Second Space Ship Flyover

Wednesday Night Flyover

9 x 12"

watercolors

Wednesday night, we had the best view of the space shuttle Endeavor and the International Space Station that we have ever had as they flew over us. We had watched it fly over in a lighter blue evening sky just south of us on Tuesday night. Bob French on KBTX tv told us that we would have a second chance on Wednesday night. Usually, when those things are announced, the first night is the time that the best views are available. Later viewings are often further away or dimmer.

Wednesday night's time was at 6:19 p.m., an hour later than on Tuesday, so it was darker. On top of that, the outside light didn't come on at dusk as it always does, but delayed until the space craft had passed. So we had a very dark night to watch the skies.

We had been advised that it would come more from the west, so we walked out into the street, away from trees.

"Is that it?" I asked Ashton as I spotted some orange lights in the west, just over the oak tree . It looked a bit like the shape of the craft we viewed the night before, only much smaller. I couldn't tell if it was moving. It was near what we decided was a planet, but looked, to me, like the Texas Longhorn symbol with rays coming out of it.

That shape didn't move, but, soon, Ashton directed me to look over the pasture to the north, just above the pale glow from the sunset. Here came a steady moving group of orange lights that appeared to be connected by a slim orange tube. There were lights on it, some extensions, and orange rays coming out of it.

"That's it!" I shouted as it moved to almost overhead.

As I said it, there were echos up and down our country lane of "That's it!" from neighbors who were also out watching the space crafts passing over.

"It looks so close!" "Wow!" "Isn't that amazing!" "Just think! There are people up there!"

Just as it got over us, it turned a bright white. So bright that I had to look away.

As it moved on to the east, it seemed to be orange again, then disappeared into the darkness over Bryan.

Later, on the news, we heard that one of the astronauts had lost her tool belt while working outside the space station. We couldn't help but wonder if that happened while they were flying over us.

The stars that were so bright in the west are actually Jupiter and Venus.

We came in and I sketched out the shapes of the space craft as it appeared at different points over the pasture. I also added the planets as they appear to me. Later, I added color with Winsor Newton watercolors with a bit of white acrylic for the white rays on the center object. This is in a sketchbook on white acid free drawing paper, and not on watercolor paper. You can't get that kind of paper as wet as the watercolor paper, so the color doesn't blend and flow as well. It's okay, but you just can't get the same effects.

Tonight, at the George Bush Library, an astronomy group from A&M is going to have telescopes set up so that the public can view the planets. It starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

It's going to be a bit cool, though. But, bundle up, and go out, if you can. It isn't something that we have an opportunity to do very often.

After watching the space ships, Ashton wants a telescope, as most kids do. However, we have had terrible luck with telescopes and microscopes. ( He was excited about that, too.) The things never work. The microscope set he got last year, even the science teachers couldn't work it. It looked to me like the hole to let light through didn't line up with the hole that you looked through.

Telescopes didn't work, either. We bought what seemed to be a really nice telescope for Christopher. Never could get it in focus to see anything through. We had better views just with the old Cannon camera with the zoom lense.

Enjoy sky watching with bright stars and gorgeous sunsets while we have these clear skies. I know, it may not be that way everywhere. But, here, it has been really outstanding, lately.

The featured exhibit at the George Bush Library has to do with space exploration, and is being coordinated with a similar exhibit at the LBJ Library in Austin. So, you may want to check it out, if you are interested in space.

Here's a trivia question.

Do you know who the astronauts are on board the space station and the Endeavor? And what countries they are from?

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Calvert will be having their Christmas Homes Tour December 6 and 7. You can click on my photo of the bandstand at the top of my sidebar and that will take you to the brochure that tells more about the Tour.

There is one old home on the tour that I haven't been in. And that is the one that looks like the house on the opening of the tv program, "Designing Women".

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Be sure to check out the events that I have in my sidebar.

Those of you who have been waiting for the slideshow of the Plein Aire Painting workshop with Virginia Vaughan in Calvert, it's coming! The tech people are still trying to help me get it to work. The guy said that he will put it on here for me. So, I am going to let him do that. I still am getting an error message when I try to do it, but it works for him. I need to figure out the problem, though, so I can do it myself in the future. I haven't forgotten!

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Brazos Valley Art League members need to get your entries ready for the upcoming juried show. The dates on that are December 1-19.

