Back Home For New Year's!

Red Sky at Night. Sailors Delight!
This is our omen for the New Year!
I took this a few sunsets ago during our week in St. Marys. I'm back home now, ready to ring in 2009 with the family.
We choose a theme each year for our year end party. Last year it was Pirates! This year it is TOGAS! Hopefully I can take some unblurry photos for the blog next week. Have a great New Year's Folks!
Ronnie - in a small town in Georgia

Have a Great Holiday!

I'm outta here. Gone to St. Marys, Georgia for a week.
Have a great Christmas!
Ronnie

A bit of info on the car painting BELOW:
I was worried about how this one would turn out. It's for a great guy who has done more than "above and beyond the call of duty" for my son, Andrew. Randy is a professional race car driver that has been in racing for 3o years.
I didn't know a race car from a turnip until Andrew got involved and considering I paint Chickens and Fruit, this was a stretch for me. I wanted this to be something that would show Randy how thankful I am for all he's done for 'Drew. I hope I accomplished that.
Here's to you Randy! An intentionally dirty car painting!
Interested, in the least bit, about auto racing? Check out this video of Randy driving an APR Porsche. Once at the site, type into the search box - Randy Pobst 911.
He's a Champion in more than racing.
Thanks for listening.
Ronnie

I finally finished Randy's painting.

Figuring it out...
Getting the car done, which I dreaded. Never painted a car before...
and here it is framed!

Have a great one. I'm glad this is finally finished!

Later gators,
Ronnie

Just after sunrise this morning

It was gray and overcast this morning, but so warm that after brewing tea and seeing Joe off to work I took a walk in the backyard in my pajamas. There was a fog on the lake. I thought it might make a nice picture.
This is my rosemary plant still blooming.
Halfway to the lake I startled two white tailed deer in the woods. Too quick for me! I heard them rustle, lifted the camera, but by that time the two were nothing but white tails flying through trees and leaves that matched their colors perfectly.
tree tops...
Another tree down! This is the second in a month. Sawed off artfully by our friends the beavers.
And then, the very loud SQUAAAWK- Haaaank of a heron had me jumping out of my slippers. He must have been 15 feet from me, as he lifted his big wings and headed down the wooded shoreline. How wonderful! Some days I get lucky.
This young deer is one of the pair I saw this morning. I caught this shot of him in October. He was heading toward me, seemed very eager to meet me, but his mom had better ideas.
Well, that was early morning here. Have a great rest of the day! Oh, wait! Check out Rebecca Ramsey's post this morning. Good stuff!
Ronnie

Another Big Biddy Painting

It seems the thing to do here in blogger land. So, here is the latest Big Biddy thing. It's painted on a 12x12" x 1 1/2 " gallery wrapped canvas. I had fun with this! I covered the canvas with an old vintage feedsack using matte vanish. Then, I painted my biddy and the words. To finish it off I added burnt umber and burnt sienna to give it that old rusty ad sign look.
If you haven't discovered Cedric Smith from Savannah, I have a link to his site on the right. He has been a great inspiration to me.
This Big Biddy is for sale on my etsy site.
I know, don't remind me. I have to finish the race car painting. After I load the dishwasher and throw in some laundry and go to the post office and make Shelagh's soup, then I'll get to painting the race car.
Have a really nice day.
Ronnie

Toooo much Christmas!

This picture is of a small portion of the Christmas gifts that arrived at my mom's house for our family gathering yesterday.
Our Christmas gathering begins with everyone stumbling through the door looking over a pile of teetering packages. The sight of all this booty, once it's piled in my 82 year old mother's living room has become a point of discussion for the last three years.
"This is obscene! We need to do something about this!"
Finally, this year, with the pounding of a fist on a tabletop and a call to, "Order in the house! Listen Up!", we have come to an agreement to change.
So, names of each member were written and drawn. Now, there will be one gift held by each person entering the house next year.
Family traditions die hard. This one's time had come.
Have a merry,
Ronnie

Early Christmas Gathering

This is an exemplary example of how NOT to take a photo of a flaming Christmas pudding in a dark room!
The family gathered early this year. Lots of delicious food and our first real traditional Christmas pudding! We have two English folk in our family.
My younger sister prepared the flaming extravaganza right out of the pages of her new Nigella Christmas Cookbook. This is a potent concoction, mind you. Two cups of sherry and then more to pour over at serving time in order to get the grand flaming entrance.
The lights were lowered and sister ignited the pud' in the kitchen, picked it up and turned for the living room. Followed by a hoard of jumping grandsons and ooooing adults the procession began. It became interesting when some of the flaming liquid sloshed over the side of the platter. Fireballs were literally rolling across the wood floor behind her! Older sister calmly exclaimed, "There's fire on the floor. One of the English yelled, "It's on my foot"!
After a lot of Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! all was well and everyone was laughing hysterically at the close call.

