I Painted a Landscape!

  • April 25, 2021

KLS’s work sent us a canvas and paints. It was to be used in conjunction with an online relaxation event but we were unable to attend due to another obligation. Regardless, I wasn’t going to let that canvas go to waste.

I decided to paint an Australian landscape! Lots of orange and yellow and red then, with a bright blue sky? Let’s see…

I’m not sure what kinds of paints these were, but they had strong fumes so weren’t watercolour. I’m an impatient artist so I applied them alla prima; if they mixed I fixed it as I went along.

I worked quickly, layering on colour after colour trying to reproduce the hues of my homeland. The brushes were flimsy and fell apart as I used them, and I became slightly high on the paint fumes.

I had trouble with the setting sun due to how I was applying the paints. But there’s no mistakes in art, so I forged on. I would revisit this part of the painting many times before it was complete…

The shrubbery was compromised by my brushes. Even the most talented artist in the world would have struggled here. I did my best.

And then, after about an hour of intense work, I was complete. Here’s the finished work compared to the reference image I had used:

You can’t see in the photo but the gray is slightly metallic and reflective. It lends the darker sky in the top right an ethereal quality. Also I’m particularly proud of my detail on Uluru:

This masterpiece is not for sale, and is indeed already proudly displayed alongside another of my pieces. It lets guests know they are walking into a talented home:

Vaccinated

  • April 22, 2021

We went for our second shot of covid vaccine today. Our city is using a downtown stadium as one of several vaccination sites and it was where we went today.

There were about 2000 people getting their second shots in the morning, and then the afternoon was for others getting their first shot. Lines were long but fast moving, so our wait wasn’t excessive.

One of the reasons for the long lines (which snakes up and down stairs and spanned two levels) was social distancing, and they had cute entertainment-themed signs to remind us where to stand.

It was quite a sight to see the floor of the arena (that we’d been to before for wrestling shows) converted to a vaccination clinic. Even the led signs up on the seats had vaccination messages on them!

And then, very quickly, we got our second jabs and joined the crowd of ‘fully vaccinated’ (yes I know technically it takes 10 more days…)

A quick wait just in case of side effects and we were good to go.

Speaking of side effects some people get them and some don’t, and they’re more common after the second shot. I read the rate is about 55%, so statistically one of us will wake up feeling crook tomorrow (since the side effects are more common the next day)!

Albany has done a good job with vaccinations, and we are above the national and state rates. But as with most parts of America supply has now exceeded demand and theres still many that haven’t yet become vaccinated. Some just need a gentle push toward a clinic, but there’s a non-trivial amount of Americans that say they’ll never get the vaccine (and even still deny covid) which will seriously hamper this country’s ability to overcome covid.

Let’s hope they understand this and go and get a shot soon. It’s easy, it’s free, it’s fast and it’s safe. And it’s what we all need to do to move on from this pandemic.

  • Posted in Blog
  • Robert

Insect Stamps

  • April 17, 2021

It’s time to open the final pack of topical stamps I bought about six months ago. This time, the theme was insects.

The pack contained 100 stamps from about a dozen countries, and as with previous packs I’ve shown here most of them were CTO stamps that were likely never (intended to be) used for postage.

The stamps feature a wide range of insects, although most of them are beetles or bees. I imagine that most countries only depict native insects, but then given the nature of CTOs I suppose they could depict anything!

The usual suspects include this selection from North Korea…

This sheet from Equatorial Guinea (which apparently didn’t even have a postal service when these stamps were issues on their behalf!)…

And these Cuban stamps, which were amongst the nicest of the selection (and only some of the many Cuban stamps in the envelope).

The most common topic by far was bees, and every country represented had at least one new stamp. I expect a collector could put together a nice collection focusing just on bees!

As handsome as many of these stamps are, it’s one against disappointing that there wasn’t even a single used stamp in this set. Insect stamps are commonly issued by almost every country, and you’d think topical collections could easily include a few actual used stamps.

I may have mentioned in a previous post but when I made this purchase one of my choices (cats) was not in stock so they made a substitution and as an apology included an envelope of Disney stamps. I won’t feature them on this blog since they are frankly awful (and all issued by only two countries). I’ll probably just send them to Bernard for a Christmas gift or something…