latest updates: Wisconsin

• 
  2012

  Jan 24
  0
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  Wisconsin Farm – Watercolour

  Another attempt to show the huge flat landscape of this rural farming area famous for its dairy produce . This is from a scene captured on 4th October 2011. Seems like a long time ago
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• 
  2012

  Jan 23
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  Wisconsin Colour – Watercolour

  From my journal Wednesday 5th October 2011

  We stopped at a small lay-by to stretch our legs and to allow John’s dog, the Rustman, a chance to sniff around. At first there was not much to see then, just around a corner, some trees caught my eye. The colour was fantastic and varied. This was something worth getting out the car for. Little did I know there was much more to come

  The trees in America’s fall were spectacular. Its hard to imagine that they will now be under much snow but that would also be a great opportunity to paint them.
  tags: fall | trees | Wisconsin
   
• 
  2012

  Jan 11
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  Mid West House – Watercolour

  This seems typical of the types of houses we saw during our invasion of America’s Mid West. Board construction with plenty of space around and always – trees! Wonderful trees.

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• 
  2011

  Dec 31
  8
  Uncle Bob

  

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  Been waiting for Nikira to reach the top of the contributor’s list. She has made it and Ziza and I can now begin to annoy you all again.

  This is a seasonal scene. It was inspired by the many farm buildings spotted during our recent visit to Wisconsin. In order to make it “seasonal” I have imagined it in snow despite these folks only having minimal amounts so far. I have therefore cheated with this but, as you might have realised, I love snowy scenes. There are more in the pipeline as we have, near Edinburgh, had at least three snowfalls so far this winter which is around 6 weeks earlier than the norm.

  tags: Brrrr | Wisconsin
   
• 
  2011

  Dec 3
  1
  Uncle Bob

  

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  Wisconsin Traditional Barn – Watercolour
  During our visit, to this wonderful part of the world, we saw many examples of farm architecture like this Gambrel roofed barn. This particular one is a massive structure. The shape owes itself to the early immigrants. Its roof is designed to shed weather, especially snow, while at the same time maximising storage attic space. We were here at the best time. The trees were changing colour – and what colours. A week or so later the weather got much colder and some snow fell.

  tags: Barns | trees | Wisconsin
   
• 
  2011

  Oct 27
  0
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  Going for apples – Watercolour

  John suggested we drive to Gays Mill for some apples. He suggested there might be some trees in their Autumn colours. He was correct. This scene, near the start of the journey, attempts to show how trees play an important part in the Wisconsin scenery. These particular one are just starting to turn. Later in the day we saw some spectacular colours which will test my meagre artistic abilities to reproduce.

  Incidentally just “going for apples” meant a round trip of 200 miles. Distance seems no object to these folks.

  tags: trees | Wisconsin
   
• 
  2011

  Feb 5
  2
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  The Land Remembers – Watercolour

  This is the title of a book kindly presented to me by John during his recent visit to Scotland.

  (The Land Remembers by Ben Logan ISBN 978 – 0 -9761450 – 5 – 951700
  A story of a farming family on a West Wisconsin ridge farm in the 1930′s).

  The painting is my attempts to copy the photo on the front cover for the reason that this could be any number of farms in parts of Scotland. John once said that our countries looked very similar and here is the proof. Do beg, borrow or steal this book. I believe it is considered to be an American classic. If not, then it should be. My apologies for copying the front cover but maybe this just might encourage others to buy this book.

  Apart from the adventures of the young hero of the story, there are many fascinating scraps of information such as the method of uniformly spacing out corn seed by “Checking Corn” a method of allowing a small trapdoor to release seed when it is actuated by a “knotted” trip wire stretched across the field. This aroused my engineering curiosity and led me to a short study of bygone farm implements. For those, similarly inclined see:

  http://www.bartbeck.com/page31.html

  http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/machines_03.html

  Then, talking about seed, there is a section which describes an attempt to see how long seed remains viable. Samples were buried in glass bottles, and samples were, and still are, being dug up to check the seed. Read about this here:

  http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/89/8/1285.pdf

  What a fascinating book, a great read and a wonderful present. Thank you John.

  tags: Farming | Wisconsin