Catching up ... hm...

Planning more, sometimes it's tougher than nails though. Oops.

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Catching up ... The Dougster!

At least one of them is Dougal from Disapproving Rabbits. Rather inspiring gentle bun ;-)

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Catching Up...

Time flies regardless. Deciding to catch up on what happened since last post this guy popped up again and demanded some respect. Christmas of 2012 saw a few of these, knocking off snowmen. None were ever caught ;-)

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Catching up ... Get Well!

Dougal playing nurse.

Watercolor

Mr. Bun, 'nough said.

Oil on canvas

Queen Cinnamon

Oil on canvas

Get Well was the theme for a while. 

Friends dropping sick.

Not being able to help much.

So few got  a "Get Well Bunneh"

Usually the bun disapproved. Seriously.

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Bun Zero - pt. 2

Experimenting a little and trying to decide where Bun Zero will head next. So far watercolour seems to be an easy way of exploring possibilities. The hardest thing in this example was to let things happen fast and not overwork it. Right side definitely shows the overworking. Thinking that it got a little too dark, I tried to lift off some of it. Turns out that liquid masking fluid (dries like rubber cement) will lift some of the colour it's applied over and that's exactly what happened here.

All in all I ended up with a bunch of happy accidents and unintended consequences. Enough of them worked out just fine.

Next up will be a small oil, something like 20 x 16 in. Or such.

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Seasonal Confuzzlement

The Holidays can be a difficult time for any creature. In case of a bunnies, lack of constant attention to their needs can spark swift and severe reprisals. As illustrated, this particular one decided to take on the world starting with the snowman. The only way further disapproval could have been averted was through expeditious serving of carottinis, nutriberries and fresh dandelions.

It is through pure bad luck that this incident was even witnessed. While trying to document it, the camera's sensor burned out and the lens broke. Hence we are left with artist's feeble attempt to convey the horror of that moment.

The character appearing in this work is fictitious although inspirational. Any resemblance to real Dougal from DisapprovingRabbits.com is purely coincidental.

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Bun Zero - pt. 1

I closed my eyes and tapped into some mysterious, milky way of disapproval.

I'm not sure what precipitated this bun at a time when Queen Cinnamon ruled this dimension with fantastic disapproval. It was time for something new, quick and a pen and ink fit.

Right now this little guy (or a girl, not sure to be honest) will go on a small canvas that has his/hers name on it. There will be a helping of oils as well.

Hopefully, progress report will follow next week.

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Disapproval brewing ...

Acrylic, ink, charcoal, watercolor on paper. Pretty old, quality paper none the less.

Ceramic in front of oil on canvas.

Ceramic in front of Tampa terminal chart and oil on canvas.

Acrylic, ink, watercolor, oil on old watercolor paper. Again.

Ceramic in front of oil on canvas

The Disapprovers, 20x16 in. oil on canvas. Still working on it.

... on paper, on canvas, in the air. This is what I found myself navigating toward last summer. Rabbits that disapprove. There was some old watercolor paper, used on one side, oh ... maybe 12 or so years ago. Perfect for experimenting. There were some porcelain rabbits as well. And a little canvas that was never going to get finished, hence it started getting reclaimed.

On top of that there was portrait of her majesty, Queen Cinnamon of Disapproving Rabbits. More TC ;-)

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Resuming own navigation ...

...sounds very simple. At least I thought so few years back. The more I thought about it, the more complex the subject became. Having a single point of destination would make getting back on track easy. Double down and plow through it. What happens if we want to be in a lot of places at the same time though?

As of yet I have no answer.

Lately life started revealing some hints about that, in not so gentle ways. For the past couple of months I've been without current medical certificate. Even though I'm working on regaining it, to be without it is extremely difficult to deal with. It really forces me to contemplate on letting go.

It's been a little over a week since I found out that getting back in the air will not be easy and that just about took my sanity away. First moment of relieve struck when it dawned on me that sooner or later I'd have to let it go eventually. No matter how fortunate I got and no matter what accomplishments I could achieve in flying, there will be a moment of really saying goodbye to it. If nothing else, time tends to have that effect on a lot of stuff.

May as well be grateful for every moment I got to be in a plane. The rest is gravy.

I really have no idea how this leg of the trip will turn out. I'm hoping for the best and enjoying at least some piece of mind.

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Rabbit in a kangaroo body?

Back in 1992 I painted a series of kangaroos. It all started when I spotted a little plush puppet of a kangaroo in a toy store. It went home with me and the rest is history. What followed was a real bender of painting Vector in different sizes (mostly 30' x 40' though), but in the same exact pose.

Everyone always reacted to Vector very positively as in 'OH! I love the bunny!' Sometimes comments were made about how reminiscent he is of the Velveteen Rabbit. So compliments were humbly accepted and gentle reminders were made regarding his species.

When I shared a draft of a painting of a very disgruntled rabbit with my friend Claps, he reminded me about Vector. Once in the early 90's Vector starred in a show at the Three Birds Bookstore in Ybor City (in the good old days before Ybor turned into bar alley).

Now it turns out that maybe Vector is a rabbit stuck in a kangaroo body?

So much for thinking you know your puppet :-)

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Hello World!

The time has come again to get instrument current. Last Friday (Aug. 14) our tropical weather let up just enough to do some approaches into KPIE, holding at LAFAL and navigational aid tracking.

These days, courtesy of flightaware.com we can enjoy a pix of what the plane scribes in the sky while on an instrument flight plan.

Aviating itself was luckily uneventful, except for one guy with a broken radio blaming miscommunication on traffic control. Had to be told twice every single time.

Trying to be precise in the air once every 6 months is difficult on a good day, frustration is waiting to get in and still the show at every moment.

The real surprise came after the plane got parked and tied down. We sat on a bench outside the FBO for a few minutes and talked flying. In the meantime, clouds started rolling in from the east, breeze picked up and the raid drops started taking over. It occurred to me that flying under the hood is quiet a bit a performance art. I wan performance by the number as in 0 deviation from heading and altitude. Zero deviation from glide slope and localizer. It's an art trying to come as close as possible to zero deviation when no two approaches are ever exactly the same. The beauty of it all resides in the moment, being in it at 90 knots an hour. And then it's all gone, except for a memory and a log book entry. There's no way save up the approaches, you can't pickle them in a jar.

It reminds me of a Mandala. Grand and beautiful while in the moment.

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