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I know that sketching, drawing, observing, practicing, experimenting, studying, researching, are all so important in being able to produce art. But, sometimes, I think that maybe I am doing too much practicing and sketching and not working enough on more finished things. However, at this stage of my vision problem, I am having to figure out some adjustments and directions.

I'm just having trouble getting things to connect and, sometimes, after a while, in seeing anything at all. What others see as straight lines may look wavey, curved, disconnected, or blurry to me. Just the physical act of bringing lines together or putting a brush into paint or water is difficult. I miss, often, and have to keep repeating until I finally hit something.

At the plein aire painting workshop, I felt like a bumbling idot at times because I just couldn't see things right to connect them, whether that was lines or picking up paint, or cleaning a brush, or packing or latching and unlatching hooks on equipment. Vaughan was demonstrating and while we painted, I thought I could see when she seemed to paint a nice curved line. So, I did that. When she came over to me, she pointed out that this was a straight line. I was surprised, because it looked like a big curve, to me. We fixed that. But, my rooster still looked like a cartoon character! (Most of my animals and people end up that way-cartoons!)

The other day, I made some tomato soup for lunch. The Campells Kids soup mug (which is white with pictures of the kids on it) that I usually use got broken, so I was using another cup that is black. I rinsed the cup and put it beside the stove. When my soup was hot, I proceeded to ladle my soup into my cup, or so I thought. Soup went all over the counter because I had my cup upside down. I was pouring it all over the bottom of the cup, and not inside. But, I couldn't tell the difference. Another mess to clean up, but, at least, this time, I didn't drop something on the floor instead of putting it on the counter because the edge of the counter disappeared into a purple fog.

I'm kind of slow and careful in doing things, anyway, but this eye problem (Macular Degeneration with cataracts) makes things take even longer.

A lot of people have this. I guess that I am actually lucky because I only have AMD in one eye. I just hope that the other one doesn't get it. As it is, I can get closer to things, close the bad eye, and see things. Not as they should be, but it isn't all just a big purple spot or dark, where I am trying to look. I can't imagine how terrible it must be for people who have this in both eyes. I guess that you have to adjust, but I have heard that some people are never able to adjust to losing their central vision.

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Get well wishes go out to Linda M., Vin, Carole P., and Gwen. And a special get well wish to Christopher. I hope that everyone will recover and get some relief, soon.

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Keep warm! It looks like summer and hurricane season are finally about over.

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Good Luck to everyone who will be participating in UIL tomorrow!

