Seen in Town: Patina Added, No. 2

Hydrangeas, Island Avenue, September 2010

1645 Home on Town Green, September 2010

Under a Hydrangea Tree, September 2010

Running White Dog, September 2010

Trumpet Vine, of Sorts, September 2010

Town Building on Green, September 2010

R I P :

The flag was at half-mast last week in Connecticut, for a 25 year old soldier from our state, killed a few weeks ago in Afghanistan. He was on his second voluntary deployment, with only a few months left overseas. For more on Sgt .Steven J. DeLuzio, click here. He's the first one listed in this memorial profile.

Seen in Town: Patina Added

Rudebeckia and shingled garage, September 2010

Hydrangea and clapboard garage, September 2010

Classic Thirties one-car garage, September 2010

Row of Regosa Roses, September 2010

D I G I T A L   P H O T O G R A P H Y — More photos from my walk around town the other day. I gave these digital images more character, looking faded and worn, perhaps hand-tinted or painted, perhaps much more aged than they obviously are. These photos could have been taken last Thursday or some Thursday seventy-five years ago.

Signs of The Apocalypse, er Autumn

Cooler nights will be coloring deciduous foliage shortly. Some trees are already starting, but not very many. I found this beautifully colored Maple leaf on the sidewalk, along with some of its duller friends. Hey, there's always one in the crowd if you're lucky!

I'm not sure what this annual is called, but I've noticed that now that the extreme heat is over, and the nights are a bit cooler, this purple daisy variety is doing much better. It is blooming more profusely and with richer and more saturated flowers. It looks perfect growing along this slab of granite at the edge of a short retaining wall. I think purple fall-blooming flowers are really important in a New England garden. Purples and Violets are just so wonderful next to the bright oranges, yellows and rust colors of a typical Autumn landscape. I don't have any at this house, but I've had New York Asters in the past, which grown to 3-4 feet all and have large, beautiful purple flowers well into the Fall.

Fall will bring the open-air, or "plein aire" painters out in droves. I guess standing out in the hot sun when the temperatures are nearing 100° isn't all that fun, so spring and fall seem to be quite popular with this type of painter. For the Wiki on this type of painting, click here. I work outside sometimes, but usually only when I have sawing and sanding to do, to cut down on the dust on the inside of the house, a losing battle most of the time! That is a beautiful young dark Copper Beech tree he is painting under. They can get really huge and are one of the more majestic trees in our neck of the woods. 

Of more interest to artandcolour, are the Buicks in this family. In the background you can see a '90s Park Avenue and the great new LaCrosse. The garage to the left, empty in this photo, is usually home to a 1932 Buick phaeton in mint condition. I've seen a Reatta convertible here in the past too, so I'd say this family really WOULD rather have a Buick, to paraphrase the marque's famous tagline of the Sixties..

Finishing the Domestic Luxury Car Trilogy

Having recently chopped a black 2012 Lincoln MKS and an equally dark new Cadillac Seville, I'm rounding out the traditional domestic Big Three luxury cars with a dark charcoal Chrysler 300C. I love the current 300 but having been introduced in 2005, it's time for a change, as Chrysler will actually be doing shortly. I've used the more rounded greenhouse and more contemporary detailing of Chrysler's 200C concept car, coupled with the now-traditional 300 front end treatment, re-proportioned taller and bluffer, with a new lower fascia. I think it has a sleeker yet still-sinister look, and would be more aerodynamically efficient and contemporary in every way, while not tossing out  any of its well-deserved street cred. A longer wheelbase and slightly tidier overall length will be a boon to European sales.

The base photo for this chop was a presser for the 200C concept from last year (year before, by now?), and I made a 300 out of it. In retrospect, it would have been less work to start with a 300 and add the concept's details, but at least I know the "platform" of my chop will be up-to-date, too.  : )

Don't be Mad at Elegance

Seville's triumphant return as the premium owner/driver Cadillac for 2012. Rear- and all-wheel drive available; V6, Supercharged V8, TurboDieselHybrid. Every amenity and contemporary safety item. Prix Fixe, everything standard. The Standard of Today's World  

Hot off the Photoshop process, lol! Chop is a little rough around the edges, but I have so many I want to do right now! This reborn Seville looks pays homage to the severe notchback roofline of the groundbreaking original late 1975 model. For a bit of contemporary street theater, the LED head- and taillights extend quite far into the fenders and operate in day-and nighttime running modes.

