I donated this 16″ x 20″ watercolor painting to my church this weekend for a silent auction or any other fund-raiser they may have. For months I have been thinking that I should be using my ability for charities and church but really didn’t know how to approach it or whom to contact. The sad thing is that now days there are so many laws and regulations, on who or what they can accept, and the threat of law suits for every little thing. So churches and charities have to be careful on what they accept. But I decided to take my painting to church Sunday and just let them make the decision on whether they wanted it or not. They not only accepted it. but was thrilled and have other plans for me (not sure what that means) but I will help as much as I can. For months I have been thinking that there is a path, a direction, that has been set for me to use my abilities in helping the church and the mission work that they do around the world. After saying this I will now tell you what the message in church was Sunday, the message was about the Path that God has set out for you. Coincidence, I don’t think so. Now, I’m not very good with the bible, but my understanding of the service was that we are given a path, that path has no walls keeping us on the path and obstacles along the way that may tempt us to veer, and it’s our choice on what we do along that path. Most of my life paths  look like the trails used by deer in a woods, yes they do use trails, but they create new ones in different directions as though they’re not sure on which directions they should be going. They’re not lost, but walk with no clear direction. I have decided to take that path given to me and I’m excited about it. I’m not saying there won’t be bumps, and some decisions made might not be the best, but I will fight the urge to wonder off into a different path. Because the path given is the best and most exciting path that I can take.

Happy Thanksgiving to those that are celebrating the holiday and be thankful everyday for things given.

Some details still needed in the faces and fence, but I thought you might want to see where I’m at with the horses. This is a 20″ x 24″ Acrylic on canvas. I haven’t spent a lot of recent time on it due to being extremely busy. I hope you enjoy and please comment, even if it is to critic. It will soon be for sale on etsy or somewhere on the web. Please comment whether good or bad. Thanks

Here’s my buddy Binh (nephew), A few more details but this is pretty well finished. It’s all watercolor and ink. Enjoyed this project during my lunch hours but didn’t really have as much time as I hoped. Hope you enjoy!

A Poem I wrote years ago to honor those who serve and served our Nation with Honor and Bravery. I not that good at poems but I try every once in a while.

Soldiers of Good:

Many question our Lord, the reason for our battles

the evil in our world is testing our faith, our faith in which they rattle.

With evil all around us, yet we turn our heads and ignore;

hoping others will act, to avoid involvement as we have before.

Evil, what is evil? Or do we even want to know?

For if we faced what evil was, would we want to determine whether it was friend or foe?

Blinding ourselves of our own evils, excusing them for social strong;

believing a social majority, excuses the wrong.

Be a soldier of the good, battles need to be fought

spiritual and physical cleansing must be sought.

God bless our soldiers, their families and friends;

those soldiers of good, fighting until evil ends.

Love and cherish your families and life all around;

for the soldiers of good and love will conquer all evil abound.

God will lead us into victory if we are willing to receive;

for all God is asking for, is Faith and Belief.

God Bless All

Ryan

Remember those who have fought and those that are still fighting!

Just a quickie this morning. This is Binh, my nephew (metaphase’s son), I was looking for a lunch time sketch subject and found this picture on the metaphase blog. He is a sweetheart, along with his sister Ava. Which I will paint next, but for now it’s Binh. I’m using watercolor and ink, the ink gives such a blacker black but harder to blend. So for now, the horses will be worked on at home and my buddy Binh will be the lunch time project. Thanks for visiting and hanging with me, I’ve been really busy, but trying to keep things fresh on the blog.

What better way to get that first kiss? What better place to receive that last kiss from your loved one? There has always been a special place in American social history for the porch swing. I built a three level wood deck this spring, with a 12′ x 16′ screened in gazebo, and had plans for a ceiling fan and porch swing. Well I completed everything except the swing, I searched high and low for a well made, high back porch swing and found nothing. So, I built one. This high back swing is made of tiger maple (because of the tiger patterned grain), it seats three adults and weighs a ton. I have so many memories as a child, young adult and adult swinging on a swing with those I love. Everything from my grandparents having one and getting after me for swinging to high, to swinging with my wife when we were just 16 and started dating, to swinging with my own daughters from little babies, to the age of getting after them for swinging to high (learned that from my grandparents), to now when they both are beautiful ladies with a little time to talk to dad while swinging. I hope someday they can  swing on their porch and remember all the good times and talks they had while swinging with their mom and dad.

I’ve always said, the family that eats together (at the same time and table) stays together. But I think the porch swing runs a real close second.

