Nancy Medina for President Of Texas and a Poas for Michelle

On June 9, Nancy Medina of "Nancy and the Fatties" gave me a "Welcome Back to Texas" blog. Between me, Pokey and TacoBelle, I don't know who was the happiest. You can view it by clicking HERE. She is such a sweetie...she even included a link to "Luckenbach," However, with the wild weather they've been having up there in Flower Mound, Willie Nelson's "Blue Skies" might have been a better choice.

Anyway, in appreciation, I went and painted a big portrait of Nancy and one of her pugs, Annie. While I was finishing it, some guy in a Rolls Royce comes by and plops down a twenty dollar bill and says he has to have it. Well, living on Beanie-Weenies and Kool-Aid like the starving artist I am, ....I grabbed it up. Now, it seems this guy flew the painting to France and managed to display it in the Louvre. That's it above, getting the atention of a couple of admirers. Okay, maybe not....but it was a neat thought....I get carried away sometimes. Now then, if Texas does secede from the union, I'll nominate Nancy for its first President.



Michelle Burnett is the mastermind and originator of the charming challenge blog "Following the Masters" featured landscapes for this month. I haven't done many landscapes. I'm not so good at landscapes. I'm much better with smily faces. However, I did a landscape. There's a part of my heart that will always be attached to Costa Rica, so I did a scene of Poas volcano....a placeI have visited several times. Poas is indeed picturesque, and I have provided a photo shot of it. The hummingbird hiking trail at the top is marvelous. The problem with Poas is that it is smack dab in the middle of one of Costa Rica's largest cloud forests. Quite often, if you go to Poas, all you see is nothing....nothing but gray foggy mist. It's in a cloud. The first time I went there, it was that gray, foggy mist.

I stood at the lookout deck and saw a scene reminiscent of Hound of the Baskervilles. You could hear a rumbling noise far below, like a dozen bulldozers in dire need of a maintenance overhaul. But when it is clear it is splendid. Poas is active, but fairly well behaved. it just belches and snorts, and throws up a few geysers and such.....kinda like me, sorta.

OOPS...update (added 11 A.M. CST 6-15-09) I sowwy...esculpe....duh! Michelle had put in her instructions that this challenge was to be from a landscape done by a past master artist. I am one of those people who buys something, ignores the instructions and then has 22 parts left over on a thing that doesn't work..."Instrucshuns? Instrucshuns? I don't need no shtinkin' Instrucshuns!!"
So this morning I did a landscape from a portion of Botticelli's Anunciation. It is below. Duh, again.

Cya in a day or two...try to sketch or paint one of the old folks on Windows to the Words and send it to me. And have a great weekend.

Thought for the blog: The best thing about being financially limited (poor) is not having so much "stuff" to distract ya from the important things in life.