That which is small

"That which is small"

I felt that I was needing a creative urge to start  painting again. This hot weather in Texas really makes you very lazy and so you tend to sit around when you should be doing something. 

I already belong to one challenge painting group  and this is in a blog format.
 PaintandDrawtogether http://paintanddrawtogether.blogspot.com/
 A challenge painting is set by the webmaster and then the artists are challenge to paint a work using a photo as a starting point. A set time is given, usually about six weeks and then as each artist finishes their painting during that time, the painting gets put on the blog. Each artist is encouraged to comment not only on their painting but on all the other painting that appeared during that time. It is more a way of seeing the different aspects of painting and drawing and the  creative work that will happen at the hands of different artists rather than a competition.

So I was very happy when I found another challenge group. This is called Monthly Painters Challenge and it is on Facebook as a page. 
This has a different format. A challenge title is set at the beginning of each month and at the very last day of the month, each artist posts their painting or drawing on the Facebook page. 
Again all the artist are encouraged to make their own comments about their own and the other paintings. Also the artists are asked to LIKE the paintings which really appeal to them. The painting which receives the most "likes" is the challenge painting of the month.  The artist of that painting gets to choose the subject/title of the next challenge.

These are fun to do as both challenges work in a different way.
 The challenge for August  on Monthly Painters Challenge was "that  which is small" and the artists came up with some very creative ways to paint the subject.

I felt that I had fulfilled the subject even though I didn't think the painting was very good, too rushed but when Mike looked at it, he thought it was a picture of sun flowers and didn't even then notice  the small ladybird that I had painted which was the subject of the painting.

Oh well on to the next challenge!

Memorial painting of Lucky

Memorial painting of LUCKY

As each of my pet have died I have tried to paint a picture of them as a memorial so that we would remember them. As we have had many pets over the years we now have pet paintings in many of our rooms. And now Lucky will be  joining them.

I knew when I started out painting  Lucky a black cat, that this would be a challenge as photographing black pet is difficult enought and painting them is equally difficult . So I selected a couple of photographs and chose two which I thought I could manage to make into a presentable painting.

I started out by doing two water color paintings to see how that would look and realized fairly soon that I would need to use acrylic paints to get the depth of color that I needed.

Water color just didn't get it !!

This painting shows Lucky when he was an adult cat a few years ago.
Every time I see a black cat, I still miss little Lucky.

The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

This is the story of an  American family that lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and it takes place mainly during the time of the 1930 in the depression years through the outbreak and hardship of World War II. So I really think this could be called modern American history but it is not a dull history book. Far from it. it is full of interesting happenings.

The author has previously written another book called Gap Creek and this book continues from that one so probably I should have read that one first so I would have a better idea of the characters in the book. This really didn't worry me as the characters are well drawn and past history of the family is noted in passing.

The main character is called Annie Richards Powell and at the start, she is a young teenager and one who certainly knows what she wants out of life. She has two brothers  and a sister, and a very hard-working mother and father. Life is hard in the mountains and the writing shows their hard life during the depression.Life has always been hard and so they manage as best they can. Troy, the younger brother, is the golden boy of the family, the  mother's baby and a few years younger than Annie. Much of the book also deals with his life during the war and his subsequent death and the effect it has on his family especially his mother.

This is a well-written book and easy to read. The author keeps the reader's attention and by the end of the book you know these people well. I enjoyed reading it and it taught me a lot about that time in History. 

Visit from A Stranger

Visit from A Stranger

We have lived in our present house for almost 8 years now. During that time we have seen all manner of birds and animals visiting the area and walking through our yard. Possums, skunks, lizards, geckos, armadillos, rabbits and squirrels and the occasional raccoon. Birds are plentiful too and vary throughout the year. We like it that way and it makes for very interesting viewing and discussion.

Today as we were sitting watching the birds feeding at the birdfeeder, I looked up and there on top of the workshop high on the roof was a stranger indeed. It was a Road Runner. Now we often see these prehistoric looking birds running along country roads and we usually see them running as fast as they can. And they certainly can run fast. I've read that they can reach speeds of 20 mph and so they prefer to run rather than fly.

So it was quite a surprise to see the Road Runner up on a roof and to try and figure out how he came to be there. We watched him for a while as he  walked around on the roof and even spent time  sitting looking  just like a  weathervane.
Then as quick as a flash he took off and flew in short bursts with hops in between, landing on some of the near branches of the trees.
They have very small wings in comparison to their size so it's no wonder they prefer to stay on the ground.

An interesting bird. I hope he returns.

See What I Found!

See What I Found!

Shirley & Mike 1984

This is just what friend Vincent said as he came in the door the other day. In his hand were two old photographs that had been taken somewhere in 1984. The only reason we know that is that it's written on the back of each photo. Where it was none of us could remember.

Vincent is in the process of moving and so he is doing the onerous task of checking through his belongings and sorting and clearing which one does when one moves. He said he had found these photos inside an old book.

We all looked at them and had a good laugh but we couldn't think where they had been taken and the background gives us no clue. But don't we look young! I guess someone must have cracked a funny joke to make me laugh like that just as my photo was being taken or maybe I just didn't know it was being taken. We all remember when Mike had curly hair but this looks extra curly. I can't believe looking in the mirror now at my graying brown hair that it was ever that dark.

This is why it's important to at least printout some photos of the many we take now so you can lose them in all your things and then one day in the future find them, remember and have a good laugh.

The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price

The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price

Sometimes for a change I like to read pure fantasy. It makes a change from reading historical novels or mystery, detectives or biographies and so I choose a science fiction novel. You have to be very selective with this type of novel and I like the kind that start in modern day society and don't go overboard with scientific facts and weird stuff.

This book starts out with the sudden ending to the world and only a small group of people are saved by a mysterious unknown force. They are very mixed group: two argumentative sisters, one who is a doctor and the other an actress; a cartoonist who seems to be the leader of the group; two teenagers and a dropout young man of Asian descent. They are in a state of shock and cannot figure out what is happening to them. (What a surprise!) Two super beings appear who seem to be their saviors and have all kinds of strange powers. They refer to the group as the Silvers and seem to know what is going on and more importantly why but don't seem to want to tell.

Even though the reader knows this is pure fiction, you get drawn into the story with all the suspense of a modern mystery and you want to know what will happens to these young people. I found it very entertaining to read and could see how this could easily become a motion picture film. It would have many technical events and be quite fun to watch.

The first phone call from heaven by Mitch Albom

The first phone call from heaven by Mitch Albom

I recognized the author of this book as I had read "Tuesdays with Morrie". I can't say I enjoyed that books very much but I did see the film as well and I could see what the main point of the  book was and maybe when I read it I hadn't taken it in well.So I thought I would give this new book a try.

In this small town in Michigan various people start getting calls on their phone supposedly coming from a recently departed relative or friend who is now in heaven. The voice on the phone is definitely the voice of the dead person. Most of the people that receives the calls are extremely happy to get them and start telling their stories. Only one of the people Sully. a discredited pilot who had a  crash, has doubts.

Soon the news spread and the inevitable happens. The media descend on the small town with all the traffic, fuss and commotion that brings. Sully, the person who has doubts about these calls,that  his wife who has recently been killed in a car accident is calling, decides to investigate these calls especially when his young son is depending on his mother  to calling him again.
Of course the churches of all denominations get involved as do the police and local business community.This has put the little town of Coldwater on the map!

The ending comes as quite a surprise but I won't say anything about that.You will have to read it to find out how this story ends.

I did find this book interesting especially as it brought many questions to mind and became quite a mystery. It is easy to read and well written.