Perfect Place for a Game of Croquet

Another view of the white picket fence and red Rugosa roses. common along the shoreline. They're grown for their long flowering season and their almost indestructible roots, providing much-needed erosion control to landscapes buffeted by frequent offshore breezes. Their simple elegance is a plus! This sideyard is perfectly square, and almost as smooth as the nearby golf course's greens. The strong concrete retaining wall holds off the Sound, which is only 6-8 steps down from this yard. I could play Croquet here everyday! 

Notice the granite reefs on the left, very common along the Connecticut shore, and the simply-moored boats just offshore. It's not uncommon to see 50-100 pairs of seagulls and cormorants huddled together on those small granite "islands" during the breeding season. We have the very occasional harbor seal or two that visits, and believe it or not, last week a very friendly, somewhat lost Manatee was photographed in the harbor of the town next to mine. 

This summer home also has a perfect lawn for Croquet. This house is a mere ten feet from its cement retaining wall and steps down to the water. The recently sided cedar shingles will eventually mellow to a nice grayish brown, if allowed to. Many homeowners don't seem to appreciate the warmth and elegance of a slightly weathered beach house, and frequently re-shingle to keep their places looking 'new and fresh.' Many of these homes are only used on the weekends, and only in the summer. 

B O N U S   P H O T O  : )

The now-identified dinner plate-sized Hibiscus (thank you PX!) growing a few houses a way from the scene above, seen with the sun behind it. Look at how thin and translucent the huge petals appear! We've had a lot of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Earl, now only a Tropical Storm as it races towards Cape Cod and Nantucket, and I'm pretty sure these huge flowers will be the worse for it. I'm glad I took all of these photos this week before the rains came. 

Some Sound Scenes

Looking out at Long Island Sound. These huge granite ledges are typical of the Connecticut shoreline. My great-great-grandfather made his fortune quarrying shoreline granite like this, providing the rock for the base of the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge, and many bridges and buildings between New York and Boston. All photos clickable thumbnails.

Typical New England Seagull—the rats of the shoreline, lol. There is a larger and more aggressive variety of seagull, with black wings, that is starting to take over in New England. There are worries that this new variety might spell the end of the smaller, daintier gray-winged gulls that have been immortalized in so many paintings and photographs of New England.

Grainy from using the crappy Zoom setting, this pair of seagulls contemplates their next meal, usually something free and scavenged from beach goers. They're pretty savvy and know that we taller animals that walk on two legs leave plenty of garbage behind, and they'll eat almost anything—I have a few oyster shells in my yard that must have dropped from their beaks while flying. Last summer I watched a seagull tear open a McDonalds bag in a garbage can and pick out all of the leftover food. As he found them, he threw the scraps on the ground around the can. As if on cue, his mate flew down and the two of them stood on the ground eating their own version of a Happy Meal, tossing french fries and pieces of hamburger bun back and forth between them.

The small island in the background is where the town sets off the Fourth of July fireworks. The small dinghies are used mainly to bring boat owners out to their larger boats moored just off the shoreline.

A stone breakwater acts as a buffer between the Sound and this small cove used to moor a few boats. It also helps stop erosion of a small sandy beach. I haven't gone in the water in probably close to twenty years, but I could never live where I wasn't close to it. I walk or ride my bike down here almost every day.

New England cedar-shingled beach cottage on the left and the kayak storage area at the town beach.

A saltwater marsh across the street from the Sound. Notice the small white Egret in the lower left. Wading birds are very common around here—Egrets and Herons—and smaller shore birds like Plovers, several varieties of ducks and geese and the occasional pair or two of Swans. Those homes in the background sell for several million dollars. I'll do a post of some of the homes in the area soon. It's unbelievable how many shoreline homes are for sale these days. I counted more than 30 on this one road this week, ranging in price from about $1.5- to more than $12 million. Foreclosure signs are rare, but not that rare this year.

Some Flowers That Aren't In My Yard

The other day I went for a long walk along the beach road in case the hurricane hit today. I was pretty sure the damage wouldn't be too severe, but the flowers would probably have taken a major hit. I live about a half-mile from the beach, at sea level, so there's always some flooding with big storms. Apparently Earl is pretty much missing us tonight. We've had a little bit of rain, but no wind or anything even slightly dramatic. I shot 229 photos during my 3+ hour walk, and I'll be posting them here as I organize them and crop them to size.

Another Fun Chop—1:18 Torino Cobra Fordor

Ford could have created an early "four door coupe" using its gorgeous 1970 Torino fastback. I used Ford's classic Fordor moniker for this pillarless hardtop sedan. Torinos of this vintage had a four door pillarless bodystyle but it was more formal looking than this Sportsroof model. As odd as this bodystyle may have looked in 1970, it really looks pretty 'normal' today. That's how far sedans have come in the styling department in the past 40 years. 

