Some days I need to experience the beauty in my world. Today was one of those days. Today was exceptional. Here are some pictures I would like to share with you. Today the sun shone warm. Tomorrow a storm is coming.
I Needed This Day
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Another Year Goes By
Today is my birthday. My wife, Mary Livingston – The Backdoor Artist blogged a nice birthday post to me, and I want to say Thank you to her. So, thanks honey. Just for fun and for a little self-inflicted birthday humiliation I’ve attached a self portrait that I drew about 33 years ago. This was part of my early beginning into serious art. Well, you’ve got to start somewhere. This was about a year before I met her on a blind date, don’t ask. Back then I still had hair, a lot of blond hair. I miss that hair. Thinking back I can almost hear the disco music playing.
Skidding Logs
Skidding logs with a big wheels and a team.
Skidding logs is the process of moving cut logs from the woods to the landing. The landing is where they are loaded for transport to the mill. After the turn of the last century, draft animals and steam were the engines of choice for moving these huge logs. The “big wheels” in this pen and ink, was the pinnacle of technology in ground based skidding way back then.
Cat rubber tire skidder
Diesel powered skidders are the work horses of today for skidding logs. These machines come in different sizes and configurations for different jobs. The rubber tire skidders are used on gentler slopes. They are built for speed.
John Deere skidder
The track laying skidders often used on steeper slopes. They are built for traction.
Cat track skidder
The forwarder is today’s pinnacle of technology in ground based skidding. It loads logs onto itself instead of dragging them.
Valmet Forwarder
Let’s not forget the original skidders, the horses. They can’t be beat for sheer beauty!
Horses near Burney Mountain.
Tell Me About Yourself Award
Cristi M nominated me for Tell Me About Yourself Award. Cristi has a great site and I recommend a visit if you haven’t seen it. I really enjoy the pictures from some of the most interesting places in the world. Thanks Cristi.
The rules for this award :
1.Thank the person who nominated you : Thank you very much Cristi M!
2.Tell seven thing about yourself that you haven’t shared yet :
–In 2013 my wife and I will have been married for 30 years.
— I enjoy rock hounding.
– I like traveling with our travel trailer.
– I’m a Scorpio.
– I don’t get to draw or paint enough.
– We have a garden, but I HATE weeding.
— My wife, Mary, is my best friend.
3. Nominate 7 bloggers.
1)The Daily Golden.
2)Asmalltowndad Weblog.
3)Under The Skies of Arkansas.
4)Honeydropstudio.
5)TheTea Corner.
6)The World According To Dina.
7)Kestrelart.
Congratulations friends ! You all have great blogs and may you have many visitors.
Another Fish For The Fish Story
The title page for the fish story.
I finished the title page for the fish story. It is a fairly simple watercolor. It still took about five watercolor sketches to get what I wanted. I hope it makes you think BIG FISH!
School of trout.
I took a few fish reference pictures the other day, although these were Rainbow Trout. In a beautiful mountain stream.
Blitz finds a fish for me. “Hey Blitz that one is dead.”
Blitz goes back to what she does best.
A Golden Retriever isn’t very helpful when taking fish pictures. Just don’t tell her that, I wouldn’t want to spoil her fun.
First Snow
The first snow of the season paints Bully Choop white.
We had the first snow of the season. It ended fire season and caused the first chain requirements this Fall, all in one day. The first day of October it was 103 F. Did we just skip Fall.?
The woods crews went from fighting fires to building warming fires.
The Canine Color Palette
A pen and ink drawing of a Labrador Retriever isn’t a typical post for someone who lives with a bunch of Golden Retrievers. I did this picture as part of a fundraiser for our local retriever club. A raffle prize of a pen and ink of the winner’s dog.
It seems appropriate to post the picture of the lab in honor of our guests. We are taking care of three rowdy Labrador retrievers for the next two weeks. They came in black, yellow and chocolate. We mixed them with gold for a multi-color canine color palette.
Mixing the colors.
I have noticed that these colors blend well together. However, they do run a lot, and drool too. I think I’ll call this color palette “Retrievers.”
The race is on!
The golden streak!
I took these pictures in the low, early morning light. They aren’t very sharp, but I think the action makes up for it.
The Beautiful Blogger Award
Huge thanks to Maarit-Johanna of Literature and Culture, literatureandculture.wordpress.com, for recommending my blog for this award. This was a very nice thing to do. Maarit-Johanna has beautiful site that everyone should visit. It is full of wonderful art, philosophy and literature.
Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you
Thank you Maarit-Johanna.
2. Post the award image to your page
3. Tell 7 facts about yourself
I married my best friend and we will be celebrating our 30th Anniversary next year.
We have 3 grandchildren that keep us in stitches.
I am a Registered Professional Forester and I love my job (Oops was that 2 things).
I enjoy watercolors, and pen and ink and I love that job also.
I love, train and raise golden retrievers with my wife.
I mine gold with my wife.
We have 2 cats, 3 dogs and 10 chickens.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers, and let them know about the nomination
Zeebra Design & Destinations, Playamart
Congratulations everybody!
One Of These Fish Is Not Like The Other
In this post I will reveal the answer to the riddle of the Mystery Of The Sunfish. If you haven’t read that post yet, spoiler alert, I suggest you stop reading now and go read it first.
The mistake I made in the drawing of the fish, in Sunfish 2, would have clearly caused the fish to be eaten by a predator. Perhaps, the mutation did occur at some point in time, and the end result was an ancient predator did eat this fish. Thus, it never reproduced causing it to be lost over the millennia. Alas, I will never know if my picture of the sunfish was accurate long ago and that my mistake wasn’t really a mistake at all, but a brilliant scientific finding.
I know, you are asking me to just get to the point already. Look closely at Sunfish 2. Look at the scales. The scales are backwards. Yes I know, what dopey artist would screw that up right. I’m raising my hand right now. Having scales backwards on a fish is like a parachute behind a drag racer. Try to swim fast and they’ll flair out slowing the fish down so even the laziest predator can have a snack. This was not a genetic adaptation that would provide an enhancement of fish evolution. So until an ichthyologist out there sends me a note saying that I have postulated a brilliant theorem, I’m just your dopey Forester Artist.
On a happy note, I have to throw kudos out to Z at zebra designs, www.playamart.wordpress.com. You should go visit her website it’s pretty awesome. She has created a lot of beautiful artwork to see. She did figure out the answer to the riddle. Not wanting to give it away to the other readers, she sent me some cryptic replies. It took her a couple of attempts to get through to me, but she finally did. She solved it and made me laugh out loud. You should go back and read her replies.
When my oldest son saw the post he also figured it out. He instant messaged me within five minutes of it being published. I asked him if I had ever shown him the picture before. He claimed he had never seen it. He is pretty observant, but he also knows that if I showed the picture to him, I would have forgotten about it by now. Just saying.
I bet if I were to dig into my pile of old stuff there is bound to be more bad art or dumb mistakes I made along the way. Sometime, I may post more for your viewing pleasure or pain, as it may be.
From The Field
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I’m in the field today. Rough, rocky, dry, dusty and burned. This will be no picnic for the loggers.
THE FORESTER ARTIST 