’t a regular old blue sky just be boring in this painting?

On another note the NYC Canstruction exhibit is going on right now in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center.

Canstruction Annual Competition 

Exhibit Dates:
Begins: November 6, 2014
Ends: November 20, 2014

Exhibit Location:The Winter Garden and Lobby of 250 Vesey Street at Brookfield Place (formerly known as World Financial Center), New York, NY 10281

These are cool and fun with all the canned food going to the needy after the exhibit is over.   You can also donate canned food when you visit the exhibit.   How clever and creative are the people who put these together?