Sketch Crawl Yesterday

Here are some of my sketches from the Sketch Crawl in downtown Bryan yesterday. There was a lot going on that I would have liked to have seen during the Texas Reds Festival, but the heat just got to be too much.
It took us forever, it seemed, to get to the Frame Gallery because of the streets being blocked off. More than had been planned, we learned. We ended up with my daughter dropping me off and I had to carry my chair, art supplies, and purse to the gallery.
Pat met me at the Frame Gallery after 9 a.m. After a little visit with Pat, Greta, the owner, and Sarah, her beautiful dog, we decided to venture on toward the LaSalle Hotel, where we hoped that others interested in sketching might meet us.
Walking a couple of blocks doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but you must understand that Pat has trouble walking, and I need a new pair of knees, and can't see worth a hoot from a distance due to wet Macular Degeneration and cataracts.
We put my things in her car, which she had parked before the baricades went up, and drove, as we had been directed, thinking we would find close by handicapped parking. We were told that a shuttle or tram would pick us up and take us to where we needed to go.
Since every street had barricades, we drove around the west, south, and finally on the east side of town, we found one volunteer who would move the barricade and showed us where handicapped parking was supposed to be. We found it at the BTU building, and walked to the street to wait for a shuttle. We saw people who were walking with someone in their party who had an electric cart or chair to ride around in. We asked a volunteer about the tram, since it was getting hot even under the shade of a small tree. They had not seen one all morning and didn't think there was a tram. They explained that parking was across town at Blinn college, and buses could be ridden to the festival. That wouldn't have helped us.
Beside the BTU building, a fire truck was parked and a first aid tent was set up. They had golf carts to ride in with their medical supplies. The volunteer asked the EMTs to take us to the LaSalle Hotel in one of their carts. So Pat rode on the back seat, and I rode up front with a very nice young EMT. They explained that, when we got ready to leave, we could ask a volunteer to call them and they would come back and pick us up. They took us to the LaSalle courtyard and we found the coffee shop.,Pat could get her coffee and we could cool off, while looking for other crawlers. We didn't see anyone else who looked like they might be ready to sketch, and, by that time, we were just ready to sit somewhere and cool off!
We sat by a big window of the lovely restored hotel. Outside the window was a long tent with various food items. Behind the hotel, there was smoke from the grills for the cook off. Further down the sidewalk at the Palace Theatre, a stage was set up and there was music playing. Directly across the street at the Carnegie Library, a stage had been set up with bales of hay for seats. The big grape stomp would take place there later.
We took a few photos with Pat's camera. When those come back, I'll post some to show where we were for the crawl.
I did a sketch of the street where we finally got through the barricade and called it "You Can't Get There From Here". I also sketched the area by the door, across from me, in the hotel. By this time, it was already 11:30.
We walked over to the Carnegie to see the George Bush engine, 4141, that was parked on the tracks between the Carnegie and the Bryan city library. There is a shaded area with a little garden between the Masonic Lodge, with a barber shop downstairs, and the Carnegie Library. Concrete seats and low walls provide a nice place to sit among shrubs and pink and white Crepe Myrtles. I thought that this would be a nice place to work, so we picked out a bench with a good view of the engine and the Library and the Childrens Museum, the old City Hall. All kinds of activities were going on in the area of the library and the museum with a rock climbing wall, something to do with bungee cords, etc. Inside the library, there were programs like the chemistry road show. And we could hear music from performers in that area, too.
I pulled out my sketching things and started to draw 4141 among the Crepe Myrtles while Pat decided to take pictures. The heat was bothering her a lot. Roaming mascots like the HEB bag of groceries and a baseball, the mascot for our new baseball team, the Bombers, stopped to have their pictures taken. A very nice young police officer stopped to see what we were doing. I explained about the sketch crawl and gave him information to pass on. As he left, he shook our hands. We all laughed as he said that we had now shaken hands with Buck Rogers. Sure enough, his name was B. Rogers. I wonder if he got teased about that, or if people expected superhero level things of him, when he was growing up.
Pat took a couple of pictures of the back of the library, with a blossom of Crepe Myrtle hanging down, the train, the mascots, etc. I got enough of the train drawn as a sketch so that I can do more with it later. And we agreed that we needed to go somewhere and cool off. I wasn't sure about a restaurant where we could sit down and draw and cool off. I'm sure there was something, but, with my blurry vision, I couldn't find a sign, and, too, the tents in the middle of the street were blocking my view.
We went back to the LaSalle coffee shop and asked a volunteer to call the Fire Department to take us back to the car. They did and the Fire chief arrived in his little golf cart. A young woman was also there with one of those gator things, a golf cart with a pickup bed on the back. Pat rode with the chief since his vehicle had a top and more shade, and I rode with the very nice young woman. There was some discussion between the hotel people and the city people about who was supposed to be providing tram or shuttle service between the handicapped parking and the festival.
We got back to a very hot car, and thought of where we might go. I told Pat to just head down Texas Avenue, and we should see a sign of some place. Whataburger seemed close and had a big sign, so that is where we stopped. We told them that they were lifesavers! Pat had lemonade and I had a sprite. But, what I really wanted to do was to sketch some more.
So, I sketched Buck Rogers, since that was a fun memory. And the cup with the wonderful cold drink!
We decided to go home, and, I thought that I might go out and sketch some around where I live, after it cooled off, later. Pat brought me home and I decided to just sit in the cool and scan my drawings and darken them a bit. You can tell something about our day from my sketches. The scan of 4141 didn't work out so well, though. The paper was too big for the scanner. I guess it let light in, or something. As a result, it has a green tinge on one side of the paper.
It never did get cool, though. When it got dark, it was still 94. I learned on the news that it reached 99, which, of course, gave us a heat index of over 100. Pretty hot, but, as long as there was shade and a little breeze, and something cold to drink, I was okay with it.
I looked at some of the posts on Sketch Crawl http://www.sketchcrawl.com/ as people have been posting their results. When I last checked, there were posts from 12 different countries and 16 states in the U.S. There is some very nice work, much of it much more finished than mine.
I estimate that I must have spent maybe an hour or so actually drawing, but I did get some things down that I could do more from later. It was all pretty quickly and loosely done.
Sweden had some nice work and photos, and it seemed like a great place to be that day. It was cool there!
Barbara sent word that she, Lynn, and Virginia Vaughan were among those doing art during the Sketch Crawl. Virginia did a workshop in Rockport on that day, so they painted the Cove, and trees, the sunrise, etc. You can read her comment under my last post.
I haven't heard if anyone else in this area was doing the sketch crawl.
If you want to be involved in the next one, you can go to the Sketch Crawl website and get more information, register for your area, if you want to. If you are in this area and want to participate, that will be great. We can work as a group, or you can work on your own, start your own group, or whatever you want to do.
I just think that there are an awful lot of things out there that need to be recorded through art.
I sent out information to area newspapers, and Greta was on "Brazos Arts" on KAMUfm, talking about it. I only saw it used in a couple of calendars. And, just try to send anything to the local paper or tv station by e-mail. Doesn't seem to work very well. Boxes are full, e-mails bounce, or there are no sections online where things I am interested in can be found. Online is best for me, these days, since I can't drive, and gas and things like stamps have gone up so much. I guess that I should have just mailed out press releases.
Maybe next time.
The next sketch crawl should be in 2 or 3 months. That would make it August or September.
I would love to hear if you participated in the Sketch Crawl where ever you are! And, if you are in a surrounding area, I would be thrilled if you would start a group in your town or city, to help Draw the Brazos Valley.
To do the sketches above, I used pencil, on the train engine, on watercolor paper. The others were all done on sketching paper using a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen, superfine. I really like the way that pen works, and it is a permanent india ink pen. They come in a variety of sizes.

