Five well known artists were born in January. Can y0u guess at least THREE of their LAST names correctly?

1. Yves__________

Hint: He was a merchant seaman who became THE Surrealist to whom the next generation of artists turned to for inspiration.

2. John __________

Hint: He had to re-paint a portrait because it was too risqué, which made it all the more famous. She was a married society woman in Boston. Was she his … ?

3. Paul __________

Hint: Often called the Father of Modern Art. He liked to paint apples.

3. Édouard __________

Hint: One of his paintings, shown below, is considered one of the two paintings that mark the beginning of modern art.

4. Elisabeth __________

Hint: She was the first female sculpture student at the Munich Art Academy. And it gets more interesting from there…

5.  Jackson __________

Hint: AKA “Jack the Dripper”. If you live in the USA and cannot get this one … then I’ll slap you up upside the head.

P.S. You cannot use the internet. I will know if you do.  Well, maybe.

Luncheon on the grass. 1863

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely.
Sunshine almost always makes me high.

Words by John Denver

I have spent lots of days and nights (easily 200+) in the desert around this mountain when I worked as an undergraduate field assistant at the University of Arizona Mammal Museum. It is Ragged Top, at the northern end of the Silverbell Mountains, northwest of Tucson, Arizona. The desert here is very lush, with just about every plant and animal species in the Sonoran Desert ecosystem.

I assisted graduate students with live-trapping and measuring and then releasing wild desert mice to study their populations. On cold nights the mice would get torpid if they spent too much time above ground in a trap (torpid: a state of suspended/sluggish physical activity, like hibernation). We would carry them in our pockets until they warmed up, then put them back near where they came from. I could tell they were coming back to life when I felt them moving around in my shirt and pants pockets!

200+ traps were spread out in the square shape, which made about a 5 mile walk. I remember checking the traps one very dark night, alone. At one point I heard noises around me. My heart started beating a bit faster.  Then I heard a hushed “yip”, a sharp, high pitched bark. I was surrounded by coyotes. An unsettling, but not frightening situation once I realized they were coyotes; mountain lions live here, too. They became quiet. The “yip” probably came from an inexperienced youngster. I could hear them running around on both sides of me. They moved when I walked, and stopped when I stopped. I could only catch an occasional glimpse. They stayed just beyond the reach of my headlamp. How many? I didn’t know. At least 3 or 4 for sure. They were with me for a good distance. I think they were hoping that I would drop a mouse. Just in case, I carefully put each mouse near a hole. Oh, and then there were snakes …

No. I’m off the cruise ship for a few days. I’ll return on Jan 31. I was thinking about my days on the East coast. The barn is an oil painting I did on location in Brookfield, Connecticut. It was late Fall / early Winter. I had driven past this barn many times on the back road from Danbury to New Milford. It screamed “paint me!” every time, so I finally gave in and painted it. It was freezing outside so I stayed in my jeep… where I eventually froze anyway. A sad ending… this painting was stolen from my studio. The only one to disappear – I guess someone liked it.

I love Edwin Dickinson’s landscapes.  He ‘s categorized as an Early American modernist (with Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Cole, and others). …. their painting styles were different, but they were joined by a mental attitude towards their work… Each had a unique personal interpretation of the landscape… and believed in the value of direct observation from nature… feeling and method are intimately linked in their paintings.

Adapted from Mary Ellen Abell, Subjectivist Tendencies in Early Modernist American Art: The Case of Edwin Walter Dickinson

Edwin Dickinson
Born: Seneca Falls, New York 1891
Died: Orleans, Massachusetts 1978

Following Painting:
Tom Never’s Head, 1935, Oil on canvas
15 1/4 X 25 3/8 IN. (38.8 X 64.3 CM.)

Hangin’ ’round in the Port of Cartagena by myself
And I had too much of a sweet fruit smoothie
And I was thinkin’  ’bout myself
And there it was….
This is a small area in the Port of Cartagena. It was calm and tranquil, unlike the city beyond the port gates. I chose a remote bench to sit on. Only then did I notice the ants. Billions all around. I had a bad run-in with ants in Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA. Great. Maybe I’ll only do a quick sketch and color it later. But something interesting happened. Even though a line of ants was marching along my bench, none of them bothered me. So I sat and did the complete painting. I had one or two ants investigate me, but they did not bite me. I do not know if I should take that in a good way.

And I had so much time
To sit and drink and draw.
And there I was.
I wasn’t doing much on this visit except relaxing at this friendly little place. Not much else to do at the beach where cruise ships dock. A friend and I switched between beers and margaritas.

The lighthouse was a bit of a walk from the ship. I never did get all the way there. I walked until I came to a nice little park where I could sit in the shade. I used my drinking water to wet my paints – pretty common, but I did not have my little water cup so I used the lid of the bottle. It worked, but I had to keep changing the water as the lid was so small. The walk was nice, but my mind was busy remembering past visits, restaurants, not bungee jumping, and more.

The ship (Celebrity Constellation) is in the distance. I found a lounge chair at a beach bar. It was free…. for the cost of a couple of good tacos and a Pepsi. I was alone among a throng of people, so I decided to pass the time painting. It was good to be painting again.