Life is about enjoying yourself

Life is about enjoying yourself and having a good time. - Cher

Ambition is putting a ladder against the sky. - American Proverb

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

Just because you are blind, and unable to see my beauty doesn't mean it does not exist. - Margaret Cho

Seeing light thru the trees is awesome.... this is this one... next one will be different.

Oil on Masonite 9x12

Life-transforming ideas

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.- Euripides

We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.- Francis J. Braceland

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.- Bell Hooks

Nothing can do what a book can do. Lifts you out of your life... to a whole new world, whole new perspective. A book is like a dream you're borrowing from a friend.
Dave Kellett

OK... so I wanted to practice doing some mountains .... I did some others, too ... you may see them some day on this blog but for now you will have to settle for these .... good, bad or ugly.

Oil on canvas panel 6x6

Day's sweetest moments

Day's sweetest moments are at dawn.- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see. - Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not fail. - Henry David Thoreau

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein

Oil on Masonite 9x12

Chocolate is good for the heart and mind

Chocolate is good for the heart and mind - Unocchio

An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.- Will Rogers

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. - Will Rogers

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.- Confucius

We paint portraits every Wednesday from 9:30 to 12:30 ... some come out ok and others need much more work. I will post some of that work here .. but that does not mean I am satisfied with it or that I think it is good ... it's just what happended that day.

oil on Masonite 9x12

Silence is more musical than any song

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.- Christopher Reeves

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet. - Henry David Thoreau

Silence is more musical than any song. - Christina Rossetti

I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. - Daniel Webster

Lately I have been practicing  painting miniatures so that is what you will see here. They may appear larger on your screen than they actually are in real life.

oil on canvas 6x8

An Apple a Day

To love what you do and feel that it matters -- how could anything be more fun? -Katharine Graham

Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.- Alice Walker

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.- Henry David Thoreau

Oil 6x8

Contemplation

All the wonders you seek are within yourself. -Sir Thomas Browne;
Smile, and the world smiles with you. - Anon
Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out. - Anon
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

So today we have a pencil drawing ... just a plain ol' carbon graphite pencil and bristol paper (300 Wt; smooth surface). I like this model... never any complaints :-)

Carbon Pencil on Bristol Paper 11x14

Accept Truth

Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views. -George Sand

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What a splendid head, yet no brain. - Aesop

Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250 - Harper's Index,

Well you can tell that tax season is winding down now .. I'm getting back to drawing and painting.... just practicing on you-know-who :-)

Charcoal on smooth newsprint 7x10

Reality

Nothing will content him who is not content with a little. - Greek Proverb

Reality is nothing but a collective hunch. Jane Wagner

I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it. Garrison Keillor (1942 - )

Realism...has no more to do with reality than anything else. Hob Broun

OK.. for today we have a quick sketch with the charcoal.

Charcoal on smooth newsprint 7x7

Spring is when you feel like whistling

One can get as much exultation in losing oneself in a little thing as in a big thing. It is nice to think that one can get recklessly lost in a daisy. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Laughter can be more satisfying than honor; more precious than money; more heart-cleansing than prayer. - Harriet Rochlin

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. Doug Larson

If there comes a little thaw,
Still the air is chill and raw,
Here and there a patch of snow,
Dirtier than the ground below,
Dribbles down a marshy flood;
Ankle-deep you stick in mud In the meadows while you sing,
"This is Spring." - Christopher Pearce Cranch, A Spring Growl


And so it goes ...
as I look out the window I see the wonderful sight of snow gently covering the ground
now I must go outside and snap a few pictures...
this may be our last chance to capture to beauty of the snow covering our valley
... but maybe not
don't you just love the snow?

I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way

It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny. Jean Nidetch

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. John F. Kennedy

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. Oscar Levant

Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Thomas A. Edison

I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way. Carl Sandburg

So here is another 5x5 mini.These are fun little paintings.

