{"id":687,"date":"2011-12-30T10:01:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T14:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/?p=687"},"modified":"2012-06-14T19:34:53","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T23:34:53","slug":"painting-with-lenny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=687","title":{"rendered":"Painting with Lenny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello again dear friends!\u00a0When I was driving my mother to the airport yesterday, we passed by this charming wooded glen that framed a pond\u2026 there was this narrow dirt road that meandered into the distance\u2026 actually it was an Interstate; but I imagined<\/em> that it was a country lane.\u00a0There was a cheerful white clapboard house with a small dock that edged into the pond.\u00a0 The birds were chirping, and you could hear the rustle of squirrels and chipmunks scampering in the undergrowth.\u00a0 Well, we couldn\u2019t really hear anything because our windows were rolled up and I drove by too fast!\u00a0Mother was worried about missing her flight back to Minneapolis!\u00a0 Hah, hah, hah!<\/p>\n

So you know what I\u2019m thinking?\u00a0 You\u2019re right!\u00a0 That wooded glen would be a perfect subject for our painting today!\u00a0 So let\u2019s get started shall we? Let\u2019s prep our palette with the colors we\u2019ll need.\u00a0 I love doing this!\u00a0 We\u2019ll need reliable Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna!\u00a0 Do you remember those colors?\u00a0 When I was a little boy, when friends came over to play, my Mother made me share my crayons\u2026 I would give my friends Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna to use and I kept the good<\/em> colors to myself!<\/p>\n

OK, what else?\u00a0 Hmmmm. A little Prussian Blue, a touch of Cerulean, some Cadmium Red\u2026 don\u2019t you love saying Cadmium Red<\/em>? Cadmium Yellow and now a dab of Yellow Ochre.\u00a0 Next Viridian, Cobalt Violet\u2026 oh sure, English Light Green, Emerald.\u00a0 Some Black and of course White.\u00a0 Must have White!\u00a0 Don\u2019t you love the way White looks like a Carvel Vanilla ice cream cone without the cone?\u00a0 I\u2019m putting on extra white!\u00a0 Sometimes I just wish I had a bigger palette!<\/p>\n

Next\u2026 a bottle of Tanqueray Gin, a bottle of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth and the necessary accoutrements<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Alrighty then\u2026 let\u2019s put the gin and a wee bit of vermouth into this handsome glass pitcher, fill it with ice.\u00a0 Let\u2019s stir enthusiastically, and say together, You who know all, thank you for providing us essence of juniper and the other obscure botanicals responsible for creating this sacred liquid! <\/em>OK, let\u2019s strain carefully into a generously sized pre-frozen Martini glass\u2026 don\u2019t spill any onto the palette!\u00a0 Don\u2019t won\u2019t any to go to waste! And for a finishing touch, lemon twist, stuffed olives or Gibson onions?\u00a0 Today, I think it\u2019s three of these plump olives!\u00a0 Let\u2019s impale the olives on this little plastic sword.\u00a0 There\u2026 I like to imagine that I am the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim giving it to the Franco-Bavarian Army!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a sip! Hmmmmmmmmm, how dry it is<\/em>\u2026 boy that\u2019s good!\u00a0 OK, time to paint!!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take some Cerulean, a little bit of our glorious White and an eentsy-weensty Cadmium Yellow and blend them for our sky.\u00a0 There\u2026 that looks about right\u2026 a little more white\u2026 better.\u00a0 OK, let\u2019s take our palette knife and coat the sky!\u00a0 I love a palette knife\u2026 sometimes I use this to cut coconut cake with frosting!\u00a0 Do you know why I like coconut cake with frosting?\u00a0 Because the frosting looks like tiny mounds of white oil paint! One time the frosting looked so good that I decided to put some on my palette for a little snack while I paint; but that lead to an embarrassing incident\u2026 so I don\u2019t do that any more!\u00a0 Hah, hah, hah!<\/p>\n

