Sisters

PICT2155 crpshrp
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Another swell use for digital cameras!

Across Round Lake

IMG_6553
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Here's a picture for talking about color! It does have abstract qualities, but mostly it is a recognizable lake landscape. And depends for its impact upon autumn color.

Below is some of what Rebecca Purdom says about abstraction. It makes the most sense to me about the meaning of abstraction of anything I have ever read. Mostly people want pictures to be recognizable and if you try to explain to them about an arrangement of squares that you find very moving, they giggle. So this pleased me very much.

"We’re so good at judging, it comes so naturally, that it’s easy to see why looking at abstraction, which offers absolutely no clues whatsoever as to what to do next, can be such a challenge. But that challenge is, in fact, abstract paintings greatest gift. The kind of seeing it promotes is something we can all do; we just don’t get the opportunity to do it very often.
I’ll bet that every one of you has had the experience sometime in your life of looking at something so marvelous that, for just an instant, you’d forgotten yourself enough to not act. Fot just that instant you were not in charge; the experience itself somehow was. The pursuit of that kind of experience is what I think turns painters into abstract painters, and the awareness of it turns all of us into better audiences for abstraction in particular and for art in general."

Rebecca Purdum in the newest New England Review:Vol 28, no 4, 2007. p175-6

An Infrared forest

Infrared forest
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I am loving this SO much that I feel like getting another camera with more megapixels! Photography that can see infrared light changes the relation of colors to each other in a spectacularly interesting way. Today the New England Review (Vol. 28, No. 4) came and in it Rebecca Purdom, who painted the abstract painting on the cover, has an essay about her work. This quote is from page 176.
"For about a year I couldn’t use yellow. It seemed as if the smallest amount would take over and smother whatever I was working on. I knew I couldn’t go on avoiding it so I decided to paint with nothing but yellow. There were about four or five of those paintings. I called out what turned out to be the last one Pins and Needles, because even though it was all yellow, it wasn’t anymore. It was paint.

I think the experience of color is like being at the seashore, spending all your time watching the waves crash on the rocks. The feelings colors produce in us are like those pounding waves, never at reat, always crashing around. At some point, however, you look up from all that turmoil and you sense the depth of the ocean itself, and see the endless horizon marking the infinite sky above. That vast uneasy calm is the unchanging yet unspecific emotion that paint produces. Feelings change, colors change, but the emotion, the paint, is constant."
A new year is coming; the holidays are over. It is time to think about art!

She's a photographer, too

PICT2142 crp
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I'm teaching my grandchild. This camera is a little too big for her to hold, but harder to drop. The neckstrap has prevented damage so far. Autofocus a must. . .
I missed posting the last two days, on the first one, the satellite ISP failed and on the second electricity. Both were gone only a short time, but it was blog time. Rats!
We drove back on a highway we hadn't used before: through valley rice fields. We saw lots of white geese, egrest, hawks and blackbirds and quite a few ducks. It was lightly raining and the hawks were mostly hunched in roadside trees. Also a kingfisher on a wire. Yes!

Christmas feast of love

This is my husband feeding our granddaughter a bite of a Christmas pie that he made. It's been a lovely day even without snow. Now both babies are sleeping and we are about to go to bed. We finished off the day with some of the cioppino that we made yesterday. Actually, I am not part of that "we" and had nothing to do with it. Merry, merry, merry . . .

Baby sunshine

Baby sunshine
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

This little angel is about to have her third Christmas. This is a picture from a long time ago. Her little sister is almost this old now. All the stuff is under the tree, and I have to go to bed because they will get up early. Both sets of grandparents are assembled for this fine celebration. We had way too much food for our Christmas Eve dinner. But to me the highlight of the day was my granddaughter's little hands working with some left over pie crust dough and a rolling pin. I hope I got a good picture; haven't had a chance to check.

Today a long drive over the Yolo Causeway, through Marysville and Oroville part the peach orchards and through the Feather River Canyon. It was a great day for hawks, especially in the valley. I saw redtail, red-shouldered, peregrine perched (I think) and harrier. The air was crisp and coldish, The drive through the Canyon, was especially beautiful. Feather River is low; many of the deciduous leaves have fallen, making the leaves and branches of manzanita and madrone stand out among the pines.
The toyon berries were a nice as I have seen them--on large bushes and in great abundance at the lower elevations. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I am reading Father Fox's Pennyrhymes, for sure!