Author: -N-

Back to Prison We Must Go!

Sung to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down:

Back to prison we must go!  We must go! 
Back to prison we must go, oh dreaded Covid!

As of this writing, 85% of California will be back on lock down. More than 50% of the state’s population is in my neck of the woods, specifically Southern California, and it begins at midnight tonight.

Regulations are designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19 as well to prevent a lack of ICU and hospital beds occurring.

I don’t find our restrictions so draconian as other places, nor are they as restrictive as when the first lock down began last spring. These are restrictions we can live with as we are not changing our lifestyles all that much. The only difference we have is a lack of family gatherings or a beer or coffee with friends. That makes it socially . . . isolated.  Social isolation helps and hurts, as we all know.

California state mandates have fine details, which should be read, to get more informed information about the okay and not-okay. For instance, the newspapers are saying that households cannot mingle, but the state website, when I type in my county, states:

Small private gatherings

Are allowed outdoors only with modifications
– Masks and physical distancing required
– No more than 3 separate households attend (including the host’s)
– Gatherings should be 2 hours or less
– Those with symptoms must not attend
– Those at high risk of severe illness strongly encouraged not to attend
– Singing, shouting, chanting, cheering, or exercising strongly discouraged

See guidance for gatherings and holidays.

So, we could have a family Christmas gathering within specific parameters; however, I expect if we have one, it will be very, very small.

What I do not understand, and I would think this way even if I was much younger, is a failure to realize that this is not about me, but about us, meaning the good of everyone.  I wonder if this is a characteristic of the American culture, this rugged individualism and selfishness.  Do other countries experience this defiance of the collective for individual “rights” which endanger every other person?  I expect so, but it seems that a failure to show consideration for others is more and more in the public eye, from the self-aggrandizement of “leaders” to ICU nurses bragging about flaunting safety outside the workplace.

Whatever the situation, we – my household and extended family – will embrace these restrictions for our own good and the good of others.  If we stay healthy, we help others stay healthy.

The Bridge

Take a look at this!

NOT a landscape!

This is really unusual for me – buildings and people intimidate me. However, by painting nearly every day I am gaining confidence in my abilities.

Also, the use of extremes in light and dark are another oddity for me, as well as the limited palette, the colors of which were primarily cad yellow and violet of some variety. White, too, along with some sienna, ocher, and ultramarine.

Painting really means learning a lot of things: how to use color, composition, brushwork. It is here that using a wide, flat brush to paint the buildings rather than my usual preferred rounds that I was able to achieve 90% of the painting. I was rather surprised by myself, and the result.

The View of the Seine at Herblay – Another Signac Study

As mentioned the other day, Paul Signac was known primarily for his Pointillism – the application of colored dots in painting to convey depth and light. Signac’s work is very graphic and structured, but he also used the same approach of color to produce paintings more of an Impressionistic flavor. The one below, The View of the Seine at Herblay, is the study for my practice piece above.

The first painting I did using Pointillism as the “style” I started by just laying on dots!  With a bit of paper to cover, only using dots became time consuming and tedious.  Thus, with this piece, I laid down broad swaths of the primary colors, essentially blues and beiges before applying dark colors for the leaves and reflections, and from there began the dot process.  As gouache is never permanently dry, I could go back in and lay in colors on top of others, as well as mush them together a bit.  Squishy good fun!  A firmly pointed round brush did the trick, using both the tip as well as the side of the brush.

Close looks at Signac’s painting show he did merge and blend his colors, as I did. I expect this was a quick sketch or a practice piece, or just a casual plein air painting for the joy of being outside. His other works that are more Pointillisticky have a very different quality. I think I will attempt to copy one of those in the not too distant future.