Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.151

Welcome back.

This week we will be continuing with the painting of the (West) Cape May Victorian house. The photo that I'm using is seen directly below.

I am doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8x10 format.

When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time I have continued to work on the painting.

Looking at the above version of the painting you will notice that the porch seems to curve upward along its bottom right edge. I've straightened it a bit. It's one of those little things that bothered me but that few will ever notice.

I've also started the lawn. The painting seems less edgy (or moody) with the green lawn. I'll likely make it a bit brighter but with some very dark shadows. I've also added the shadow cast by the house on the far right side.

Finally, I've started the front path. I will be changing the shape to be more like that of the photo. The photo path just seems to have a better point of perspective.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.



That's about it for now. I'll see you next week with more progress on this piece. As always, feel free to add photos of your own work in the comments section below.

Putting A Name On Poop

It will be interesting to see how history will treat President Bush subsequent to his occupancy of the oval office.  For at least one city, the tale may be told very soon.

NYT Link

SAN FRANCISCO -- Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

And really, what could be more appropriate?  A celebration of the man with each release of bodily fluids.

Like so many worthwhile ideas, the idea was formulated in appropriate surroundings.

The plan, naturally hatched in a bar, would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."

Naturally, San Francisco Republicans (all 2 of them) are not pleased.

...Howard Epstein, chairman of the ever-outnumbered San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative "an abuse of process."

"You got a bunch of guys drunk who came up with an idea," Mr. Epstein said, "and want to put on the ballot as a big joke without regard to the city's governance or cost."

Yeah, putting up a new sign could probably bring the city to a near-bankrupt state.

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.150

Welcome back.

This week we will be continuing with the painting of the (West) Cape May Victorian house. The photo that I'm using is seen directly below.

I am doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8x10 format.

When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time I have continued to work on the painting.

When I put these posts together I'm always aware of showing a readily visible difference from week to week while still having a gradual progression. Sometimes I go too far. This may be one of those weeks.

Since last week, I've done considerable work on the roof, windows, porch and the siding all around. All of these items are now seen in what is close to their final versions.

The roof now has a clearly defined separation between light and shadow. The windows are now an appropriate size and shape. They have light and darkened areas consistent with the photo. The porch, now dramatically different, has most of its details and shadows. Finally, the siding has more light blue and less brown. It has less of a shabby and/or unfinished appearance.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.



That's about it for now. I'll see you next week with more progress on this piece. As always, feel free to add photos of your own work in the comments section below.

More EPA Shennanigans

Not satisfied with reopening its closed libraries in a new handy lavatory size (see below), the EPA will once again thumb its nose at the prior Congressional directive and keep its specialized chemical effects library closed.

PEER Link

Washington, DC — Despite a growing need to understand the impacts of chemicals on our health and environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not re-open its specialized posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a conseqlibrary for research on the properties and effects of new chemicals, according to documents uence, one of the world’s most comprehensive technical collections on pesticides and other compounds will be permanently lost.

The Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA’s Washington D.C. Headquarters, had provided research services to EPA scientists who review industry requests for the introduction of new chemicals into the market. Without any public announcement or notice to its staff, EPA shut down the library in October 2006. Its holdings were dispersed and many journals “recycled.”

Recycled must be the new disappeared.

Disgraceful is the only way to describe this episode. A vast resource has been lost to science. In keeping the research results "hidden", the administration has likely given yet one more gift to big industry.

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.149

Welcome back.

This week we will be continuing with the painting of the (West) Cape May Victorian house. The photo that I'm using is seen directly below.

I am doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8x10 format.

When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time, I have continued to work on the painting.

I've continued to paint the body colors of the house. The color to the left side is actually a very light blue rather than the white of the photo. The shadowed color to the right is the same blue with less white added.

Also receiving attention are the windows. Those on the left side of the house are darker than the lighter blue ones to the right. These will change before we are done. They are too large and not the color(s) that I want.

