Saturday

 This is more or less finished.  Poor moose!  I should have taken some small scraps of paper and practiced more before I tried putting him in this painting.  I did this painting many years ago, and have a photograph of it.  I wanted to try to do it again.

This guy has been staining the neighbor's house, and now he's working on the roof.  Shouldn't he be wearing a harness or rope or something?  I quit watching him when I saw his feet slip on the metal roof and he grabbed for the ridgeline. 

Friday

I went to the oil painting class this morning, and now have all these terms spinning around in my poor head -- value, hue, complimentary, chroma, shade, tint, etc. etc. etc.  All things I do when I paint, but  never stop to think about what I'm doing or why. 

The trees behind my house.

This is what happens when you stay up all night.  I think she's spending a lot of time in the kitchen, guarding our house from mice.

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The dead NASA satellite fell into what might be the ideal spot — part of the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, U.S. space officials said Tuesday.  They had orignally predicted some of it would fall in Canada.  Well, they weren't too far off, at least it lit on earth.

Barrie is home sick today.  Darned hearing aids!  I kept hearing this sound downstairs, and I finally went down to see what it was.  Barrie was shuffling cards on the coffee table. 


Thursday

 I was talking about the old barn I lived in at Ragged Mountain, CO.  Came across this picture today of the kitchen.  That is a restaurant cook stove, and yes, I COULD cook back then.  Notice the pie on the stove.  The stove was huge.

The place was wired for electricity, and there's even a fixture on the ceiling.  But we never started the generator, so used lanterns.  The sewing machine under the window was my Grandmother's old treadle Singer, which I used a lot.  I still have the machine.

While going through old photos, I found this picture of Mad and Stan's wedding.  Tracy was the flower girl.  What a great picture!  The two bag pipers were such fun, and they came back to visit in Pinedale quite often.  We went downtown, and wondered how the patrons in the Cowboy would react to these guys in their kilts.  They were a big hit.

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Last night my ex husband's wife called.  Seems the ex had gone up the Green and was late getting home.  So Barrie and Kathy headed up the Green, in my pickup, to look for him.  They met him just a ways out of town.  Is this what you call "family ties"?

Wednesday

Barbara S. brought this photograph to art group this morning.  This is Monte Skinner, up in the mountains.  (Cirque of Towers maybe?)  What a stunning picture.  Thanks for sharing, Barb.

I got started on a painting of fall quakies in art group today.  Tis the season!  Now that my pine trees are gone, I've got a real panorama view of Pinedale, and there are spots of vivid yellow and orange all over town.  The trees down at the Wagon Wheel are almost bare, and mine haven't even started turning yet.  My cottonwood trees are golden, and the leaves are coming down.  The cottonwoods just south of mine are still green. 

I should con Barrie into a drive up to the campground and to Elkheart Park, to see the colors.

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I ate lunch at Rendezvous Pointe today.  Vicky stayed for lunch too. 



Tuesday

 This is the colored pencil chicken my sister-in-law, Alice liked.  I would never have thought of a frame like that for it, but it looks so great!

This is Alice's kitchen wall.  I'm proud to share wall space with Lynn's painting of the pitcher and eggs.



I don't think my wodbine is going to turn red this year like it did a couple years ago.  Some years it freezes before it changes colors, and I think this is one of those years.  I haven't been out in the yard to look at the whole vine, though, just the part that is growing up over the roof. 

I really love this vine.  Took it years to get started (from seed from Riverton).  It is slow to leaf out in the spring, but it doesn't die back to the ground like the hops vine we all have here. Barrie did cut it back a couple years ago, but it grew back fast.

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The bane of our existence has thought of something new to torment Barrie.  Kasey came home from her weekend visit with a haircut he had given her.  He cut about 5 inches off her hair.  What a horrible thing for him to do.  I guess he's beyond slashing tires and gluing on gas caps now.  But he hasn't paid child support since June.

