View From The Top Of My Cab - sold

The following entry, which correlates with the works below, is dated - Monday, July 18, 2005

".....A wonderful day of painting down by Wakenda. Once a farm community, destroyed by the 1993 flood, now it has crops where houses once stood. It is near river bottom fields and levees. The waterway under this one-lane bridge reminds me of the marshes up near Bellingham, Washington (where my nephew got married two summers ago). A setting I've been looking for, just now discovering in my county, ten miles from home. On the drive over, I kept my eyes on the pavement, with brief glances at the terrain. Lest I stop somewhere sooner than my destination. Man, the morning light was gorgeous."

"At the moment I am working on prepared masonite boards, 7 by 10 inches, 5 by 9 inches, even trying 4 by 6 inches. That way I can work with the field patterns and sky / cloud patterns. Trying to work wetter, faster, with less detail, broad strokes on a small scale."

Wakenda Bottoms I 7 x 10 acrylic on panel avalailable

"Sat up on top of the pickup cab, my feet dangling off the side, resting against the windshield or on the open window ledge. Wide brimmed hat, color jars in little basket, palette next to me, holding the board with one hand, dragging the paint across with the other. Wonderful wide view. Choice!!! Primo!! Excellente!"

"Took my bike out for a spin down the road to check out another cement culvert, short-leafed green water plants with tiny yellow blossoms. Lots of soybean fields. I like the dried up splotchy fields, myself. Pedaled back past the truck. My florescent pedants fluttering off the tailgate, indicating artist at work. The truck sits off the winding blacktop on an overgrown slope into a farmer's field. Some light peach or rose colored grass spreads out in an elongated triangle, surrounded by a solid stretch of dark blue-green. When I return to the snapping pedants, the bike is lifted into the back, equipment is secured, panels dry inside on the front dash, and I relocate to the next vantage point."

Wakenda Bottoms II 7 x 10 acrylic on panel available

"Later, I discover that I need to be wearing longer shirt sleeves and long-legged pants, either that or at least sun block ointment. Fortunately there was no peeling."

"With permission, the axles bouncing up and down, I viewed the Missouri river from a shaggy levee. The elevated hill separated a sea of soybean green from the rock strewn edge of the river. Someday, I hope to feel the surge of inspiration when I gaze on the Missouri river. Caleb Bingham did. Others have. It hasn't for me. It's flat. There are trees and a beach on the opposite side. Perhaps the cloud patterns could excite this scene. The moments pass. I stop the truck, walk to and fro, looking at the river from high and low, cottonwood limbs obscuring, back up on the levee. Stopped to watch a tugboat from the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana, the "Jennie Demper," labor, water churning, as it shoved two long low barges up the river."

View From The Top Of My Cab 8 x 28 on cradled panel sold
through Burkholder Project, Lincoln, Nebraska

"It was a full day. On-site at 10 am, rolling back into Carrollton at 4:30 pm. Lots of water to drink. The exploration of the levees was good. One farmer friend tells me I can climb up his grain bin ladder sometime. After seeing how high it was from the ground today, I'll wait to make an appointment. (And rent a space suit) The best hours were at the beginning of this day, in retrospect. Best lighting. Best energy. A good variety of clouds to study. The weather was not as hot as it's been. I want to go back for sure."