Okay, I admit it, I am wandering away from the journal for the moment. We found a phone message today from Slim (our favorite cowboy and grazing tenant) that he is heading this way from Colorado tomorrow and will bunk in with us. TWO visitors in the same month?! Yeowee! He'll flip when he sees that he gets a real bed this time instead of an old canvas army cot. In the meantime, the clean-up and food planning thoughts along with some symptoms of a possible cold/flu ailment coming on have thrown me off track with the blog so I am posting some terrible scans of old pen and inks that I had done quite some time ago. I came across them tonight while looking for something else.
I have been looking at these mesas lately with a growing desire to consign them to black on white paper someday. Goddess' comment about her things to do "Before I die" list has stirred up these inclinations. I remember my mother mentioning her wish that I would take up the pen and brush again. This was just a day before she died unexpectedly and so her comment bore a very permanent weight to it.
I had worked from my own photographs propped on my cherry and butternut art table back then since I always felt too conspicuous and too shy to ever sketch and ink on site. Now even that art table is gone for good after this last move. It had survived my many relocations for almost 30 years. I wish I could rant and vent some angst here but I won't.
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You should see FOUR drawings. If you don't, hit "Reload" or "Refresh". It's just the usual Blogger quirks.
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This was a photo taken near the Thames. A group of schoolboys in kilts heading home in the afternoon. What stuck me so deeply was the cheerful man trying very hard to console a young boy about something which had brought him to sobbing tears. What? I will always wonder. c.'77.
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Of course I had to capture the defiant Boudica in her chariot below Big Ben. c.'77.
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The portrait of an old New England barn for a neighbor's friend. c.'80.
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Despite my eyes already starting to fail, I was able to provide another building portrait 20 years later. This was my last pen and ink. c.'97Will my eyes still allow me to take up the tiny pen again? I don't know but it's high on my "Before I die" wish list. In the meantime, we will have a year or two of work left on this homestead which will eventually include a place for me to work on what I enjoy once more.
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44 comments:
Lin, what beautiful work! I hope your eyes will allow you to take up the tiny pen again! I love the scene on the Thames especially. I'm a real fan of Merry Ole England. I can't wait to see some desert pen & inks from you! Those awesome cottonwood trees with deer by the creek? The quaking aspens when you do trips?? I'm knitting and reading today and enjoying my off day. Take care, get well, and enjoy your next company! Belle
Dang, Lin!! You are GOOD! What other marvelous talents of yours remain unrevealed on this here blog?
And...enquiring minds need to know: were you visiting Ol Blighty? Or did you live there for a spell? Could it be possible we went to some of the same pubs together but separate?
Wow, those are great! I mostly do stick figures with crayons. LOL! I LOVE that last one of the house! Looks straight out of a house plans book! Now I want that house! LOL!
Belle, you'll be the first one to get a copy of any NM scenes I might manage down the road because I know how much you enjoy your 'deer by the cottonwoods' art. I might have to go wandering to find the aspens. Hmmm, Sally has some off their front porch. I do have to see a plant and tree up close first to get a feel for how to express their presence in the minimalist pen and ink medium.
Have a wonderful day off work and thank you so for the encouragement!
Buck, it's hard to say what other talents might have survived the years. I used to be good at a lot of things but I'm not so sure if the infrastructure supports them any more. And I think my inner CPU is deteriorating as well.
I was in Jolly Ol' for just a few weeks and on a horrendously cheesy budget - mostly Battersea at the 'Y' hostel, Gus Kuhn and full days spent standing at the General Registry Office doing family research. It did give me the opp to discover the James Herriot books to kill cheap time though.
Only got to about 3 pubs (booh!) but one was at least 'The Norton' at Cold Norton. And I did get their t-shirt! Oh drats, it just occurred to me that it was probably 'lost' in the move from Hell as well. Sigh. Maybe it would be nice to go back over there one more time, do IOM, etc., before ...
Jenny, I think we all started out with stick figures. My mum would occasionally play hang man with me and I think she cheated by adding extra elements to avoid the gallows. One thing led to another and we got pretty elaborate thereafter. Keep going! Have you seem some of the crayon works of art out there - just amazing!
That last one was commissioned by a realtor so that probably explains my more formal approach. It did look like a pretty nice home (for new-built at least). This was just before the MacMansion on a 1/4 acre lot became the tiring mainstay.
Incredible detail in those drawings and they look pretty cool.
Hope you are enjoying your 2nd visitor of the month - maybe you can get him to finish off his bear story.
