120519: Trilobites and Others

This week’s post starts with three images containing trilobite parts. In this particular area it’s rather difficult to find entire, whole trilobites. So finding something like the impression of a trilobite eye (in the opening image) makes for a very good day in the field for me!

As is usually the case, the remainder of fossil images displayed today are local (Hudson Valley), all dug up by me, and all 385 million year old marine invertebrates.

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Snow finally arrived a few days ago and it looks like it will be around for a while. My first thought was to cut a path to my studio sitting down there in the woods. My second thought was to focus my camera briefly on the newly formed shapes that surrounded the studio.

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Thanks for the visit.

103119: More From the Quarry

I must admit that I have been captured by the random beauty resulting from the mineral oxidation of shale at my local quarry.

It’s pretty easy to spot the colors amidst the blue grays and blacks of the piles of broken shale.

Generally, the red, orange, and yellow stains clearly stand out. And, like most anything else, some of the stains are pretty ordinary.

But, upon closer inspection and with some discrimination, some of the stains create visual delights!

I keep saying to myself that I’ve found enough and may have played this one out.

But then, as I review some of the recent images, I look out the window, notice that the sun is shining, and I’m out the door for yet another trip to the quarry. We are already in mid Autumn and there will be fewer opportunities before winter sets in.

And, when the colors begin to fade along with the onset of dreary gray winter days, I’ll go back to picking fossils from the other layers where they primarily reside.

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I’ll close for today with a shot from my perch in the quarry. Piles of rock everywhere, fall colors and the Eastern Escarpment of the Catskills.

Thanks for the visit.

102419: Fall Colors

I drove up on the mountaintop the other day to take in the fall colors. Ended up visiting friends and found myself more interested in their “local sights” than the leaves!

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First and foremost was the barn.

Two views of the same window – from the outside, and from the inside at the tool bench.

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A blurred treestump above and white birch with clothespins below.

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Back here outside my studio, falling leaves are hiding the many fossils that lay about. I did, though, find enough to occupy myself on a fine fall afternoon!

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Thanks for the visit.

091919: Looking Down

Seems I’m always looking down when I’m out walking through the woods or climbing through the local quarry. Much to view down there – lichen, moss, fossils, rocks, etc. Kind of mundane sort of stuff!

But a closer look can often dispel that notion.

The images above triggered the next few – moss creeping over and around some Devonian fossils (a brachiopod followed by a couple of cephalopods).

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A visit to the quarry gave me further good reason to keep looking down.

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Along with finding all kinds of shapes and colors, I was able to find a very nice gastropod.

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I’ll end today with these recent attempts at exploring more of this whole “fossil” thing..

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Thanks for the visit.

090519: Low Tide, Maine

This is what it must have looked like 400 or 500 million years ago, I think – maybe around the time when some little creatures began to check out the other side of the shoreline and moved onto land. The geology of the area hits at about that same time. Even seaweed goes back that far and perhaps longer.

No surprise then that the experience of being there should resonate with me. After all, most of the fossils I have dug up and photographed over the years are from roughly that same deep time period (give or take a hundred million yers or so!).

My camera has pretty much been sitting on the shelf since my last post 9 or 10 months ago. No surprise again that Maine would shake something loose for me. The coastal rocks are a joy to behold, far more colorful than one might suspect. Even though I walk this same stretch of shoreline every year I am always happily rewarded with new discoveries.

It’s for these reasons (and many others) that Cindy and I always look forward to our annual visit. And arriving home last week has us already talking about the next one!

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It might just be seaweed, but even seaweed has its own beauty.

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I brought a few of my favorite “home grown” fossils with me. I figured the fossils and rocks might be “chronological” cousins and might provide me a fresh approach to two long favorite subjects.

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My time away from the blog has not been idle. All of my studio time has been spent painting. The two had become too difficult for me to work simultaneously and required more singular devotion. During that time, as  my excess acrylic paints would dry in their respective bowls, I would find ways to peel that dried paint out and toss the leftovers into a pile. Random colors and fragments seemed to meld together to create something new.

