QoL -- "Harlech Castle, the Ozymandias of Wales."

[BrentW]

This is the largest painting I have made since I was at high school in 1975, being 30 x 40 cm. It is mixed media, with gesso on 200 lb watercolour paper, with Brusho, Inktense, watercolour paint and oil pastel. The silhouette is of the castle, superimposed on my impression of sand waves on the Cardigan Bay seafloor. A sense of enduring against the odds.

[Mtnhigh]

I love the colors! There is a lot to be said for endurance. -Deb

[Histbuff]

Thanks for sharing this fascinating painting, Brent. I love your use of color and light.

[BrentW in reply to Histbuff]

I am thrilled by your comment, HB. I am entirely self taught but diving deep.

My next experiment (due tomorrow, maybe) tries using a Zorn palette adapted for watercolour -- that is, an array of three colours only from which I will mix every other colour used.

I think it will be such explorations that will drive me to endure as best I can for as long as I can -- just as my diving deep into palaeontology helped me to keep pushing forwards.

[Histbuff in reply to BrentW]

Thanks for the art and thanks for the inspiration, BrentW. We PC Warriors need to use every strategy to fight with prescribed chemicals and with strong hearts and minds.

[Kaliber in reply to BrentW]

Another great work a rent and some heavy advanced color related stuff too … wow. 👏👏👏

[Willydad]

Brent, have I missed one of your posts? Were you a paleontologist?

[BrentW in reply to Willydad]

I was a professor of micropalaeontology, Willydad, publishing 95 papers in my academic career -- 94 of them after diagnosis. The most recent of these was in July of this year, but I am calling that my last. After the oncologist wrote off on me, handing me on to the palliative care team for pain management only, I decided that there are other things in life, like painting. I currently hold the post of Professor Emeritus at the University of the West Indies.

[GreenStreet]

fantastic 👏👏👏

[Lettuce231]

Hello BrentW, thats a nice piece of artwork, the use of colours and the way that you have melted them together is great. Its nice to use colour as you want to interpret, not exactly as the eye will see it.

Here is one I did recently, my car got smashed by hail stones, so I did a DIY panel repair by hand in acrylic and then laquer, strictly non colour 😀

Keep painting 🖼 ✨ its good for your sanity.

Twister

[hopeful1956]

Such a beautiful piece. I can totally feel it.

[j-o-h-n]

Look.... I tell it like it is and I take it like it is............. This one definitely is not my cup of tea. As far as my so called humor is concerned "if members tell me it's not their cup of weed" I just cry my fucking eyes out until my wife asks me if my life insurance policy is up to date....(she of course is just kidding)....

So to all those people who love peanut butter, I hate it...... there I said it America, so go ahead and sue me......

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 09/26/2023 7:22 PM DST

[j-o-h-n]

Thanks for that post............. But just in case you don't know ...... we all are dying.........

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 09/26/2023 7:40 PM DST

[j-o-h-n]

To Powerlet...

Sorry my bad, I almost forgot, I guess you probably like Peanut Butter.........

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 09/26/2023 7:51 PM DST

[j-o-h-n]

Dear Brent (my wife insisted on the salutation Dear). The other day when I first woke up my "Dear" Wife confronted me with the following: "JOHN" (Note: all upper case, in bold type and minus the dashes) I've been reviewing your posts on H.U. and I am very very (she repeats words when she's angry) disappointed in you (meaning me). She continued by saying "I thought we agreed that you would burn that red Lady "GAGA" cap for one of those wonderful soft and cuddly Snowflake caps. She continued on: You know you are not an art critic for the London Times, so do not not (repeating again) be critical of Dear BrentW's art in the future. So I stand before for you with my ill fitting Snowflake cap in my hands while I express my "my bad" for past criticism. Sorry!!

Meanwhile I almost forgot to ask..... how ya doing and how do you like your new digs? Digs is an American word we made up right after WE BEAT you guys in the American Revolution....

