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Posts Tagged ‘watercolor’

It has been so hot here that the prospect of Plein Air painting is somewhat repulsive. Perhaps a drawing done on the spot with color notes and lots of photo reference is the way to go.  Right now I’m setting up at the drawing board next to the computers. The Weather Alert radio upstairs just turned itself on automat­i­cally with some warning or advisory. It was in a cabinet in the dining room staying quiet. I’d just taken it back out again. I know now that we have another day of excessive heat expected here on Saturday. Oh joy.

I’m surrounding myself with these OTT Light bulbs. They give you brilliant illumi­nation but they are CFLs and will save a lot over a period of time and they are daylight balanced. You can find a nice display of OTT lighting at any JoAnn Fabric Store and I’ve even seen them at Michaels Arts and Crafts. They are also available here online and have a nice variety of shapes and forms that they come in to suit people’s different needs.

Color-wise they are much more effective than the old Luxo Lamps that I was used to working with. They relied on a round fluorescent tube and in the center was a spot for the incan­descent bulb. While this gave you more balanced lighting than fluorescent or incan­descent bulbs alone… it still did not come close to daylight. These OTT bulbs seem to make a big difference. You ought to check them out. These bulbs do reduce eyestrain quite a bit.  I’ve got to get on into painting here now.  so … I’ll keep writing  …more later

We found really nice Mums and Gourds at the Farm & Garden Station here in nearby Ivyland, Pennsylvania. Not too far from here out old Almshouse Road in (depends on your source of infor­mation) Ivyland or in Warminster, Pennsylvania. I notice the same problem with Tanners in the web look-ups. The shots that I have here were done on October 10, 2009 in the afternoon. The tracks were quiet but the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad crosses near the property — hence the name “station”.  It was a nice day and my wife Sue wanted to go bring home some Fall decora­tions.  So that was exactly what we did.

The shop there had a couple Enormous Pumpkins on display. If you guessed the weight of the large one inside you could win it. Then you would have to figure out exactly what you were going to do with the rotting hulk and seeds… Clever. The store at the Station doesn’t really have a great deal to sustain it during the winter months. It gets pretty darned quiet around January there but each Spring they continue to be a good source of Mother’s Day plants and flowers. Lots of nice hanging plants. Anyhow I enjoyed bringing my camera and catching the color and light patterns. Here I’ll share them with you in a little NextGEN Gallery. Incidentally the NextGEN Galleries are very compatible with CoolIris and it makes a nice little slide show of the images.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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If you’d like to go see the Farm & Garden Station — here is their address and phone number. I’m quite sure they’d appre­ciate your business.

Farm and Garden Station
1370 Almshouse Road
Ivyland, Pennsylvania 18974
Phone: (215) 396‑6898