This is the second in a series of fake cars based on my scale models rather than press photos of actual cars. The first one was the 1971 Riviera formal roof, and I have a few more on the horizon! I'm including a different small collectible with each one to show scale. In this piece I used a pair of vintage eyeglasses that belonged to my grandmother. I also left a white plastic jug of fish emulsion for the garden on the top step. It's an excellent plant food, and expensive, so I thought I'd better get some artistic use out of it as well, lol.

Facelift Time for the MKS?

I find the new Lincoln MKS a strange bird. In photos, it seems exceedingly dumpy. In person, it has a much more elegant stance and look to it. From some angles, anyway... 

For this chop, I lowered the body on the suspension, the production version being almost tippy-toed looking to me. I also slammed the roof down a couple of inches so the car would look more planted. Lower cars look longer as well, the old Harley Earl mantra. I changed the C pillar, giving it more 'lean' and added a vertical pane of glass in it, my latest 'signature' look for Lincoln sedans, a la the '80s and '90s Town Cars. I also changed the shape of the taillights slightly, making the backup lights horizontal instead of vertical, and rounding the top edges of the main taillight lens. Quad pipes and an extension of the bright rocker panel trim to the rear quarters round out my changes. Of course, I've always thought the MKS looked quite a bit like the Scion tC coupe from the back, and my chop doesn't really address that concern, lol. I think I can see a bit of the mid '80s Topaz in the car now, again, not an awesome look to reprise. It's a facelift, OK, but for the next one, I'll probably totally redesign it!

Oh yeah, I gave it suicide doors which EVERY modern Lincoln ought to have. They could be electrically opened and closed to  quell any fears of them popping open at speed, the reason they were given the 'suicide' appellation in the first place. The street drama of watching them open and close would be great PR for Lincoln now that Mercury is gone and Lincoln really needs to step up its visibility and street cred.

Just a Bit of Insight

Taking away the Insight's rear doors and shortening the car a bit, has given Honda's little hybrid a new lease on life. Instead of looking like a cut-rate Prius, it seems more like a roomy sports coupe, unlike Honda's other new little hybrid, the CR-Z. It also seems to have a bit of the mid-80s Civic Hatchback mojo, as ground-breaking a design as Honda has ever produced.

Shouldn't Lexus Have Some Mainstream Coupes?

Lexus's bread-and-butter ES series would benefit from this pillared coupe, shown in hybrid form, the ES350/h. The front wheel drive platform could be shared with a new Solara if Toyota decides to update that 2 door version of the Camry.

The luxury marque's performance model, the IS/F could certainly turn a few heads with two fewer doors and two less pillars. Lexus could one-up the upcoming Mercedes C coupe, which in spy shots has shown it will be pillared.

These two chops were done in 2008, but still look pretty good to me, and the cars they're based on are still in production.

A Penny for Your Thoughts?

This is a copper wire craft kit of an Indian Head Penny, dated 1973 on the back. My Uncle Bill, Hoohoo's husband, and my father's brother, made this during one of his recoveries from a heart attack. He had a few attacks in the seventies, and created quite a few pieces of needlework and crewelwork, along with this wire piece, all from craft store kits. I suppose working on labor-intensive, oh heck, OCD-driven pieces like this, must have been what the doctor ordered, so-to-speak. 

This image is created from several different scans, it's much larger than my scanner, and taking photos of it didn't do justice to the hundreds of nails and miniscule wire used, so I pieced together several scans. That's why there are a few M.C. Escher-like disappearing lines in places, lol, but overall it gets the point across—this was a lot of work with a dubious outcome. I've wondered what to do with this piece for years, whether or not to include it in one of my own works, but so far, it has remained a testament to only one man's handiwork, and it just might stay that way. The piece is created on particle board with a black burlap covering.

But Where's the Varsity Dude?

The reissued 2002-vintage box and cover art for the '58 Thunderbird scale model I had as a child. Something is missing from the original cover art though!

The original 1964 box cover art for the very same Monogram scale model. What a dreamboat, and the car ain't bad either! I don't have this box anymore, but was able to find the image online, and with a little artandcolour cleaning up, it was suitable for publishing... Images clickable as always.

R E M E M B R A N C E — This is the third copy I've owned of the same Monogram scale model kit of the 1958 Thunderbird.