So I brought some of them with me to Maine also, wondering how my own colors might blend with the rocks. Two examples here are part of a larger project , more of which might show up here again in the future.

And here are two of my latest paintings in progress. Both are roughly 5′- 5.5′

I hope this new post will beget more. If that happens I imagine that the visual focus might widen as my initial fascination with fossils has led me to so many other aspects of nature –  from deepest time to the present. If any of this is not “your cup of tea” please let me know and I will remove you from my mailing list. For the rest of you, thank you for your time. I hope to post again soon.

I’ll leave you with an image of an arriving storm a few weeks ago in Maine.                  (Even storms are gorgeous up there!)

Thanks for the visit.

111518: Late Autumn Color

First hint of snow appeared this morning. Out came the flannel jeans. Long sleeve t-shirts replaced the short sleeve tees. Life can be pretty simple!

This year I have been much more interested in the faded colors of late autumn.

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I’ll leave you with some rather playful, altered images that I have been working on. I hope you enjoy them.

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Thanks for the visit.

091318: Nature!

A few years ago, our neighbors, Dorian and Jim, gave to me two rather large hornet nests. They had been hanging in their barn for years and thought they might be good subjects for me – a very kind gesture that I much appreciated.

Over time I photographed them enough (on the outside) and finally decided to take a look inside. These first five images were taken as I slowly broke the nests down to the honeycomb.

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Fascinating structures they are! The hexagonal pattern that defines the honeycomb is a pattern found throughout nature (See “Why Nature Prefers Hexagons.”). And it has been around for a long time.

The image above is not an old or even fossilized honeycomb. It is, rather, a favosite, more commonly known as honeycomb coral. This fossil coral is approximately 387 million years old (during the Devonian Period) and was something I dug up locally.

Brachiopod and Mollusc

“Geometry in nature” seems to be a good segue into more of nature’s designs – an image sampler of fossils, all locally founded and all as old as the honeycomb coral.

Brachiopod

Cephalopods and Brachiopods

Gastropod

Brachiopods

Tabulate Coral

I’m closing today with three mixed media drawings. I had trilobites on my mind so I created some generic versions  – each one app. 36″ x 48″.

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Thanks for the visit.

090618: More from Maine

Today’s post delves once more into our recent trip to Maine. The first half are images of the broken shells I brought back to the studio (along with a rock from Jasper Beach). The shells came from a small, narrow strip of coastline that also provided me with the second half – more images of the coastal rock walls.

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Thanks for the visit.

And thank you to our wonderful hosts, Eric and Betty. We look forward to seeing you again next summer

083018: Away and Home

From our recent trip – images from our hosts’ garden followed by a few finds from the shore.

Sweet Pea vines (Above)

Asparagus

Asparagus

Dill

Squash

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Found on the shore – a couple of sponges and, i think and have been told, some kind of fish egg case or sac. (I must admit to being a bit wobbly on all these names).

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Our return home followed torrential downpours that turned the forest floor into into a seeming carpet of mushrooms. I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots and would have done much more were it not for what also came with the rainfall – mosquitos! Here are a few of those images.

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Thanks for the visit. Have a safe holiday weekend.

082318: Back from Maine

Just back from a week on the Maine coast. This year the trip was primarily recuperative, less exploring and more staring at the ocean. That said, I couldn’t totally ignore the rocks along the shore (some of my favorite anywhere). Here are a handful of images from my first edit.

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This trip I found myself paying attention to the seaweed, something I had always looked past or sought to keep out of the frame.

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On the drive home we decided to stop for the night in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. An after dinner walk led me to a nearby bridge – an old truss bridge long closed. And I couldn’t resist the opportunity to snap off a few frames.

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More from Maine to come. Thanks for the visit.