033020: Staying Home

It’s hard to be enthusiastic these days about most things, at least that is what I’m often  finding. Fortunately, though, a rare glimpse of sunlight broke through the dreariness the other day, enough to get me out the door with my camera. Doing was what was important, not so much results.

So, today a mix of things out my studio door – fossils (of course), rocks, etc. Just some things I decided to focus on, to find some solace in such a strange time. Best wishes and stay well!

Mollusc With Brachiopod Tiara

Brachiopods with Lichen

Cephalopod

Rock Flame

Brachiopods

Another Brachiopod

Yet Another Brachiopod

Brachiopod Potpourri

( A note regarding brachiopods. There are over 12,000 fossil species recognized. These marine invertebrates have existed on this planet for roughly 550 million years. The ones seen here are 385-387 million years old)

Shale

Gnarled Wood

 Rough Skin

Grate

Industry

Thanks for the visit. Be well.

010920: Gastropods

A good friend of mine is currently writing about gastropods, Devonian ones in particular, for a chapter in a book. He recently asked if I could provide some of my gastropod images to accompany his work and I happily agreed.

That got me to scour my libraries. I managed to come up with these ten (and many more). As they accumulated in a folder I began to create other categories – particular favorites being one of many.

So today here are ten different looks at the local 387 million year old gastropods.

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The remaining five images are from that other new category – personal favorites – a subject that I might dip into more and more as time goes by.

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Thanks for the visit.

121219: More Devonian Fossils

Another selection for you today – all local 385 million year old invertebrate fossils. I’m too busy today with the hearings to add any more to this post. I hope you enjoy today’s images.

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I’ll leave you with this pic of my latest painting. Not sure if it will stay this way. It seems like they never do!

Thanks for the visit.

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.

112119: Old is New

It’s been hard to focus on the blog this week with all the hearings going on. I did have the time to put together this grouping of images that have been sitting in my earliest fossil library – images that had not ever been addressed before. So, even though they were originally shot twelve years ago, it was only yesterday that I finally got around to processing them.

It is a mix of various fossils – all Devonian marine invertebrates (387 million years old) and all found locally.

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Thanks for the visit.

110719: A Small Variety

Some new images today along with a mix of other recent work. The opener, taken upon my return from a trip out of town, seemed to capture that mid Autumn feeling – leaves are down, colors are fading, and a fog suggesting increasing grays.The images that follow have no main focus – just a variety of things I’ve been playing with lately.

Fossil Mix

Mixed Media

Two details from a recent project on Galileo

Jupiter Moon

Gastropod

Brachiopod

Brachiopod drawing

Autumn

Flowers

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These two are the result of mirroring:  flowers…

…and part of a large conch. It almost looks like a polished wood sculpture.

Double Yams, entwined

Double Buddha

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.

100319: All Local (Almost)

Late afternoon light landed on a shelf full of rocks and fossils here in my studio the other day. Today’s opening image is the result – a brachiopod, a mollusk, and a trilobite. That trilobite is the only fossil in my possession that I did not find myself, or rather, one that I did not dig up myself. It is from Morocco via the Sant’ Ambrogio Market in Florence (where I purchased it for a few euro.)

So, with camera now in hand, I grabbed a few more local fossils and, with an appreciation for their unique shapes, tried to breathe some new life into these ancient relics.

Sometimes even broken pieces can be intriguing on their own.

And it continued from there. Following up on last week’s post, all the remaining images are brachiopods (whole or parts) showing again a few of the many different types (15,000) that existed over a period of a few hundred million years!

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Brachiopods seem to be the most abundant local fossil here in this patch of the upper Hudson River Valley. No wonder then that they continue to find their way into my recent drawings and paintings!

Thanks for the visit.

 

091219: Respite

Last week I showed a few images where I mixed my local fossils in with rocks along the Maine shore. This week I decided to flip the script, so to speak, and mix a few Maine rocks in with fossils here in my studio.

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A few more images of seaweed (I have so many !)

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The remainder of today’s images – also continued from last week – are the results of a game/experiment/amusement(?) I engaged in while exploring the rocky shore.

With a bag full of dried scraps of acrylic paint, a shoreline full of wonder, my camera, and a sense of curiosity, I found respite from a maddening world.

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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.