Hopefully you're getting good care and good food (good food in England?) Yep good ole fish and chips....

BTW Michael Gambon the British actor died (age 82) yesterday. If you have never watched the "Singing Detective" with him as the main character I would recommend you watch it. I think you can watch all the episodes on Youtube.... and again I highly recommend it. Note: It gets used to watching, but be patient....it's like staring out an a-vant-garde painting... which finally clicks in your brain.

I almost forgot,..... in closing, my Dear wife chastised me for getting angry when someone would criticize my humor (those damn a-holes!!!.....). Stay well and keep on brushing....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Friday 09/29/2023 2:08 PM DST

[BrentW in reply to j-o-h-n]

Dear J-o-h-n. Many thanks for your kind and understanding message. I started painting at the beginning of lockdown. (Was that 2023? It feels to be an age ago, but also never to have really ended.) I was facing something of a personal challenge; my father, now 87, has been painting since the early 1970s, and has quite a traditional style. I have attached a painting of his to see if that might be more to your liking. I have done all I can not to copy his style, but that has been far from easy. So, I put myself out on a limb, painting in mixed media and getting more and more abstracted as I have gone along, rather than sticking to his very gentle realism. Perhaps with that in mind my own paintings and choice of subject matter might make a bit more sense.

I was very fond of Michael Gambon, searching out programmes and films that he had made. Except for Harry Potter. I have never seen one of those, and was most disappointed with the New York Times could think of nothing more to say (that I could get hold of) other than that he had played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter flicks. I saw "The Singing Detective" when it was first broadcast in the mid 1980s. I have it on DVD, and dig it out from time to time to watch. I remember the original review describing it as being 'thinking man's television', it it has certainly proved to be that. with it's intertwining of the protagonist's novel, childhood, guilt and illness. I am glad you enjoyed it.

If I may boast a little, the BBC has for many years produced 'thinking man's programmes' (British spelling, of course). It helped that they are government funded and not reliant on either advertising income or ratings. But when I moved to the Caribbean in 1989, I lost access to those. Instead, not having a telly of my own, I used to sit in the local rum shop clutching a bottle of Carib beer and watching such stuff as MacGuiver and -- gawd, what was that other rubbish called -- was it, Quantum Leap?

But then came Netflix, the American-owned subscription service, which has produced some amazing programmes from worldwide. It has been delightful to have such a window on other cultures. I think it answers to a thirst for such goodies globally, to be watched both locally and elsewhere. What an amazing idea, for which the US can be very proud.

Anyway, young man, I am the cook in our house and my other half is beginning to look and sound hungry, sucking in her cheeks and making window-rattling burps. So, I shall have to leave you and go and do magic things as I try to make a gluten free pizza. Once again, many thanks for getting in touch -- and keep the humour coming. For my last little while I want to be as joyful as I can be, from chuckles to belly laughs, and you will help with that.

Take care

BrentW

A Scottish, loch-side croft with snowy hills in the background

[j-o-h-n in reply to BrentW]

Hello Brent,

Your dear Dad and I, are not only on the same wave as far as art is concerned (tell him, I like it and that it's my cup of tea) but next week, I too will be 87 years old...... (1936)....

See ya soon............and sometimes I'm the cook here..........(when I want a good dinner..I hope and pray the boss doesn't read this one)......

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Saturday 09/30/2023 3:52 PM DST

[BrentW in reply to j-o-h-n]

What you cannot tell from there, J-o-h-n, is the width of, and pleasure in, my smile. So, I shall have to try to find a way to quantify it for you. Let me work on that and get back to you.

[j-o-h-n]

In inches please not in centimeters ........(Us Americans, can only handle the imperial method where most of the world uses metric).

Which reminds me that.... in England there was a bill to be signed into law that "Beginning January 1, 2000, that trucks (Lorries) would begin driving on the right side of the road while automobiles would remain using the left side until the Queen's birthday, on April 21)".

Your Dad might have known about this proposed law....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Saturday 09/30/2023 4:23 PM DST