A friend in San Miguel de Allende sent me a photo he shot of a bullfight. I made this quick sketch from his photo.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Matador
Still testing certain aspects of the Blogger.com blogging interface.
A friend in San Miguel de Allende sent me a photo he shot of a bullfight. I made this quick sketch from his photo.
A friend in San Miguel de Allende sent me a photo he shot of a bullfight. I made this quick sketch from his photo.
Blogging via email
blog postings will probably be sent via email from my iPhone.
This blog entry is actually a test to make sure I'm using the correct
address and all that.
Some of those posting might have horrendous typos for two reasons:
(1) I make a lot of mistakes when typing on a handheld device.
(2) I'll sometimes use an iPhone app called Dragon Dictation which
records your voice, then converts it to text that you can email. (Above: The Dragon Dictation app on the iPhone. It's free. For now.)
So if you see a blog entry that says something strange like "the pork
spinster is beautiful," you can know that I probably was using the
Dictation app and what I really meant was probably something like "the
York Minster is beautiful." A Minster, by the way, is a church of
importance in northern England.
Of course, the Dictation app lets you correct mistakes, but if I'm in
a hurry, like trying to keep up with the tour leader taking us to the
York Minster crypt, or getting off the bus that has a WiFi connection,
I might just email the blog "as is" without correcting it.
I'll post an uncorrected blog made with the Dictation app soon, so
you'll know what to expect. And so I'll know what to expect.
Other than that, only the unexpected should be expected. Starting
December 15th.
Now imagine the movie guy voice: "jtChatter. Coming soon to a browser
near you. The Thrills of cider and pub food! The Excitement of riding
buses and trains! The Mystery of DaVinci Code - like cathedrals! The
Magic of funny accents and cars driving on the wrong side of the road!"
Monday, December 7, 2009
Packing and Painting
There are two things that an experienced traveler does in the days before leaving for England: pack and learn to paint. Since I'm already pretty good at packing, I decided to go ahead and learn to paint first, then pack.
On Saturday I attended a painting demo by Craig Srebnik in his Santa Fe studio. He's entertaining, a great teacher, talented, and inspirational. He makes it look so easy that I'm ready to start packing already. When I get back from England I'll check into signing up for one of the painting classes he offers.
I'll pass along a professional tip he gave us: use cheap brushes, because then when you look at a painting that's beyond your ability, you can say "Sure, but he used expensive brushes. I could do that too if I had good brushes." Brilliant! (as they say in jolly olde England)
Craig Srebnik starts a painting by drawing a baseline on a used canvas that has a figure drawing already on it (turned sideways). The large digital monitor on the left displays a photo he took in France, to use as reference for the new painting.
Srebnik uses burnt umber color thinned with turpentine to quickly add basic construction lines and dark areas to the composition.
This monotone underpainting establishes the dark and light values and the composition of the painting. He makes many changes from the photographic reference material, and paints in middle tones and light tones.
One and a half hours later the underpainting is finished. That's the end of the demo, so I'll assume the final color version will look fabulous (because all of his paintings look fabulous).
I can't wait to do this myself, although I'm still a fan of digital paint (more on that later). At least now I can pack.
On Saturday I attended a painting demo by Craig Srebnik in his Santa Fe studio. He's entertaining, a great teacher, talented, and inspirational. He makes it look so easy that I'm ready to start packing already. When I get back from England I'll check into signing up for one of the painting classes he offers.
I'll pass along a professional tip he gave us: use cheap brushes, because then when you look at a painting that's beyond your ability, you can say "Sure, but he used expensive brushes. I could do that too if I had good brushes." Brilliant! (as they say in jolly olde England)
Craig Srebnik starts a painting by drawing a baseline on a used canvas that has a figure drawing already on it (turned sideways). The large digital monitor on the left displays a photo he took in France, to use as reference for the new painting.
Srebnik uses burnt umber color thinned with turpentine to quickly add basic construction lines and dark areas to the composition.
This monotone underpainting establishes the dark and light values and the composition of the painting. He makes many changes from the photographic reference material, and paints in middle tones and light tones.
One and a half hours later the underpainting is finished. That's the end of the demo, so I'll assume the final color version will look fabulous (because all of his paintings look fabulous).
I can't wait to do this myself, although I'm still a fan of digital paint (more on that later). At least now I can pack.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
My Life Is Going To Shambles
But that's a good thing. I'm going to England for Christmas to visit Robin for a couple of weeks during her Brunel University holiday break.
Between December 22 and 26 we're staying in York. A two hour train ride north of London, York is reportedly one of the most picturesque towns in England, and Shambles Street is one of the most picturesque streets in York.
The history of York dates back to the first century AD. The York Minster (the Cathedral) was completed in 1244, and its history goes back many centuries before that.