My prize - made by "B"

Feast your eyes bloggers. I won this in B's giveaway last week. The purse. It arrived today and I want to leave no doubt how much I love this iddy biddy pink purse. It is more useful than a husband and prettier too.
Here you see it carrying my brushes. No, that would be the last photo. Quick, scroll down to the end then back up.

But there's more.






It keeps your beer cool!






Great for Cheerios and...
(that's not right#*X?)




washes up soooo easy.





Holds JunkerJane's monsters.



Perfect for clean-up in the shower.



Drat! I can't get the pictures to jibe with my words. Just use your imagination.
Well, that one went in wrong. Look backwards. Yeah, that's it.

Yard work. Gotcha covered.

But where it really comes in handy is a night on the town. Pink a dink a doo!
(See top photo with dark bar-like lighting.)

Good Grief! This display is not remotely like I planned.
Anyway, I want B to know how much I like my prize. Thanks B.
You'll find B right here at Simply B!
Visit her today. She is in shock after her giveaway.
Dirty rotten bloggers tried for the pink purse and then left B all alone.


...Cheerios and milk on your left


If you're wondering, those are wax lips in the top photo. Maybe I'll do my own giveaway. Wax lips anyone? Have the best day ever.

Ronnie

The Thing and Sandy

It's really Wednesday. I have to post important items late the night before, because Shelagh Duffett gets up at the crack of dawn to read this stuff and I can't.

FIRST things first.
Sandy Mastroni! She's a self taught artist and owner of several cats. She also owns a creepy ventriloquist dummy that keeps jumping in front of her camera during photo shoots. The cats, the dummy and Sandy all share a home with a very nice husband who (I'm guessing) is lucky to be living with her. Please take a moment to discover Sandy's unique and mysterious art.
Oh, did I tell you she's doing a giveaway? Here's Sandy's link! Good luck catching lots of fish today, Sandy.

And no, I mean yes, this piece of sha-tah art up there on the left is mine. That insane race car THING I'm trying to finish! EEE gads! Save me. My tracing paper drawing taped over the background, waiting for me to put it out of it's misery.
Have a great one,
Ronnie

It's all about cars!

Tuesday, I took a fun day trip to APR (Audi Porsche Racing) where my youngest son, Andrew, works. It's an amazing place, especially if you like cars like I do. I won't bore you with car talk, but here are a few pictures.
You guessed it, I did NOT take that amazing photo with the threatening clouds. That's downtown Opelika, Alabama, the home of APR and the photo was taken by their official photographer.
As for art, check out the APR emblem on the wall above the mechanics area. They slap this crazy design on the side of each race car too.
It's back to my regular life tomorrow! I'll "catch you up" on Randy's painting.
Later gators, Ronnie
That's Andrew.

Sunday ramblings

It's cold out today, just below a freeze. As I made tea and looked out the window over the kitchen sink I noticed the lake had that molasses look. The water seems to slow down just after Fall.

Most of the leaves on the beautiful pin oak have fallen. The brilliant yellow of the Poplar gone for weeks. The sunlight is brilliant white.

The house is quiet. Joe has gone in to work and yes, it is Sunday. He's had a busy few weeks. Needs time to catch up.
He asked to take the goose neck lamp I use in my painting room. I say, "I need it, but go ahead", realizing it's best to throw him a bone this morning. Rest assured he will be back this afternoon in time for Falcon's kickoff and all will be right with the world again.

I started Randy's painting yesterday. I've procrastinated long enough. I do this when the idea is not one hundred percent set in my mind. Still feels a bit fuzzy, but I went ahead anyway and put that first base coat on. I love the look of warm burnt umber on a cold day.
Ronnie - in a small town in Georgia

Link for GOOD!

