Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse

I met my friend Janette years ago when I was out with the NYC Urban Sketchers, and it's because of her that I started egg tempera class.

She lives up in Tarrytown, and we were talking about painting locations in class a couple weeks ago.

The Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse is there, and she told me it's a nice place to paint.

I have been wanting to get out to new places, and today was a great day to do that... weather looked good.

Janette said she admires my perseverance and dedication to plein air, but the truth is neither of those things...... I really just have nothing better to do and nothing going on.

Anyhow, I started painting around 12 and put the sky in first.

This is on a re-used panel that was toned too dark and I fought with it a bit, lesson learned going forward.

I got enough paint on there to cover but I think it only worked because it's cold enough for the paint to get stiff and I didnt use any medium.

So about an hour and a half into this painting, the wind switch turned on FULL FORCE.

Not gusts, just never-ending pounding wind.

It was horrible.

I had to take my hat off and my not-empty backpack, which was lying flat on a bench, was blown off the bench. That's how strong the wind was.

I had to turn my back to the river and the lighthouse so my body could shield my box and also because of wind in my face.

My tripod did tip over once, which is really saying something because I was on stable flat ground.

I never tip over in the wind.

If I had known it, I would probably have stayed home.

When you are losing a physical battle with the wind, you can't focus.

This is especially true when your back is to your subject matter.

So.... my painting has a really embarrassing drawing issue that I cannot believe I didn't catch.

If not for the wind, I think I would have... and if you don't know what the lighthouse looks like you probably wouldnt notice but... yeah.

I'll have to go back and do it again.

8x10 oil

Janette came to say hi when i had just finished, and she took these pictures of me being tormented by the wind.

Egg Tempera and Cheeze Wheel Pasta Part 2

Janae and I needed cheeze wheel pasta again so I told her to come to egg tempera at the end of class.

Because the holiday market is right by the League.

We are still in holiday mode in class, so there was wine.

Here are some assorted pigment pictures:

This is not my set but I want to check it out......

This is my travel pigment set which I made, and my palette.

And the lovely wonderful cheeze wheel pasta!

This is a subway rat who did not get any cheeze wheel pasta....

And here is a random picture of Isis sleeping in a funny position.

Things I did & a screw-up that solved big problems accidentally

Computer-related problems.

It can and will make a person batshit crazy.

I just solved 2 big ones by accident.

ONE

I have had a website problem for a while now, at least all of 2024, maybe 2023 too.

You won't see it on the front-end.

My website is Wordpress.

My media library folders were in triplicate across my dashboard for a very long time.

Uploading and organizing the back end worked but was annoying, and the interface looked wrong.

I played around with stuff and did some updates, nothing helped. I gave up.

Also I keep getting messages to update my php version.

PHP is a script that helps load a webpage from the server to the browser.

I have been trying to update my php for a very long time, but every time I do it, my site crashes so I have to roll back.

I have kept checking and trying this periodically. Nothing worked.

Last night I gave it another shot and updated every plugin on my website... my media folders went from triplicate to duplicate. Progress!

Php update still crashed the site.

I got frustrated and tired and quit.

Today I went back in...... idk how or why but my media folders are back to normal... so I went and updated the php again AND IT WORKED. I'm now on the latest version.

I don't know why or how but that solves 2 long-term website problems.

I guess servers needed time to process the updates from Friday which magically solved my other problems. Whatever, it works!

TWO

I run a 5 year old windows desktop at home.

Windows 11 has, inexplicably, taken up 118gb of a 125gb OS C:/ drive.

I have been trying for a long time to clean it up and minimize the size of Windows, which is the only thing on the drive.

I have scoured google and Reddit and tried a bunch of suggestions and nothing is working.

It's causing errors and is Not Good.

In desperation, I have even been considering the beginning thought process of having to get a new computer, which I don't want to do. My system is old but it is certainly Good Enough for what I need.

I am also out of Data storage, internally and externally.

This is important for my prints and setting up the image files, and personal archives.