Oil on canvas 5x5

One must not lose desires

Laughter is by definition healthy. - Doris Lessing

One must not lose desires. They are mighty stimulants to creativeness, to love, and to long life. Alexander A. Bogomoletz

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.
Brendan Francis

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
Lao-tzu

Oil on canvas panel 11x14

And remember

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. Jane Austen

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are. Earl Mac Rauch

Man is what he believes. Anton Chekhov

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth. Edith Sitwell

This may resemble another painting that you saw on here recently, however, it is not the same one. This one is a miniature, 5x5. I have painted several miniatures for an upcoming show.... and I will paint more.

Oil on Canvas 5x5

I realized that If I had to choose

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. Eleanor Roosevelt

I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes. Charles Lindbergh

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Dorothy Parker

It was another fine day today ... sunny and warm. It's been in the 60's here... can't ask for better than that. Finished off the painting of the river ... I love the river and it's rushing waters.

Oil on canvas on Masonite 9x12

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy

Being assertive does not mean attacking or ignoring others feelings. It means that you are willing to hold up for yourself fairly-without attacking others. Albert Ellis, Michael Abrams, Lidia Dengelegi

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd. Edith Sitwell

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. Martha Washington

Monochromatic Oil on canvas 5x5

The secret of happiness

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for the truth; and truth rewarded me. - Simone de Beauvoir

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. - Amelia Earhart

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker

The secret of happiness is to make others believe they are the cause of it. - Al Batt

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. - Albert Schweitzer

Oil on canvas 5x5

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

Love is a great beautifier. - Louisa May Alcott

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. - Edmund Burke

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. - Richard Feynman

Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought-- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things. - Woody Allen

Not to be exact and not knowing much at all I present to you .....

Oil on canvas 3.5x7

There is no remedy

A heart that loves is always young. Greek proverb

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Aesop

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. Ettiene De Grellet

There is no remedy for love but to love more. Henry David Thoreau

Oil on Masonite panel 9x12

Real Security

Your real security is yourself. You know you can do it, and they can't ever take that away from you. - Mae West

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability. Cicero

Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place. Abigail Van Buren

To me old age is always 25 ears older than I am - Unocchio

Oil on Masonite panel 9x12

Do your best work

There has never been but one question in all civilization-how to keep a few men from saying to many men: You work and earn bread and we will eat it. Abraham Lincoln

You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy. Bob Ross

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. Anatole France

We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many people who work without living. Charles Reynolds Brown

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love. David McCullough

Oil on canvas board 9x12

Everything should be made as simple as possible

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.  Henry David Thoreau

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.   Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955

Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be. Jim Horning

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)

Oil on Canvas Board 9x12

Men are born to succeed, not fail

Dream and give yourself permission to envision a You that you choose to be. Joy Page

One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. George Santayana

Men are born to succeed, not fail. Henry David Thoreau

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. Thomas Aquinas

It is never too late to give up your prejudices. Henry David Thoreau

Oil on canvas Board 9x12

Change is such hard work

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. George Bernard Shaw

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. Henry David Thoreau

Change is such hard work. Billy Crystal

Oil on Masonite 9x12

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams

Be all that you can be, but don't join the army.-Paul Guttman

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. -The Dockle Bur

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society. Henry David Thoreau

I eat really healthy, and if I'm tired, I take a nap. Casper Van Dien

Oil on 8x10 Panel

Life is an experiment

There is no such thing as expecting too much. -Susan Cheever

You really never lose until you stop trying. -Mike Ditka

 A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. -  James Allen


All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oil on canvas Board 6x8

We are much Happier

We are much happier,
much happier
when we realize
that life is an opportunity rather
than an obligation. -Mary Augustine

No man is happy unless he believes he is. -Publilus Syrus

The habit of happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest for creating things new. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau

Oil on Canvas board 9x12

It;s all been said before

All that I know I learned after I was thirty. Georges Clemenceau

.... and none of that sunk in until after I was 50. Unocchio

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't. Pete Seeger

.....and for those of us who do not read the fine print ..... Unocchio

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. Andre Gide

With that said, we might as will tip back a cool one ......

