Happy Rocks by Shirley

There is an older woman living in Cayucos, California who paints Happy Rocks which she hands out to people. She is delightful to talk to you and quite talented. On a recent trip to Cayucos one of my daughters and I were admiring her entertaining yard filled with ceramic animals, birds and creatures arranged in cute and humorous scenes when Shirley came out of the house and offered us each a Happy Rock she had painted. Here are a couple of these fun rocks.

Another Bakersfield Hills work in progress

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I need to do some more work on the sky and clouds. There are a few other things with foreground and the purple hills in the back that need a little more work.

See the finished painting in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

This will be Bakersfield Hills No. 13 when it is finished. Based on a photo taken in July, 2022. The hills of California are forever brown in the summer.

A few unwanted paintings

I retrieved quite a few unsold paintings from the gallery in Morro Bay a few weeks ago and hung them on the walls of the studio to clear up the crowd of boxes taking up space in the studio. What to do with these paintings that nobody seems to want? Hmm.

The piece with the white matt around it at the right of this image is a photo of Morro Rock by Greg Siragusa all the rest of the pieces are by me.

The pieces on this long wall are my creation except the one at the middle of the image with the white boarder and the small piece with the dark frame at the bottom just above the bed headboard.

Back in the saddle again

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I haven’t done any art work for the past couple of months mostly because of some needful distractions and partly because of a creative slump. I decided I needed to get myself out of this creative fear. So having been inspired by places seen during our recent trip to California, I’m back in the saddle again with some digital painting. Here is a sneak peak at something I started working on today.

All of my digital land and seascape paintings have been squares (3000 x 3000 px). This time I thought I would do a size that I hope will fit a more standard size frame such as a 16 x 20 inch and be easier to frame.

Update August 3rd
You can see the finished piece in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

Bakersfield Hills No. 11 | This one is from a reference picture I took out the car window while my wife was driving east along Hwy 58 through the hills above Bakersfield, California on our way home from Cayucos on the central coast a week ago. It’s late July and the hills above Bakersfield are golden and brown with punctuations of green.

Infinite Painter v7 on a Galaxy Tab S7 | 2880 x 2304 px

Colors and textures at the beach

On some of the walks we took during our recent trip to Cayucos, California I came across some interesting colors and textures along the rock/wall side of the beach. There are colors everywhere but her are a couple of images I took that I thought were particularly interesting. The morning these were taken was before the sun had burned off the fog.

Taken before the sun had burned the fog off completely.

The color of the rock at the bottom of this private stairway was striking. Notice the matching color of the gate on the stairs near the middle of the image?

The New Studio Layout

I finished my new studio layout project this week. Well I mostly finished it. I still need to get a lamp to light up the work table. I’m also planning on replacing the ceiling fan/light with a track system so I can point various lights to areas of the room along with a smart light switch that I can control with my Nest Hub. I was able to toss some things that have been hanging around and not being used so it feels good to declutter.

Moving from left right: I thought I would need to move the paint rack but it ended up staying. Next to it is the new shelf unit from IKEA. I left the top dividers off so I could make a longer shelf to hold my dowels. Next to it on the adjacent wall is my new computer desk. Then comes the tall shelf unit also from IKEA. And finally the new work table I pickup from Home Depot. It has two shelves under the top. The table top can raise and lower using the crank handle. It is very sturdy.

Studio: The Bora Centipede

I use the balcony of our condo as studio space when I need to cut and sand wood or take painted panels out side to dry quickly on summer day. I wanted something that is quicker to set up and take down than the heavy and awkward metal saw horses I have been using. I found this BORA Centipede and ordered it online. What a find. It sets up quickly and collapses together quickly to a compact size. When expanded out it is light weight yet it can hold more pounds than I am ever likely to place on it. I ordered the 1/2 inch thick table top that will fold in half to fit in the carry case for storage. The Table top is the heaviest part of the table which makes the table quite sturdy. When winter comes I will take it down and store it till summer comes around again.

The centipede measures 2’ x 4’ when extended. Fits great on the balcony.

Tools: The old hair dryer

I have had this old portable hair dryer for several decades and it still works after all these years. I use it mostly to quick dry wet paint. The small size fits right in with the size of my studio.

