Still Hiking

Yes, I'm still hiking everyday. I don't know how I'm going to keep this up. It takes an incredible amount of will power and determination. It was really pretty yesterday, right before the rain. This is about as clear as it gets in LA. You can see downtown LA in the background, behind Century City.



And this is the view looking out towards the ocean and Palos Verdes:



It's beautiful in the hills, and I enjoy being in nature. But it takes a lot of time!

Tribute to Cinnamon

I received a very touching letter today from Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Feline Health Center. It reads:

Dear Ms. Tondro:

We learned of the loss of your cat, Cinnamon, through a very thoughtful monetary tribute made to the Cornell Feline Health Center by your friends at the Westside Hospital for Cats in your pet's memory. We are sorry to hear about Cinnamon's passing, for all of us who are involved with pets know how dearly they are loved and how quickly they become true members of the family.

Though Cinnamon is gone, we hope you will be comforted through the knowledge and significance of this pledge, which will help the Center continue seeking to improve the health of cats. There certainly could not be a better way to preserve the memory of your beloved pet than this meaningful tribute.

Sincerely,
Dr. James R. Richards, Director
Cornell Feline Health Center

I was deeply moved by this letter, and I am speechless.

Progress Report

I'm still hiking everyday. So far, so good, but it takes a lot of time. It was somewhat overcast today, and the clouds were pretty. The clump of buildings on the right is West Los Angeles, and the clump on the left is Century City. You can barely make out downtown Los Angeles behind Century City.



You can see it better in this zoomed in view:



I have more energy when I spend an hour or so hiking each day, but not as much time to paint! Aside from the hike time, there's also the drive time. Twice I've seen rabbits, and yesterday I saw a deer, but I wasn't fast enough to get pictures of them.

Here's the new paint on my house so far:



The trim is going to be a darker copper, with a blue-green color around the windows and doors.

New Regimen

My acupuncturist is making me go hiking in nature everyday. Not just walking around the neighborhood. Hiking -- up hills, on dirt paths, amongst wild plants and animals. He says I have to do it, or else. I don't know what the "or else" is, and I don't particularly want to find out. I successfully avoided his admonishments for several weeks, but now he's getting more serious, and the "or else" is getting more serious, too.

So I've been reluctantly hiking the Ridge Trail at Temescal Gateway Park. This is about the closest I can get to nature without having to drive for an hour. It's a tough trail, with a 1000' gain, and it definitely gets me breathing hard!

Today I took pictures from the top of the trail. This is looking towards Century City and downtown Los Angeles. You can barely make out the buildings through the smog.



This is looking towards Palos Verdes and the ocean. Again, not an exceptionally clear day.



And this is "art," right there along the path. Can't get away from it!

Beginnings and Endings

I'm trying to decide what color to paint my house. You'd think this would be easy, given that I work with color everyday. Wrong! So far I've tried eight different colors, none of which I like. There are thousands of colors of paint, but I can't seem to find the color that I want.

Nelson somehow got into the Terra Rosa paint. I don't know if you can see it in this picture. He wouldn't pose so I could get a good shot of it. It's behind his front leg. By the time I had found it, it had dried, and I think I'm going to have to cut it out. If he'll let me. He doesn't like being messed with.



I planted a Bleeding Heart on top of Cinnamon's grave. This is the first Bleeding Heart I had ever seen in person. Before I found this one at the nursery, I had only seen pictures of them. It is a beautiful plant.

Scene of the Crime

What might this be? Have the cats taken to nibbling on apples? The only thing I can figure is that a squirrel snuck in the kitchen while I was eating lunch, found this apple on the counter, and helped himself! I guess they don't care for the peel.

Experimental New Work

This is one of my latest experiments. It isn't done yet -- this is just the first layer. I'm playing around with using an earth-toned palette, and leaving some of the brushstrokes showing. Here's a detail:



I also like the piece of canvas I've been using to drop onto stretched canvases:



This is really beautiful. The unplanned pieces always turn out better than the planned ones.

Eagle Eye

Check out this live eagle webcam. This pair of eagles live on Hornby Island in British Columbia, Canada. Their nest has two eggs, that should hatch around April 26th and April 30th. They have been nesting in this same spot for 19 years, and the male and the female take turns sitting on the nest. Do you think they know they're being watched? The live cam website is receiving 2 million hits a day, and 5,000 people are watching simultaneously at any given time.

Transition

I'm in the midst of one of those periods where nothing I do turns out right. I don't have the magical touch right now. Part of it is that I'm in transition -- trying out new ideas and techniques -- and that always takes time to develop. And I think the other part is that I've become more critical of my work -- more demanding -- wanting my paintings to be better, perhaps in a way that I'm not yet capable of achieving. The pictures in my head are always far superior to anything I can physically produce, and that's incredibly frustrating.

I'm trying out some underpainting techniques, and working on stretched canvas, instead of unstretched. Here's something I started on yesterday:






The underpainting started out OK, but then came this:



I don't know what possessed me to use the Easter egg colors, and I hate the green in there. I was hoping to do some more detail work on top, but I think this is too dark for it. So I gessoed over it today, and I'll try again tomorrow. That's the nice thing about stretched canvas -- you can gesso over it and re-use it. Unstretched canvas gets wrinkly and doesn't work so well for that.

It's difficult to continually strive for new and better work, but I can't stay static, either. I get bored doing the same old thing, and my work needs to be fresh and exciting. I have to keep stretching and evolving in order for my work to be vibrant and alive. Just when I get really good at a particular style, it's time to change again!