Oil on canvas board 9x12

A Mind Stretched by a new experience

Where we stand is not as important as the direction in which we are going.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

An Asian vase makes a great centerpiece for a still life so here it is.... there was a lot more to this one than just the vase :-)

Oil on a panel 8x10

As long as you can start

As long as you can start, you are all right. The juice will come. -Ernest Hemingway

The difference between good and great is just a little effort.-Duffy Daugherty

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. -Henry C. Link

So today we prepared for a presentation ... then painted a picture. Both were adventurous ....

Makes me think of the Springtime when the apple blossoms are on the trees. We may not get any this year since the warm winter hung in there so long.

Oil on canvas  9x12

Create an exciting circle

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire. - -Fred Shero

It is known that happy people think more happy thoughts than unhappy people. If we think happy thoughts... we create happy perceptions... we create a beautiful aura of light around ourselves... which leads us to happy events. And so we create an exciting circle (where we become even happier).

Still working with a limited pallet ..... we always like a friend cow 8-)

Oil on canvas board 6x8

If you don't get everything you want

The difference between good and great is just a little effort. -Duffy Daugherty

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader's Digest, June 1995

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book


If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want. ~Oscar Wilde

Continuing studies on composition and values    ....  a quick study of a friend of mine :-)

Oil on canvas board 6x8

Purple and yellow

If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe. -Woody Allen

Today's class was on color and values .... lights and darks .... warms and cools..... we were given 2 colors to paint a picture .. + white. The colors were yellow and purple.
So here is what happened......
This is a knife painting.

Oil on canvas panel 6x8

The saddest thing I can imagine

The most imaginative people are the most credulous, for them everything is possible.  - Alexander Chase

 The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.  - Charlie Chaplin

Yea... fat chance here :-)

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.  - Edgar Allan Poe
 
Thankfully for that.

Still painting flowers over here .... dreaming of Spring already .... heading for Arizona tomorrow....

Oil on canvas board  8x10

Plain, Honest and Upright

Turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. -Anonymous

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers. - Orison Swett Marden

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.- George S. Patton

"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock."
~ Henry Ward Beecher

You can't get too much of a good thing

Oil on canvas board 8x10

A Great Beginning

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. - Carl Reiner

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. - Kin Hubbard


Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. - Orison Swett Marden

I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own.  - Norman MacCaig

So what better way to introduce the new year than wander through High Sierras, ponder reflections in mirror lakes, study ice crystals on frozen water's edge, breathe the fresh mountain air and stroll through the marsh-land trails watching the ducks feed on the stream bottoms?
I could not think of anything better so that's what happened. Follow along.........

I don't know if you can read these signs but the advise that Fallen Leaf Lake in California is several miles long and about 400 ft deep. Today, the sky was bright blue and the sun added warm rays.... one of the mildest New Year's days the locals can remember in a long time

Fallen Leaf Lake is a little over 6000' elevation and a couple miles off the highway down a long narrow road. As you approach today you will not see a ripple on the water... it is smooth as glass.... notice the reflections in the next several pictures .... awesome... have you ever seen anything like it? It takes your breath away.

Climbing a little higher is Glens Falls with a frosting of glistening ice. The locals say that this is a rare occassion because usually one can not see this without plowing thru deep snow. It is a gorgeous sight !

Proceeding even higher there is Lilly Lake nestled high in the hills amount the pines and firs.

It would have been nice to continue up the wilderness trail but there was this very intimidating sign ... stopped me in my tracks.....

Meanwhile on over at Lilly Lake other visitors found it to be frozxen over with a thick layer of ice .... again, something a person does not usually get to experience without trudging through deep snow this time of year. Did they enjoy this good day?

Upper part of Lilly Lake... yup, frozen deep!

Lots of tall grasses at the edge of the lake... inlets frozen...... under the ice out there in the middle is running water which fed the falls we saw earlier then ran on down into Fallen Leaf Lake.

It was truely a great day.... hope yours was too.