Eating Outdoors

Cammie wrote on her facebook updates that she enjoys eating outdoors as one of the best parts of Summer.

This brings up a memory long ago. We often set up the tables on the screened porch in Colorado when my Grandma Nellie and Grandpa BW feed us and the helping hands. They had a "cook house" when the worker population exceeded 10 or so. Some years they would even hire a cook to feed the worker crowd.

Outdoor eating meant that the patio in front with those nasty cottonwood trees had to be swept. They were very tall trees that grew wind blocks very quickly with little water. The cement patio disguised the huge water tank that held the water supply for the house before Orchard Mesa was connected to a water system.

Some evenings we would have the neighbors over and they would barbeque an elk roast and eat watermelon. As the evening progressed we all sat in big round metal pastel chairs and watched as the storm would come up from the West and thunder and lightening would strike the book cliff mountains 20 miles a way.

Grandpa could predict the weather from these strikes and determine which days we would be picking peaches from the 30 acre orchards.

One year the cook had a particularly good recipe that I was able to get her to write down. I was 12 at the time and was totally in love with coconut macaroons. Makes my mouth water just to think about it.

I usually had a birthday back in Colorado. We came every year to help out. I got to choose from the cake mixes which cake was going to be made for me. I usually went for the spice cake. My sister usually went for a little more exotic cake. Penuche. They called it burnt sugar frosting back then.

When the grandparents moved into the city. The outdoor dining continued. There really wasn't room for 7 people to eat at the table unless it was outside.

It was here that dad made the infamous remark. After the mechanical collapse of one of Grandma's horizontal freezers. Don't worry Nellie, some of the chickens we cleaned out the freezer were old enough to go to Kindergarten!

You can imagine that flack he took for that!

Enjoy some al fresco dining soon!

Love
Pat

Latest Painting

What does graduation day mean to you?

For some people in our family it is a red letter day. One that is full of such mixed emotions that it best avoided. Others, use it as a way to celebrate the person and there academic accomplishments.

My latest painting is working off of a lady stopped in front of me at a light. Here car was bight red. She is alone in the car. Beside her are two balloons. From her side mirror you can tell that she is wearing white tiered earrings. It will be an interesting story for the viewer to piece together. There are plenty of reds in painting so it may become a study in red washes. There are some orange reds and some pink reds, and some value changes in between. I have a 12x24 inch canvas that this should land on.

I also have a couple of squares that will be become a version of the ancient inscriptions on the stones of one of the pyramids in Mexico. These flat depictions are currently displayed at the De Young in San Francisco as part of their Meso Americano exhibit. It will be fun to see what kind of stone like contrast I can generate with the watercolor canvases.

: ) Pat

Irritating Phrases that Have Crept into our Usage

There are a couple of insidious phrases that have become part of our vernacular. We should blame two people, as far as I can discern for these phrases.

One is the interjection of the word "Look." To my knowledge this interjection did not occur prior to President Obama's run for president. When he is off script, this interjection was used by him to provide some thinking time so that the words that came out would be more elegantly phrased. It is now used by many people when they are stuck explaining something complicated. It is almost mandatory.

The other phrase is "How good is that?" This is wickedly obtuse grammatical construction that really has no business in your parlance. In my own observation this one was started by the food channel host and now talk show host, Rachel Ray. It has become pervasive in all categories of discourse. I heard it from announcers in baseball and have heard it from commentators of news broadcasts. I have heard it modified and used in conversation. Its tell tale grammatical construction is its give away.

These phrases will become emblematic of this era. They will join the likes of the common phrase heard at least one time a reality show, " I am not here to make friends.. I am here to win.

Something to think about

: ) Pat

Watercolor Working from a Concept, Incentive Retirement

I think that one of the reasons I am enjoying watercolor art so much is that it is very conceptual.

There is the beginning concept that involves that idea of a finished painting. It can be the motivating factor in your thinking as you start to put this painting together.

After this concept is finalized, I enjoy the sketching aspect. This brings down to reality what the painting subject matter could be.

The next conceptual piece is picking up shapes and seeing that there is something that unifies the concept. This is level of painting that I am currently engaged. Shadows tie with objects. Consistent color that moves through the painting. The challenge is to move this into values and contrasts. They can then be unified and the painting can move the viewer's eyes from one part of the painting to another. This is a very sophisticated concept and is a challenge for me in the painting arena.

As washes go on the painting, in watercolor they almost always go from light to mid to dark. There is plenty of negative space painting that occurs as the painting gets to completion.

By any measure, this can really become a passion.

Happy Thursday out there. Its graduation night for many of the high school students in the district.

The high school district (my previous employer) has seen fit to offer nearly the same retirement incentive to the teachers. It looks like many who had regrets that they had not signed on for last year's incentive, are taking the leap and signing on to retire this year. This is the ultimate game changer for school budgets. Their is definitely more harmony among the staff then what most districts are going through with their layoffs and rehires as August approaches.

Last year's incentive retirees saved the district over 2 million. I wonder what this year's will yeild.

: ) Pat