SKULL TREE

I for one am strongly against the commercialization of Halloween. It's just wrong that such a holiday is now a marketing opportunity to hawk one's wares. I blame the evil corporations for sucking the life out of Halloween, and life itself.

Anyway, buy my Halloween card. We just bought a fence for the yard, well, actually, it's for the dog, but whatever, we're poor.

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Bird nerds, click here.

TREETOPS

Here's one I did for my dad for his birthday. We traded, since it was my birthday soon after: I got a mountain dulcimer. As much as I like this aceo, I think I came out ahead.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY UPDATE:
The topic is GREEN. Here in Greensboro, NC, GREEN is busting out all over. Looking out my window, I see a scene similar to this one.

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TREE #14

Another tree. There's a lot of them out there.

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ILL WIND

Another one from the depths of my subconscious. I can't paint a nice little seascape, can I? Oh, no. I have to paint a scary face to make it "Trippy," as Mick Reasor would say. But you don't need another same ol' same ol' seascape anyway, do you?

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And look here! Art to buy!

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BURCHFIELD-ERIFIC

When I first started painting, smart art people suggested Charles Burchfield as an artist I might enjoy. They were right - his work is very good.

I'm not going to school for any of this, so to educate myself on the masters I'm reading books and, as you may recognize here, copying their work. This is my attempt (homage?) at Charles Burchfield's "Gothic Window Trees.

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TREE STUDY #12

I have no idea if this is tree study #12 or #21. I'm just going to make up numbers, as I can't really think of a gimmicky title for this neat little painting. The light is really the main subject in this one, anyway. I'm trying to get dimensionality and interestingness (hey, that's a word - it cleared the spell check to my surprise) in my painting, and light seems to be the way to go. With watercolors, you do that by working on the shadows. Is that ironic, or a paradox? You're probably saying it's "no duh."

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PLANET PRILOSEC

I'm reviving this one for this week's IF: Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in many forms in many cultures, even on many planets.

Here is a special scene from the planet, Prilosec (no relation to the pharmaceutical) As the three red-ish moons set in the yellow horizon, the Prilosecians join hands in their monthly celebration called "Whew, That Was A Close One (WTWACO for short)."

About thirteen Prilo-years ago, their planet was spinning through the universe (much like ours, fellow earthlings) when it chanced upon a whole bunch of asteroids. Fortunately for them, they have three moons that were able to run interference, so to speak. All the asteroids crashed on one of the three lunar heroes instead of their green and yellow planet (needless to say, they're GB Packers fans).

The WTWACO festival is held in honor and gratitude to their moons. Good thing we, fellow earthlings, have three moons, for it's only a matter of time before we enter an asteroid belt ourselves.

What? We only have one? Um, oh. Right. Well, I'm sure we'll be fine.

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LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

I've been a bad blogger. A good school photographer, but a bad blogger. Here's the latest non-aceo stuff.

First, I worked on the jaundice man painting a bit.

I decided he was at sea, mainly because I over-squirted the blues for a different painting.

Here's an art classmate's birdfeeder.

She potteried it herself. I made up the environment in which it sits.

Red flowers, grown by another art classmate.

I don't like the drapery it sits on; I was doing well with wrinkled fabrics recently. I must have taken it for granted. I like the flowers, though. And even though you can't really tell what it is, I like the way the stems look in the jar.

And my latest, a blatent Burchfield rip-off:

I especially like the happy accident with the trees in the background. I'm going to play around with that style for a bit, I think.

PATH TO HERBIE'S

One of our concerns when the wife and I moved from Brooklyn to Greensboro was whether we'd ever walk again. Not that the move did anything to our legs, mind you. It's just that now we have a car, and things are farther away. Fortunately, there's a wooded path that leads right to a great little diner called Herbie's.

It makes for a great Saturday morning stroll. Lots of trees, cardinals and bluejays fighting epic battles, squirrels and chipmunks competing in the "Who's Cuter" contest, fawns prancing, the seven dwarves whistling, bunnies hopping, the whole kit n' kaboodle.

Also note the Mrs with her nice purse and sweater. I'm going for the country vs city contrast that exists in reality.

Herbie's, by the way, is awesome. We easily put back all the calories we lose on the walk over. As it should be.

Want it? You know what to do.

END OF TIME

THWUMP!

The hot air balloon landed. The old farmer had watched it's descent ever since it appeared in the sky. He and his wife didn't get many visitors. Certainly not by this mode of transportation.

"Martha! Get out and see this. It's the end of TIME!"

The old farmer, you see, was old; obsessed with impending life events, he was reading the Book of Revelations over and over. The sky was falling, and the four horsemen were about to gallop out of the wicker basket affixed to the colorful balloon.

If you're interested in purchasing the picture, click here.

I've got three new ones on ebay. I posted them all at the same time, so I could get a better indicator of what style is more popular. You, dear reader, could also help out by leaving a comment or two, letting me know which one you like best!

These three are: TOUR DE SKULLY, LANDSCAPE 1, and SUN PRACTICE. The landscapes are influenced by the paintings of Charles Burchfield, who've I've just been clued into. TOUR DE SKULLY comes with a rant, which goes as follows:

So anyone who at the very least glances at the Tour on TV will notice how skeletal the riders are. Many of them are downright ghoulish, especially in the final stages. In this anti-obesity hysterical society we live in, it should be pointed out that exercise more often than not is very unhealthy. That’s right, I said it. Being fat isn’t a health crisis. Maniacally demanding people adhere to some arbitrary waifish beauty standard is. Athletes should not be viewed as the pinnacle of health. They severely abuse their body to successfully compete for our enjoyment. If there was a drug that had the same effects on the human body as the Tour, you can bet our bed-wetting politicos would be earning popular points for demanding it’s prohibition.

To purchase, click on my What am I selling now? link on the right.

SCRIBBLE SUNSET

I must come clean: I went to my first art class last night. I know, I know, this kind of ruins my experiment, but I would kind of like a little advice from people looking over my shoulder. Also, I really don't know what I'm doing, so if I get a little educated I might be better able to do what I want. It's all about minimizing my angst, people. So if you want a pre-art class harmoniousjosh piece, this is one of three.

SCRIBBLE SUNSET is pretty much what my doodles look like when on hold on the phone. I try to make some semblace of three-dimensionality by piling on a scribbley string. I thought I'd add a little color to it, make it a little more looker-friendly.

I've also started using outsider in my item title as suggested by a buyer. That reminds me of when I was in high school I was cast in a stage adaptation of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. The funny thing is, I wasn't one of the outsiders - I was an insider. The main insider - the Soc that gets killed. Dying a violent death on stage is a blast - I highly recommend it. Stay golden, Ponyboy. Do it for Johnny!

(No bidders. Dang. If you would like to purchase this, let me know and I'll relist it on ebay.)