Time for some evergreens.\u00a0 I think of them as the stately sentinels of the forest!\u00a0 Let\u2019s put them on this side, and why not? A few over here, too. After all this is a happy place.\u00a0 And do you know what makes me happy?\u00a0 Yes, a quick sip of my Martini, and now it\u2019s time for a happy gingko tree!\u00a0 Don\u2019t you love to say gingko<\/em>?\u00a0 I do. Gingko<\/em>! Gingko trees go back to the Jurassic Era.\u00a0 Let\u2019s put our gingko in its fall colorings.\u00a0 We\u2019ll mix Cadmium Yellow and a tad of Sienna to create a brilliant autumnal gold.\u00a0 There!\u00a0 You know what?\u00a0 Let\u2019s put a Stegosaurus by our gingko!\u00a0 Let\u2019s take some of our Burnt Umber and a little Raw Sienna and make a happy Stegosaur approaching the pond to have a drink. You don\u2019t have to put a Stegosaurus in your painting. You can put in a Kentrosaurus in your painting if it makes you happy!\u00a0 Remember, this is your painting!\u00a0 I\u2019m going to make my Stegosaurus even happier by putting some splashes of Cerulean and Cobalt Violet on his back plates!\u00a0 There\u2019s a happy fellow!<\/p>\n

Over on this side of the pond let\u2019s put a playful Rottweiler!\u00a0 And?\u00a0 He\u2019s about to get a stick, and what\u2019s this behind these low shrubs?\u00a0 Why our spirited Rottweiler has stumbled upon Norma Fensky and that tool<\/em> Jerry Sherman in<\/em> flagrante delicto<\/em>! And let\u2019s just put a suggestion<\/em> of under things over by this forsythia bush.\u00a0 A push-up bra there and size 44 waist boxer shorts\u2026 there.\u00a0 Perfect! Isn\u2019t this special?<\/p>\n

Painting sure is thirsty work\u2026 you know I think this Martini is a top five effort!\u00a0 Clearly one of my best! And this is a superb olive\u2026 I like them on the firm side, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

OK\u2026 time to put in our friendly cottage.\u00a0 I think it should go about here\u2026 but you can put your cottage where you want to.\u00a0 Remember, this is your painting<\/em>! I think I am going to put the front screen door hanging by one hinge\u2026 and let\u2019s give the dock a wonderful weathered<\/em> look like it\u2019s in need of serious repair. And let\u2019s put a small rowboat half on land, and half under the water. There\u2026 a nice homey touch that gives our painting an air of refreshing authenticity.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s add that dusty lane curling into the distance now.\u00a0 There.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll want to add the owner of the cottage passed out under the rhododendron?\u00a0 Or just walking away in handcuffs with a State Trooper? Remember\u2026 make this painting yours! I think I\u2019ll leave this a deserted road and maybe just put some orange reflective tape that indicates that this area was a crime scene. There!\u00a0 I think this composition is coming along beautifully, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

Do you know what Saul Bellow said about Martini\u2019s?\u00a0 One is not enough, and three are too many!\u00a0 So before we put in some happy clouds, let\u2019s quickly mix up another Martini. Ahhhhhhhhhh, another superior example of liquid art!<\/p>\n

Right!\u00a0 Time for some fun clouds!\u00a0 I love clouds\u2026 don\u2019t you?\u00a0 Not the streaky kind\u2026 the puffy kind.\u00a0 So let\u2019s put a few here.\u00a0 They remind me of plush marshmallow\u2019s\u2026 or lovely frosting on coconut cake!\u00a0 Hah, hah, hah.\u00a0 Happy clouds\u2026 put them where you\u2019d like.\u00a0 And I think I am going to add a Delta 727 heading to Minneapolis over here. Uh-huh.\u00a0 And why not put a tiny speck way over here next to this happy cloud?\u00a0 Do you know what that is?\u00a0 It\u2019s a Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon armed with Sidewinder missiles!\u00a0 Won\u2019t Mother be surprised!<\/p>\n

There! Oui, c\u2019est fini<\/em>! And ready for the Louvre! And thank you dear friends for painting with Lenny <\/em>today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again dear friends!\u00a0When I was driving my mother to the airport yesterday, we passed by this charming wooded glen that framed a pond\u2026 there was this narrow dirt road that meandered into the distance\u2026 actually it was an Interstate; … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry-of-jokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}