Shambles Street in York
I leave on December 15 and arrive in London the morning of the 16th. Meanwhile, I'll dust the cobwebs off this blog site and post a few practice blogs to be up to speed and in good blogging-shape when it's time to leave.
Between December 22 and 26 we're staying in York. A two hour train ride north of London, York is reportedly one of the most picturesque towns in England, and Shambles Street is one of the most picturesque streets in York.
The history of York dates back to the first century AD. The York Minster (the Cathedral) was completed in 1244, and its history goes back many centuries before that.
Shambles Street in York
I leave on December 15 and arrive in London the morning of the 16th. Meanwhile, I'll dust the cobwebs off this blog site and post a few practice blogs to be up to speed and in good blogging-shape when it's time to leave.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Final Oxford images and that's a wrap.
I'm really glad I got to see Oxford before I had to leave England. Here are some final images.
Lots of alleys, sidestreets, and hidden places to explore in Oxford.
Chairs in the lobby of the Oxford Castle Hotel.
A hallway in the old castle prison. The doors in the hall are to small cells. The gift shop at the end of the hall probably wasn't there at the time.
Lunch at Piemasters, a fast-food place in a busy indoor market, in downtown Oxford. I had the Chicken of Aragon with potatoes, gravy, and mashed peas.
We met Lynn, Robin's former tutor at Merton College, at the college where she teaches full time, Regent's Park. Robin and Lynn walk through the school's quad on the way to Lynn's office.
The Regent's Park quad.
We could use a few of these in downtown Santa Fe.
We stopped at The Randolph, a 5 Star hotel, to have a cider. This guy claimed to be a musician (an organist, I think) who'd just been recognized and cheered at some event. Besides being cheered, he was also drunk as a skunk, alternately spewing BS and almost falling asleep. As you can see, he invited himself over to our table. He tried to leave without paying for his drink, which he just snatched off the tray of a passing waiter. When the bartender insisted that he had to pay for his drink, he wrote a check but the writing was totally illegible scribbles.
Cider at the Randolph.
The Randolph Hotel.A TED conference was held here a couple of summers ago while Robin was studying at Merton College. She ran into some long-time Mac friends who were in Oxford for the conference.
William Herbert watches over the Bodleian Library.
The building where Oxford graduates get their degree has a circular courtyard, surrounded by busts with almost cartoonish faces. We'll have to ask Robin to get the inside story on this one.
All of the busts have bugged out, popping eyes, and mouths agape. Very cool indeed.
Farewell to Oxford, now one of my favorite college towns.
Ivy at Regent's Park College.
Lots of alleys, sidestreets, and hidden places to explore in Oxford.
Chairs in the lobby of the Oxford Castle Hotel.
A hallway in the old castle prison. The doors in the hall are to small cells. The gift shop at the end of the hall probably wasn't there at the time.
Lunch at Piemasters, a fast-food place in a busy indoor market, in downtown Oxford. I had the Chicken of Aragon with potatoes, gravy, and mashed peas.
We met Lynn, Robin's former tutor at Merton College, at the college where she teaches full time, Regent's Park. Robin and Lynn walk through the school's quad on the way to Lynn's office.
The Regent's Park quad.
We could use a few of these in downtown Santa Fe.
We stopped at The Randolph, a 5 Star hotel, to have a cider. This guy claimed to be a musician (an organist, I think) who'd just been recognized and cheered at some event. Besides being cheered, he was also drunk as a skunk, alternately spewing BS and almost falling asleep. As you can see, he invited himself over to our table. He tried to leave without paying for his drink, which he just snatched off the tray of a passing waiter. When the bartender insisted that he had to pay for his drink, he wrote a check but the writing was totally illegible scribbles.
Cider at the Randolph.
The Randolph Hotel.A TED conference was held here a couple of summers ago while Robin was studying at Merton College. She ran into some long-time Mac friends who were in Oxford for the conference.
William Herbert watches over the Bodleian Library.
The building where Oxford graduates get their degree has a circular courtyard, surrounded by busts with almost cartoonish faces. We'll have to ask Robin to get the inside story on this one.
All of the busts have bugged out, popping eyes, and mouths agape. Very cool indeed.
Farewell to Oxford, now one of my favorite college towns.
Ivy at Regent's Park College.
More Oxford
Oxford is actually a time travel portal. Sometimes you can see through the thin veil of time that - hey look!
Cemetery and bicycles.
Robin enters the Bodleian Library courtyard.
The statue on the other side of the courtyard is William Herbert.
Around the courtyard perimeter are doors, entrances to different areas of knowledge. This door is labeled SCHOLA METAPHYSICAE.
This door is labeled SCHOLA GRAMMATICAE ET HISTORIAE.
You've heard of The Ivory Towers of Academia? This is them. Really. I'm not kidding.
Oxford Castle dates back to around 1100. It later became a prison, and now a luxury hotel. Some parts of the castle and prison are left as they were for tours. Most of the rooms are now hotel rooms.
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