Hell, maybe I should hire you to draw a portrait of ME! You know, knock-off about a hundred pounds, and 40 years or so---you know, the way I SHOULD look today!(Now THAT'S the definition of "fantasy-art"!!!)
Lin: i always knew you had talent but these are terrific. Got any of the old homestead?
Lin ... yes we all started out with stick figures but some of us never progressed past that point!! Your work is really really good; you have enormous talent ... I too am anxious to see some New Mexico drawings someday.
dba, the medium was perfect to indulge my anal tendencies, absolutely no doubt about it.
Slim just called; he's into the canyons now and an hour and a half away. Apparently he'll pick us up for one of his infamous 'drive arounds'. He wants to check the state of graze here and there so that he can decide which groups of cattle get put where. We should be good and primed after that mission to have him finish the story ... umm, if I can remember to ask him by then. Classic Range Management can make reality fuzzy sometimes.
Well, you and me both, Bruno. That IS the nice thing about pen and ink - those little lines can get as fat or skinny as you like, unlike these new exaggerating cameras!
Moose, I guess you guys mostly saw my stock car lettering or maybe the Mon Village t-shirt parody I did for Hank and Mallory. As a matter of fact, I was looking for your old Moose logo when I found these (I STILL haven't given up hope!).
Towanda, I thank you sincerely. I do still buy into the belief of a number of great artists that I knew or dated had shared - that daily practice and determination can make all the difference in the world. Sadly, though, I never did since there were always practical things to be dealt with first like every day survival. I didn't think I could afford to wannabe a starving artist lifestyle back then but that was largely only a lack of belief in self and no one to really push me back then to make up for it.
Art must be done for the sake of it.
It can be done at any stage of life and under any circumstances.
Lin, I want to encourage you to pick up your pen and do.
regardless of how good you may think they will be.... its the journey through the work and not just the end result.
(BTW these are VERYgooD) :o)
Wow! ...just Wow!
Thank you, Simon, I appreciate your big tug at the pull start and for hinting that a very slow-starter isn't necessarily a lost cause.
I think I can now add a number of perspectives and flavors that I did not have when I was younger and that prospect is quite enticing.
Craver! That was just so efficiently classic Craveresque! (grin) And VERY much appreciated.
Wow, Lin, what a wonderful talent you have:) And a hell of an eye for detail! Reminds me of my sister's craft work. She can do the smallest of details with paint, but I'm too shaky.
Goddess, that's what I am wondering - if I can still do those fine lines like I used to. I'm wondering if my cheesy glasses are going to disturb my former hand/eye coordination. I never could work using a magnifying glass so it will be interesting.
Incredible work. . you are a woman of talent, not just courage.
Wow. You have the 'eye' and the execution -- perfect perspective and balance. I'm impressed.
Maybe it would be nice to go back over there one more time, do IOM, etc.,before ...
Yes. Oh, yes! I was fortunate enough to go back three or four times after my three-year AF tour, but only one trip was "for leisure." But the upside was
traveling on the "corporate dime" was a LOT better than under the gubmint's penny-pinching travel "allowances." I would SO like to "do" the IoM one more time...in June, of course!
Speaking of tee shirts...If I did manage to make it back to the IoM I'd buy three or more "Mad Sunday" tee shirts. I have this horrible habit of wearing the danged things until they turn into dust-rags, and sometimes beyond that point. My old Mad Sunday shirt gave up the ghost many, many years ago. More's the pity...
Skywriter - thank you so for this encouragement on many fronts. I hope your are right and that this evaluation remains current. I guess I will be finding out.
Hey, I thought you were 'on the road' for a few days? Either my Luddite mindset has struck again or the time has flown by at lightspeed out here again. I'd better go over to your place tonight to check.
Thanks, Atavist - I guess I never gave it much technical analysis but maybe I should have a long time ago. I wonder if it was the draftsman/engineer part of me that provided the perspective - a technical foundation that I just took for granted and never gave any further thought to. It will be interesting to see if my later-in-life anality for analysis will help or hinder any rebirth process. I will be carefully analyzing it all, of course. grin
I join your mother's desire that you take up this very, very obvious talent again. These pictures are great! I would love to see more. Do you feel you
could capture the feeling of the mesa. I am quite sure you could. Take up that pen again and soon.
Buck, how about the September IOM? I've heard that this vintage race is pretty darned good as well if you like to smell a little castor and hear some great oldies go by. I am torn as to which event to put on my wish list so far.
I used to wear my favorite T's to rags, too, until I met a rally guy who said that he wore them for just so long and the packed them away for posterity and special occasions. So I adopted this practice, too, thinking that maybe I would turn them all into one big commemorative patchwork bed quilt or something. The concept was great at the time but now I wish I had just worn the snot out of them. No guarantees that life (or rather people) will treat you honestly and in kind, I guess.