To my MONOLITHIC following! If you aren't following Shelagh Duffett's blog, you should. She is a brilliant wise lady, an artist, photographer, philanthropist and world traveler.
On December 2 she posted something I think you'll be interested in.
Three Cups of Tea. That's your tease!
Hop over to Shelagh's blog AliceinParisLovesArtandTea and see what the buzz is all about.
She also reluctantly treated us with a peek at her physical self today! Beauty, eh?
Remember, scroll down to her December 2nd post.
Ronnie
Linking at your service. Whoopee! Man, I hope that link works.

Learning to link - an audio tutorial by Zarsh

http://archiemcphee.com
Holy Mackerel! I did it. Right up there.
Thanks for the offers of help, you all. Thanks especially to Zarsh.
If you haven't already, copy and paste Zarsh's Link Tutorial. It's Comment #1 under today's EARLIER entry. It's hilarious! See what you can cause without knowing, Renee!

Reality Check

I woke this morning like most of us, happy to see the sun had risen once again and today it offered me diamonds on a frosted lawn. A trip to the P.O. to ship a handmade treasure to a Nancy in Illinois, a painting to create, laundry and a dinner menu all are in this day's plan.
First things first. With tea and toast I checked my mail and read this from Renee in Canada. I invite you to read her December 2nd blog post.
http://Circlingmyhead.blogspot.com
Please, someone teach me to create a link@(@&*(*%#!
Ronnie - in a small town in Georgia
Have a joyous day.

Feeling more at home here

Today I have orders to fill and a painting to start for Porsche race car driver Randy Pobst. I've never done this sort of thing, but I'll be sure to share the results with you when it's done. Good or bad.
I've decided to post a painting today that I did a few months ago.
Yep, that's it.
I was inspired by Leslie in Virginia. I read a story on her blog (Flowers of Life) yesterday about fireflies, which brought back good memories of summers when I was a kid.
We call them lightning bugs here in the South.
Gotta get crackin'! The day is awasteing!
Ronnie - in a small town in Georgia

Day Three

Try not to be distracted by my crooked picture. It exemplifies my state of mind while building my blog.
Building a blog is a bit like the day after a move. The boxes are hither and yon and you aren't quite sure in which room to start.
This morning I began exploring your blogs. I found many examples of what a beautifully squared away "house" looks like.
I especially enjoyed Shelagh Duffett's blog Alice in Paris Loves Art and Tea. There is a peacefulness there coupled with a lot of good information and wonderful art.
I'm posting a painting today, that I did a few years ago, called Under the Full Egg Moon. Shelagh's love of vivid blue and starry skies was the inspiration for this post.
I have a lot to learn: creating links, focused and straight photographs, Fliker, Flopper,Twirler, Twister, Zaggle, Shapeshifter, Whewww! Thanks for your help.
Have a beautifully creative day,
Ronnie

Day Two. I'll need a nap today!

Well, here I am!
No, not in this picture. That was a happier time when the computer was far away and left home to fend for itself.
It's DAY TWO of my adventure into blog world and I survived! I was up until 4 AM, which I'm finding out is normal hours for many bloggers, especially those with little kids. The Night is the art bloggers friend!!!
I noticed NoodleandLou.etsy.com working after midnight. How do you people do this!?
Flor Larios Art!
Now YOU are the best thing since sliced bread. My first official Follower! I am flabbergasted by your ability to find me and awestruck by your beautiful art. You are the success story we all strive for.
Well, it's back to the salt mines of wingnut- self taught-blog building. You other blogger artistes are beatin' me with a stick and I hate looking like a slacker! Perhaps I'll post some more of my art today or share some lovely Christmas ideas if I can figure it out.
Have a happy day,
Ronnie
aka Joe's stove operator living in a small town in Georgia

Shock and Awe!

Chicks Night Out! Won a yellow ribbon!

I entered this 30 something" x 48" acrylic on canvas
at Arts Clayton Gallery and it won!
It was a huge and wonderful surprise.

I did. So can you!

First Post! First Blog!

I don't know what I'm doing! It's 1:36 AM ET and I finally have THIS!
Woopedy Doo!
Sometimes I get good ideas in my sleep. See you tomorrow. I mean today...later...
gator.