I was going to get a huge (like 8TB) external SSD hard drive, but oh my god they are expensive.

Mark told me it might be better to have a few smaller ones, so if one drive fails I don't lose everything.

That made good sense so I ordered a 1TB solid-state external drive that was on sale for $64.

It arrived today.

I opened it and thought, wow that's small.

And then... where are the wires?

.... I accidentally ordered an internal drive.

Dangit.

And then I had the Bright! Idea! that MAYYYYBBBEEEE I could put a third hard drive in my computer, clone my current C:/ drive, make a larger partition for windows AND have more data storage.

I opened my computer, which wasn't nearly as dusty inside as I expected, saw an extra SATA connection, plugged the new hard drive in, got a cloning software for $20, changed the boot disk in BIOS, and IT ALL WORKS.

So my accidental wrong Amazon order solved my C:/ drive windows space issue AND gave me a nice 715gb internal data storage.

$85 to solve 2 problems is way better than the cost of a new external HD and/or a new computer eventually!

Plein Air #50 for 2024

It seems I have conquered the winter cold; it's not even a challenge anymore from the mid 20s up through all of the 30s.

And anything above freezing is downright balmy.

I would like to test this out in the teens.

My new wool underlayers make a massive difference.

I should have done this years ago but they were very expensive........ I still should have done it years ago.

Between my heavy wool base layer and my boot covers, which I throw heaters in, I'm not getting cold at all out there. I am covered in 100% wool up to my neck, and I have new thick wool fishing gloves too.

(no it doesn't itch, and for what I paid it had better not...)

I even stopped taking Toilet Rug out; I don't need it anymore (I don't think) and that's good because I like to keep my gear weight and bulk down.

Anyhow, I went to Roosevelt Island because I'm still avoiding the holiday crowds, and it is an easy trip for me... 20 mins. Here is a walkway in Four Freedoms State Park, which is on the south tip of the island.

8x10 oil

People would come by and take my picture without asking and then walk down the path allll the way down right in front of me, despite the fact there are THREE other empty paths right next to where I was standing.... and all of them led to the same place.

Anyhow.

I normally wouldn't have set up in such an obnoxious spot but it wasn't crowded at all and.... again, there are three other paths down so...... I wasn't really in anyone's way.  Not today.

********

This is my 50th plein air painting for 2024.

That's a good number and I'm happy with it.

That is a lot of practice and problem solving, and it doesn't matter that not all my paintings are good.

I have tried a lot of new things this year, subject matter and technique.

*******

Here are some cool pictures from around Roosevelt Island.

Christmas

This holiday season is so... meh.

I havent put up a tree or anything.

Daya isn't into the holidays and refuses to do.... anything festive at all.

Nothing.

She's been a real bummer since she came home and I don't like it.

She's acting like she did in high school, once again.

I only have to put up with it until Jan 12, and I'm sad and disappointed she has reverted back.

She has zero self-awareness of how she comes across and she doesn't want any.

Sharon invited me over to her place and it was a really nice time.

Daya walked over with me and stayed for 5 minutes.

We had good conversation and we baked gingerbread cats, which I do every year.

This batch came out particularly well.

Then we played stupid but fun games, and there was an orange cat avatar, so I was Pebbles.

I'm glad to have spent the day with my friend, otherwise it probably would have just been a complete bummer of a day.

I'm ready for the holidays to be over, and I'm ready for Daya to go back to the dorms.

Snow Plein Air & Solstice

We got snow!

So of course I had to go out and paint.

However, it's also Saturday in the middle of holiday mayhem here... so I wanted to avoid that.

I haven't been to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for a while so I went there.

Here is a quick painting in the Cherry Esplanade, 8x10 oil

It was quiet in the gardens, only a few people were there which was perfect.

Today is also the solstice, the longest night.

Normally I'd go to St Patricks and light candles, but it's Saturday which means insane crowds and I can't face it.

So this year I just lit a candle at home.