JAC, mum would have loved you for backing up her wish!
In reality, I don't know if these mesas would translate well into pen and ink but I think that I could bring out their linear and right angle geometric qualities which are really what captivate me. I am always enthralled when I come across symmetry and near predictability in what seems like Nature's random geological whims, especially given the timetable involved in its creation.
Hi Lin,
Truly remarkable drawings, I like to tinker with very little success, having seen your talent I have a long way to go.
I'll say sorry now. But I have just tagged you (see my post) give it a go if you wish.
Best regards
Keith.
Buck, how about the September IOM? I've heard that this vintage race is pretty darned good as well if you like to smell a little castor and hear some great oldies go by.
You've heard the same things I have, Lin. Some of my biker "mates" while I was in England said the Manx GP was better in a lot of respects than the TT... most cited the relative lack of tourists (compared to the TT) made for a better experience. I never made it, though.
And the smell of bean oil... Oh, YEAH! I ran Shell Super-M in my racers in the waay-back. I can still smell it. :-)
Keith (or may I call you EBF?), now is a perfect time to improve on your etchings - just look at how late Grandma Moses started. That's what I'm counting on, at least.
That was kindly of you to tag me but nyaahya-nyaahya-nyaahya ... you missed my disclaimer at the top of the blog! All-y, all-y, in free! I'm safe! (hop up with click of heels with big grin)
Buck, the thought of less crowds at the GP definitely appeals to me. Laconia wasn't TOO bad but they had more room spread out, too.
The Manx Norts got me hooked on bean oil. Talk about an exhilarating comfort smell!
lin, you continue to amaze me. Is there no end to your great abilities? Imagine: a Renaissance woman here in N.M. I am impressed by you and Mark constantly.
A bit of computer knowledge re your remark: "And I think my inner CPU is deteriorating as well."
There are all sorts of new pieces of hardware to replace wearing out old parts. Usually you just plug 'em in and away you go.
Cat, I think I might be going devo; from Renn to Medieval. That ties in with my comment about the inner CPU - I was referring to my own biological computer so lemme know when you find a good plug in replacement for gray matter. In the meantime, I think I handle Medieval but I still appreciate the compliment.
Lin, your drawings are incredible! Don't worry about your eyesight. Monet did his best work when he was nearly blind in his old age - simple, powerful work.
If you can't do the detail then don't do it. Simple line drawings can be breathtaking and encourages the viewer to fill in the details with their mind's eye. Makes them very interactive.
Babzy, now you have me all pumped up despite the declining eyesight, enough so that I almost feel like kicking up my heels and singing "I'm in the Monet, I'm in the Monet!" Thank you!
I figure that 'simple' is MUCH harder than complex detail but maybe that is an even better challenge - to provoke the imagination of viewers, just like the rock shadows continually do here.
Wow - your pen-and-ink work is absolutely stunning! You are so tremendously talented. No wonder you have such a natural eye for beauty. Some people go all the way through life without ever really seeing a bit of it.
Now I wonder about the crying little boy, too. By now, he's probably comforted a crying boy of his own, poor lamb.
Cool pictures. You're a real artist. I'm gonna heve to dig some of my old doodles out of a drawer and scan them, for your amusement.
Phlegmmy, I do see a marvelous beauty in almost every little pebble and twig - probably what keeps me intrigued with life this planet. I get sadly frustrated when other people don't.
Ah-hah-hah - you're right! Although my weeping little boy is frozen for eternity on that paper, he probably survived that heartbreak as we do and has since become the comforting man with the cane. So cyclical, so fleeting is our tenure.
FHB, I would love to see your doodlings, I think everyone would. I have always been a sucker for a gentleman offering to show me his etchings. wink!
Man, I wish I was popular enough to get 40 comments! I also wish I was talented enough to draw pictures like that.
Get some new specks and get to it while you can...you are multi-talented!
Mushy, just wait to you get to do your guest blog from the ranch ... friends and family will worship the ground you walk on to hear a second party report. They probably think we're sitting in an apartment making all this stuff up!
You're right, I'll have to see what Walmart's selection of ReddiReaders has to offer when I'm ready to hit pen and paper again. Either that or find a way to hang two magnifying glasses from a ball cap.
If you can get the magnifiers fixed to a baseball cap, we MUST have a picture!
Hi Craver! You know, I've probably made stranger home-made accessories before so it just might happen down the road. But get caught by the camera? - chances are slim, I'm pretty fast at ducking!
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