A Conair Vagabond 1250 hair dryer. It has Hi, Med, and Lo settings on the on/off switch in the fold away handle.

Tools: Remarkable tablet

I got this thin reMarkable tablet last year. It has a long battery life. Most of the time the battery lasts about a month. I mostly use if for note taking but now and then I use it for drawing. The surface is not slick like a normal tablet but has a tooth to it so it feels like writing and drawing on a piece of paper. It is black and white only, or more accurately said, black on light gray which is my only beef with it. There is no web browser and the only WIFI connectivity is has allows me to download PDF books and documents and export files via email. It can convert my hand writing to typed text so it can be sent to anyone via email. The screen is not back lit and uses e-ink technology so I can take it out in the daylight and still be able to read, The pen is very comfortable to hold and has a strong magnet to hold it fast to the side of the tablet which is only about 4mm thick.

Tools: Gluing Jig

I picked up this metal gluing jig from Micro Mark for building small objects. It consists of a sturdy 10.25” x 10.25” metal tray with 90 degree sides and 8 strong magnets used to hold pieces together while the glue sets. It can easily be moved to another location while the glue sets in order to free up space on the work table allowing me work on other things. This tool has been a real time saver when working on multiple objects.

Gallery at Marina Square showcases three featured artists in latest exhibits

By Caleb Wiseblood

On Saturday, July 9, Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay will hold an opening reception to celebrate its three featured artists for the month of July. The local gallery will be showcasing artworks by watercolor painter Hope Myers, craft artist Steve Dayton, and photographer Gregory Siragusa through Sunday, July 30.

According to a press release from the venue, Myers has been a member of Gallery at Marina Square for more than 18 years. Alongside her award-winning watercolor paintings, Myers also creates collage paintings and jewelry.

Dayton is a Salt Lake City-based artist who creates his abstract paintings on wood panels, and places various objects in box frames to create his assemblages. One of Dayton's acrylic painting series was inspired by his visits to the Central Coast.

Siragusa described photography as "an opportunity to marvel at all the beauty in the world."

"Good photography is not a place, it is a state of mind, a feeling, a vibe with daily practice. Wandering the world, with a camera, family or friends, whether near or far, is an opportunity to capture and appreciate the glory of existence," Siragusa said in the press release. "We are all here for a brief moment, we should all take the time to appreciate and surround ourselves with the marvelous."

The July 9 reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery. For more info on the event and the gallery's three new exhibits, call (805) 772-1068 or visit galleryatmarinasquare.com. Gallery at Marina Square is located at 601 Embarcadero, suite 10, Morro Bay. Δ 

Tools: A favorite ruler

One of my favorite and well used measuring devices is a transparent Graphic Smarts ruler. This ruler is one of a set of two. The ruler pictured here is from the second set I purchased. The first set wore out and I was lucky to find another several decades ago. I don’t think this particular set is currently being made.

They were designed to be used as graphic design rulers which included measures in points as well as inches. One of the rulers had type sizes that you could lay over type samples to get point sizes. This particular ruler has metric on one side and inches on the other and includes some useful tools for converting inch fractions to decimal and metric, rule/stroke weight gauge, and Macintosh Key Caps. It is flexible and transparent although it is has yellowed a bit with age. It was made by the C-Thru Ruler Company Bloomfield Ct.

I use the rulers mostly for creating art work these days instead of graphic design work which is why I bought them in the first place.

I found what looks like an equivalent set on Amazon made by the C-THRU called Accu Spec II.

Metric and inches and Macintosh Key Caps useful if you are working withy a Mac.

Handy conversion table for converting fractions of inches to decimal and metric and rule/stroke gauges.

My Best High School Experience

Of all the teachers I had in high school there is only one whose name I remember. Mr. Bob Bitner. Mr. Bitner was my art teacher. He started his first teaching job at Monache High School in Porterville, California in the fall of 1970 which was the year I started as a freshman at Monache High School.

Mr. Bitner is the one in the orange colored shirt helping some students with a silkscreen project. Two of my first silkscreen prints are hanging on the wall between the posters of WC Fields and Laurel & Hardy in this scan of a not very sharp photo print.