On the bright side -- remember the beagle dog Barrie found up by Soda Lake?  The other dog, a male Beagle, showed up at the Box R. A wrangler called Julie at Animal Control, and the dog is now home in Salt Lake.  What a happy ending! 

Sunday

 Paul and Tracy at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  They had a great time there.



My favorite hat:  This is the hat Kevin Costner wore in "Open Range".  Another attempt at drawing with graphite pencil and white charcoal on toned  water color paper.  I know there's a way to do this successfully, but I haven't found it yet.  You can't apply the white charcoal over the graphite, and it's hard for me to get dark tones - even with a 6B pencil.  And I'm not sure how to prepare the paper - make the sepia tone all blotchy, or try to smooth it out a little more.

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Thanks, Kat, for the little soft furry gift you left for me to step on this morning with my bare feet.  Another mouse bit the dust.



Saturday

This is the little Guerilla Box I will be using for the oil painting class.  It is made for a 6" x 8" canvas.  You can use a larger one, but you can't store the wet canvas inside the box if it's any larger.  I just can't see myself packing 50 lbs of painting gear up and down two flights of stairs.

The little thing that slides out the side is the palette, and the paints, brushes, etc. are stored inside the box.

At one time, I must have thought I was going to really paint up a storm - I have about a dozen of the little 6" x 8" canvases.

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I watched the movie "Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys?" last night.  Really enjoyed it.  It is about Big Piney ranches and people from Big Piney.  I heard the word "gunsel" .  I hadn't heard the word used in ages - it was popular about the time I was in college (many years ago).

The dictionary defines the word as a stupid or inexperienced person, esp a youth.  That's one of several definitions.

They filmed the barn dance Ritchies used to have every fall,  and I saw Madeleine dancing with Scott.  Scott looked like he was about 7 years old at the time.  It was a fun movie.

Friday

Just finished my first painting class from Kay Meeks. It was like real school!  I learned so much about color this morning.  I use color all the time, but don't think about it a lot.

This is the photo I plan to use for reference next week.  I'm going to try it in oils on a tiny 6" x 8" canvas.  I'm not sure how to work that small.  I have a nice wooden table easel, but it weighs a ton, and I would have to pack it up and down two flights of stairs.  So I think I'll start with the little guerrilla box.  

I took my sheets off the bed to wash yesterday.  But there were clothes in the washer when I went down, so I left them on the bathroom floor.  I just went down to put them in the washing machine, and found them in the dryer, all clean and ready to go.  My elf has been at it again! 

Wednesday

Here is what I bought at the Rendezvoue Pointe silent auction, a watercolor by Linda.  We call it "Party Crow."  I love the colors in this.

Is there such a word as "uglify"?  "Beautify" doesn't describe what Ridley's are doing to the store front. I can't believe they are covering up that beautiful rustic wood with pink paint.  Or maybe it's supposed to be yellow.  Anyway, it is ugly.

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§   My friend Betty C.  posted this on Facebook.  Walk a mile in their shoes.....that way if you still don't like them, you are a mile away and you have their shoes!!! :)

Monday

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  Poor guy has nothing to smell with! I took it at a motel we stayed at in Montana.  It was the same motel where the guy in the next room called the owner and complained  because Barrie was coughing.  She called our room and apologized and said if he called us that we should just ignore him.

The next morning, we were eating breakfast when one of the women in the booth behind us was tellling about her mother-in-law.  Said she had the Broken Spur Motel, and what a witch she was!

I love small Montana towns.  I think you could live there one week and know everybody in town and their life history.

Boomer in his realm - behind his gate, guarding us. How could anyone be afraid of that sweet face?



I watched the movie "Easy Rider" on Crackle.com last night.  It's been years since I saw it, and had forgotten some of it.  Lots of smoking pot and sniffing stuff up their noses.  It really was a great movie.  I think that counter culture kind of skipped Wyoming, especially Shoshoni.