Finally, the bay window has been painted on the left side. It has a shadowed three dimensional appearance. More shadowing will be added before we are done.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.



That's about it for now. I'll see you next week with more progress on this piece. As always, feel free to add photos of your own work in the comments section below.

Tribal Council: Open Casting Call

We here at SLB are just too tired to come up with nominations this week. Instead, we leave it to you, our many (2-3) readers to submit your nomination(s) for an individual to be voted off the virtual island of Left Blogistan.

Submit your nominations in the comments below. Submit early, submit often.

The winning entry will be rewarded with a personal tour of the luxurious SLB offices and a lavish luncheon with the staff.

And now for the legal stuff. All entries become the property of the producers. SLB staff members and their families are ineligible to submit entries. Void where prohibited.

Good luck!

First!

Why is it that some bloggers are so deeply offended by the posting of First! as the initial comment in a thread? Posted as a joke by a long-standing user, it should be taken in the same spirit in which it was posted. But no, multiple troll-ratings are in order as well as a thorough scolding. Nevermind that some truly offensive stuff is posted on blogs on a regular basis, including the great orange satan. No, we must reserve our greatest blog outrage for First! because it truly signifies the ultimate decline of western civilization and constitutes a dangerous threat to the general populace.

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.148

Welcome back.

This week we will be continuing with the painting of the (West) Cape May Victorian house. The photo that I'm using is seen directly below.

I am doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8x10 format.

When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time, I have continued to work on the painting.

I've started painting the dark and light areas of the roof. Note how the shadowed area carries over from the front-facing gable over to the side gable.

Appearing for the first time are the windows, or at least their initial paint layer. At this point I'm mostly concerned with their placement. Their size will be adjusted a bit later on.

I've also divided the 3 arched areas of the porch. I will add the actual arches and detail later on.

Finally, I've dragged a bit of paint across the foreground. This is just for the purpose of getting a better idea of how the pieces will eventually fit together.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.



That's about it for now. I'll see you next week with more progress on this piece. As always, feel free to add photos of your own work in the comments section below.

Toothless

SLB will remain toothless, at least for the forseeable future. Although some on the SLB staff wanted to take a bite out of that "story", senior editors deemed it unworthy. Was this sad post all about generating clicks, or did it really have a legitimate reason for being?

Strawberries

Depicted below is my single strawberry plant, now growing in its pot for several years. It always comes back in the spring and always produces berries. It never ceases to amaze me that it does so well despite by benign neglect. Go figure.

Note the berries on the plant.

EPA: Lavatory-Sized Libraries

Congress has ordered the reopening of EPA libraries, previously closed in what can only be seen as a gift to the corporate overlords. Complying with the letter of the law but not the spirit, the EPA will reopen 4 of the closed libraries but on a smaller scale. In fact, the Chicago library will be only marginally larger than a men's lavatory.

The re-opened library will be in a vacant reception area on the 16th floor of a federal building;
The re-opened library will occupy less than one-tenth the area of the closed library and will be only slightly larger than the typical men’s restroom in that same building; and
No provision is made to restore the unique Great Lakes ecological collection or to recover any of the other holdings from the former library.

The Dallas library doesn't fare much better. Hours of operation are considerably less than the aforementioned men's lavatory.

Similarly, the regional library in Dallas serving a five-state area will be reduced to “2 staff workstations and 1 patron workstation, each with a PC, desk, and chair”. It will be open six hours a day for four days a week. The fate of its former collection also remains unknown.

Not satisfied with a greatly diminished system, a political appointee has been installed to oversee the restoration.

Adding to the disruption caused by its 20-month library closure campaign, EPA has installed one political appointee, Molly O’Neill, the Assistant Administrator for Environmental Information, as library czar, in charge of all library operations, including those serving laboratories and specialized programs.

PEER:

“A library requires more space than a lavatory,” stated PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. “These plans appear to violate the Congressional order that the agency ‘restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed…’ What part of ‘restore’ doesn’t EPA understand?”

Indeed.