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Happy sketching, or whatever it is that you love to do. Get ready for a super week to come!

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Please sign my guest book at the bottom of the page, if you haven't already. And check out my group, Art-By-Cecelia.

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If you see something of interest, let me know. Click on the Contact link.

Vision- The Good Eye II

The Good Eye II
Image size 8" x 11"
Paper size 9" x 12"
watercolors
These were actually two different episodes in July. But, I combined them into one painting, for the sake of composition.
As I sat at the computer, there were four small circles of light that appeared at the lower part of my screen. Trails of light sparkled downward. Something like tiny comets of red, yellow, blue, and purple, with a hint of green.
I closed the good eye and they went away. When I opened that eye, however, they reappeared. They were only there for a short while, but, again, they reminded me of what I had read previously about a detached retina. Flashing lights. But these were not actually flashing lights. Just sparkling little comets.
Another day, at the computer again, I noticed something like floating wheels, some overlapping, across the lower right side of my computer. They appeared to be divided into mostly triangular sections of light. These, too, sparkled, and were happening in the good eye.
This one lasted most of the day, but was gone by the next day, and, like the other images I have been seeing since Macular Degeneration and catarcts struck me, it hasn't reappeared.
In my painting, I used Winsor Newton watercolors on 140 pound Arches watercolor paper. For sparkle, I added a bit of silver acrylic. However, it doesn't appear to show up very well on the monitor. It looks like a bit of gray on my monitor.
There is a new feature on the sidebar of my blog. Check it out under BlogRush. You can go to other blogs there. This will change as people post to their blogs, and those are added to the list in the little frame.
And, if you have a blog of your own, if you click on the bottom where it says to add your own posts Free, you can go to their website for a short video and more information. You can also set up the BlogRush feature on your own site. By inviting other bloggers, whose blogs will be read by a different group of people, that should increase traffic to your own site.
I learned about this from Nancy Standlee on her blog. And I really appreciate her help in setting it up on my blog. (I always run into some problem that is something really simple when I try to do things on the computer!)
Check out her blog at http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com/ . She is another Texas artist. I really enjoyed reading about the workshop she attended in Galveston. And, she is always up on the really cool, new things.
Be sure to check out the other links that I have on my sidebar under Artists and Authors, Interesting Sites, also Storks, and Eye Sites.
The weekend is here, and I just realized it. One advantage of retirement. It's almost always the weekend!
Hope you have a good weekend, doing whatever it is that you enjoy.
Thanks for reading and sending my work along to others who might be interested. All work is copyrighted and most of the art work is for sale. I do welcome comments and inquiries. It helps to know that others are reading, are supportive, and are interested in my work. Check out my group to see more of my watercolors, and join, in order to get an e-mail when I update my blog.