I had always had artistic interests but it was the influence and guidance of Mr. Bitner that helped extend those interests to more than just a dabbling interest in art. He was truly interested in his students especially those who were there not because art was an easy class to take as was often the perception. He gave me encouragement that allowed me to experiment. He introduced me to silkscreen printing for the first time. He also introduced me to the work of Wayne Thiebaud. He even helped the students organize a short lived school art club called the USDA (United Sons and Daughters of Art). The room was decked out with everything art as you can see by the pictures. It was the room I felt most at home in and could have spent all day there.

Mr. Bitner took some of us more serious art students on the best field trip I ever went on. It was a field trip to be remembered the rest of my days and helped solidified my desire to pursue some kind of career in art. We boarded a yellow school bus before the sun came up on a Saturday morning and headed for Los Angeles a few hours away. We visited the TCL Chinese Theater, galleries up and down La Cienega Blvd, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the UCLA Art Department before arriving home that night after the sun was down. It was a full day of color, wonder, introductions to works by well know artists, and a ton of inspiration. It was to be the best field trip I ever participated in.

By the time my Junior year rolled around I was starting to play around with 8mm film. I and my friend Steve G had become interested in 8mm film making and made a couple of short films using some old beat up cameras we got from a pawn shop. One was a film about the birth of Christ we made as a seminary project with a sound track played from a reel to reel tape player and other was a light hearted super hero film called “The Might Kreegon” with sub titles. Before my Junior year came to a close Mr. Bitner invited me to participate in a film project he was going to be working on that summer. I was so excited and felt honored that he would choose me. However that project and not being able to complete my high school experience at Monache High School were not to be. It was disappointing to break the news to him some weeks later that I wouldn’t be able to participate in the film project that summer because our family would be moving to southern New Mexico so my father could pursue a new career as owner/operator of the first McDonald's restaurant in the city of Las Cruces.

I graduated from Las Cruces High School and had some good art experiences winning a couple of minor awards in an art show. The few times I was able to visit my friend Steve G in Porterville on our way home from trips to the Central Coast I took the opportunity to pay Mr. Bitner a visit which was always a highlight of those vacation trips. He passed away in 2015.

I owe my best high school experiences to Mr. Bob Bitner.

The best art room at Monache High School in Porterville, Californian where I got my first serious start in art. I spent as much time as I could in this room.

Clouds Collection

I have been taking pictures of clouds to use as reference images. Although it doesn’t happen often sometimes in the morning when I take Wesley the dog out for a potty break I will take my phone with me just in case there are interesting cloud formations and colors in the sky to the west. They have been taken with cameras in a Galaxy Note 5 and OnePlus Pro 7 phones and recently with my new Galaxy S22 Ultra phone. Here are a few of the 175 images I have captured since 2016.

Taken in Midway, Utah the summer of 2022.

Taken in the morning looking West at our condo complex, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Panorama taken in Cayucos, California.

Looking out to sea in Cayucos, California.

Lots of contrails looking east of our condo balcony in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Cloud formations that reminded me of sun rays. I’m not sure where this was taken.

I think this sunset image was taken heading south on I-15 in southern Idaho.

3D from the past

Here are some pieces of 3d art I created with the long time defunct E3d program by Macromedia. I did these on my original Windows 95 machine. It was fun while it lasted before Macromedia decided to discontinue supporting and developing it and I upgraded my Windows OS. And it was before Adobe bought Macromedia and killed off some fine software. But that’s another story.

I have tried using some other 3D software but have found them to be quite complicated to learn and use. E3D was an easy app to learn because of the excellent user manual, interface and online help examples and help. I wish I could have had fun creating more illustrations with and art with E3d.

Off You Go

Jack’s Lantern

Christmas Spiral

Nutcracked Cuts the Cheese

Flight With Empty Seat

Something for myself

I decided to treat myself and had Artbeat Studios make a print reproduction of one of my digital paintings on metal. It was easy to order and although it took awhile to get to me I am pleased with the results. It was very well and securely packaged. It hangs in the dining/entry area of our condo. I am considering using this company to make some print reproductions of some other art to sell.

24 x 24 inches printed on white matt aluminum with a float mount so it floats out from the wall. The digital painting was created with Infinite Painter on a Galaxy Tab S7 tablet.