Have you ever been so scared that you tried to run from something and even though your legs and feet were going a hundred miles an hour, you went no where? It’s like the old cartoon, where they were running so fast and not moving, that smoke started lifting from their feet. Well some us have seen it… not mentioning any names (brother), but it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. We were in my basement with a drop ceiling, where we suspected a mouse or rat had gotten in. We never had one before, so this was a new experience. So, I decided to put poison above the ceiling tile where we thought it was living. Now, not mentioning any names (brother) we ventured down the stairs, as I slowly lifted the ceiling, I saw a piece of ceiling insulation falling out. Being the teaser that I am, as it fell to where my brother (oops) could see it, I yelled loudly, THERE IT GOES! Catching a glance of something leaping from the tile, the man (my brother) started running like an Olympic sprinter, the only difference was, he ran in place practically burning a hole in the carpet. What he envisioned was this giant, man-eating, rat, pictured above, diving for his juggler. This was horribly mean of me, but I’m telling you, if you were there, you to would have laughed your head off. Oh, by the way we were both over the age of 35, not kids.

O.k. now that I’m going to catch hell from (my brother), I’ll tell one on myself. We were TPing (throwing Toilet Paper into the trees) at a friend’s house for Halloween. Iwas about 14 years old, 130 lbs, and apparently not very smart. I was with several older kids, some boys and girls. Anyway, in the process of TPing the dad of the person getting TPed comes busting out of the front door with a shotgun… acting like he was out to kill someone. He pointed the gun in the air and shucked a shell (we thought) into the chamber. Anyone who has hunted, knows the sound of a pump shotgun being loaded, and knows what a shotgun can do to you. Needless to say, I became an Olympic runner just like my older brother, only I was moving, when running. First of all, you can’t out run a shotgun, second of all, it was dark, Third and most important, when running in the dark at full speed, you have to watch for CLOTHES LINES! You guess it, at full speed, I ran my head and neck right into a clothes line and went instantly from an Olympic runner, to an Olympic gymnast, doing a triple flip, in pike position, right onto the ground (scoring all 10’s). All I could hear in the background was the shotgun bearing crazy man, laughing his head off, knowing he scared the CRAP out of me. Now, for the good news, after picking myself up in shame, still running, I leaped into the back of a pickup truck. No, that’s not the good news, the good news was, that a very attractive high school girl was leaping in after me and landing on top of me, Oh, did I mention that she was a high schooler, and I was in junior high.

There’s a couple of examples, now give me your moments, that you were scared the crap out of.

The content to this blog may be to graphic for the weak hearted or elderly… wait a minute that’s me! O.K., it’s a graphic, just a graphic, nothing scary, nothing gross, well at least not much, and kinda hot, but not obscene. I thought that I would do something a little different in style for the halloween theme, and go with a graphic style vampire . I enjoy halloween because it allows us to be a little crazy, creative, and it’s the only holiday that you’re supposed to be ugly, which is easy for us that are already ugly.

My family and I just spent the weekend at a halloween themed campground. The entire campground of more than 350 lots, decorate and create halloween scenes at each lot. The campground also has dances for the teens, pumpkin carving, ghost stories around a giant fire, and much more. Adults dress up and become kids for the weekend and enjoy each others company and food. Food, lots of food, to much food and guess what, I ate it all, I’m so ashamed. The campground is called Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana, the web is lakerudolph.com. They started with 1 weekend and now due to popularity have grown to 6 weekends. They have 200 rentable campers that have a queen size bed, kitchen, dining room table, living area and a bedroom with 4 bunk beds, with heat, air, and kitchen appliances. I know what you’re thinking… that’s not camping, but as long as you have a huge campfire  marshmallows and chocolate, that’s camping. Check it out and try to find a local campground and encourage them to due the same. They make a fortune off of it, and it’s great fun for family and friends.

Whether a trick or treat, leave me a comment!

I started this last night for my daughter. She loves horses and is off to college to become a vet tech, specializing in equine breeding or therapy. I know it’s similar to the predator painting, but I think she’ll love it. It’s almost finished with just a few more hair details to be placed under the eye and jaw. Thanks for visiting!

I’m pretty calm and relaxed in my everyday living, but when it comes to art and woodworking, sometimes the creativity goes out the window (no pun intended) and precision and tightness takes over. Artist have always impressed me by the looseness in their paintigs, and yet accomplish amazing beauty in their work. My wife wanted more black and white paintings for our home so I set out one evening to complete this window scene. But, I wanted to treat it more as a sketch, than a painting, in other words try to stay loose without giving into the illustrator side in me. I finished it in one evening, which included a undetermined time lapse due to falling asleep while painting it (how much more relaxed can you get). Very seldom do I take naps, I believe in the saying (I’ll have plenty of time for rest, when I’m dead). But at my age (old) sometimes a nap is required.

This watercolor didn’t turn out as well as I was hoping, but I was determined not to go back and put in more detail. I have tried everything to stay loose, holding the far end of a brush, only to catch myself inching my hand towards the brush end to get more precise. Using brushes bigger than I need, only to catch myself angling the brush end to use the corner or edge of the brush to get detail. But, I’m trying, and my blog artist friends are a motivation. Seeing what you can accomplish with artistic styles, the color, light contrast, depth and creativity while maintaining a loose, beauty styled painting.