Descending Ashtray

Things are starting to slow down a little for me, so I thought maybe I would post something. I had not realized it but my last post on DA was March 27th! Where did there year go?

Anyway, I have been working on remodeling the sun room in our house. The room previously had a drop ceiling and a very narrow doorway. With the help of my brother in-law Bill, we gutted the room and cut through a 9″ cinder block wall in order to make the the doorway bigger. After the fun work of demo was over, Bill went back to California and left me to figure out how to finish the framing. I decided to do an arched opening for the door. There are a couple of other smaller arched openings in our house, so I thought it would be good to continue the theme.

In the background you can see part of the vaulted ceiling. The former drop ceiling was only 8″ above the windows. It feels much more open now!

This is a site specific table that I am making for our neighbor, hence the unusual shape. The spindle legs are perhaps a little more traditional of a style then what I would normally make but it was a fun project to work on and figure out. The spindles themselves are not square stock at the top and bottom. They are more of an arrowhead like diamond shape which made it tricky finding the center point for turning them. I also learned early on not to use a wide gouge on the transition between the square and the round part of the spindle. The first attempt splintered out really bad and made it unusable. The second attempt went much smoother. I wrapped masking tape around the part I wanted to stay square and used my narrowest scraper to cut into the spindle at angle that moved the knife away from the grain instead of into it. Anyway the rest of the legs turned out pretty good. Then I Kreg jigged everything together from the bottom.

I probably should have taken more pictures to illustrate the process, oh well, maybe next time.

(I realized after posting the picture that it is kind of hard to see that the top is a trapezoid shape. In the picture it looks like a long table that is foreshortened. It is kind of an optical illusion.)

8″ x 13″

Oil on panel

The painting is of a place in Zion National Park in Southern Utah. The park was absolutely beautiful. I actually climbed out to the peak in the center of the painting. It was a crazy hike, with 2,000 ft. drop offs on either side of the trail. One the most amazing places I have ever been to!

I have been working on this painting on and off for a couple of days. And I am kind of developing a love/hate relationship with it. On one side I am really happy with where it is going (it is still a work in progress), on the other side I feel rather lost in the detail. I need to find more clarity and unity within the painting. I am going to work on it some more. I just wanted to post it to maybe get a fresh perspective on it.

This is a field easel I have been working on. I attached the camera mount piece to the wood easel. It clips in and out of the tripod very easily. The idea was to make it as simple and light weight as possible, yet sturdy enough to handle a canvas that is 21″ high.

Everything folds up small enough to fit in a backpack or bike bag. Very cheap too. I could probably make all the components to attach to any tripod for $30.

9″ x 11.5″

Charcoal on paper

I used to do a lot of life drawing back in college but have not done much of it recently. A friend of mine organizes a group and I joined them for the first time today. It was a really good experience and the two hours just flew by. This was the drawing I worked on today.

8″ x 13″

Oil on panel