The first time I set eyes on this model I was seven or eight years old. It was 1964-65 and my aunt Hoohoo, who drove a '58 T-bird, the first car I ever fell in love with, and in '64 had just bought a new one, bought the scale model for me on a shopping trip to New Haven. We were shopping for new school  clothes, and a new pencil and lunch box and looseleaf notebooks. Hoohoo always wanted all of my school supplies to match, and to have something artistic on them, and as I positively adored her, I didn't care what she bought me. I knew she would pick out something nice! On trips like that, if I behaved properly, saying Thank You, and Excuse Me, and You're Welcome, at the appropriate times to everyone we came in contact with, and she really meant EVERYONE, I was allowed a 'special' gift that had nothing to do with school. It was ALWAYS a model car for me to build, or a Matchbox car or a Corgi or a Dinky Toy.

This particular day we were in Grant's Department Store, a much larger store than anything we had in Guilford where we lived. There were two floors and the toys were in the basement. Of course I was a good boy, I always was, so after we had gotten my supplies and some shirts, pants and sweaters, we went downstairs so I could pick out a model car. There on the shelf was HER THUNDERBIRD! Her car was Silver Mink, and the car on the box was black, but it was the same year. It was the same car I would sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive, the same car I would help her wash from top to bottom (I was on the bottom of course, being so young and short, lol) and I had eyes for nothing else on the shelves that day. I remember it was a bit more expensive than the other models. I'm not sure if Monogram was more expensive than AMT or the other model makers, or if it was because it could be built in four different ways, and the box was larger than the normal scale model, too. I really didn't know if I could pick that one out, I was always conscious of not being presumptuous! She said yes, and the gorgeous model kit was mine. I'm sure you could have seen my smile on the Moon that afternoon. Gosh I wish she had lived to a ripe old age so I could treat her as specially as she treated me, but that's another story for another post!

What I didn't know how to articulate at that young age, and something I remember so clearly I could be seven years old right now, was how drawn I was to the box cover art. They had placed the Thunderbird in a college scene, with a Varsity College Boy and his girlfriend standing outside of the car, and another attractive couple inside the car. They reminded me of the older kids I would see on the Patty Duke Show, Dobie Gillis, The Donna Reed Show, or any number of early sixties TV. I always had crushes on high-school or college boys, even at that young age, although I didn't realize what I was feeling. I liked their 'Letter Sweaters' their chinos, their crewcuts or 'butch' haircuts, their unwavering, smiling good looks. When I hear some TV commentator or political hack talking about gay being a 'choice' or a 'lifestyle' I get mad or laugh, depending on how my day went. I was gay the minute I was born, probably before that, and by the age of seven or eight, though I had no idea what those feelings were, I knew that the Varsity Boy was as intriguing to me as the car he was standing next to. Long story short, I really don't know what happened to that actual scale model. I have a feeling I assembled it poorly, lacking painting and gluing skills, and I also have a feeling the "demon seed" brother probably destroyed it at some point. But I never forgot the model or the box art.

The second time I purchased that model, in the same box, with the same cover art, was in 1981 or so, just after I found out that Hoohoo had been diagnosed with cancer and probably wasn't going to recover. I was 24 years old, and searched all over for the kit so I could recreate her coupe for her. In those pre-Internet days, that involved a lot of driving, but I managed to find one. My modeling skills had improved quite a bit by young adulthood, and I really put everything I could into detailing it for her. I painted the interior black with white pleated inserts like her original, the exterior color was as close as I could get to Silver Mink, and I painted the engine and undercarriage in realistic colors. She loved it, and kept it where she could see it whether she was at home, or in the hospital or eventually, the hospice. A couple of years after she died, her husband, my Uncle Bill (also my father's brother) killed himself, and when we had to clean out the house, I found the T-bird model in many pieces in the back of a drawer. I'm not sure what happened to it, maybe my uncle smashed it in frustration or something. I still have it in a baggie so all the parts won't get lost, but I've never had the heart to put it back together again, and that was 25 years ago.

So in 2002, on a regular "scouting mission" for my now-vast model collection, I found this re-issue of the model at Toys R Us. The actual kit is exactly the same, although it's advertised on the front as a convertible. There is clearly a hardtop option visible on the boxsides, and the original had a separate hardtop too, but the box it came in is totally different. Now it's the same shoebox-shape as 99% of all 1:24 scale models, rather than the oversized box of the original. The box art is generic too, lacking the college kids and the rest of the painted artwork. I haven't put this T-bird together, but I enjoy having my kits in unbuilt condition these days. I have enough dust-collectors to stare at and watch disintegrate from what life throws at them. Now I like my kits to remain fresh and clean in their plastic wrapped boxes, unbuilt, but also perfect and unblemished—much like my memories of Hoohoo, her low and sleek '58 Thunderbird and a certain Letter-Sweatered Varsity Boy.

Here's a link describing the original kit and its box graphics.

Hibiscus Highlights

Of course, I'm not the only gardener here, most of my readers seem to enjoy growing flowers, if not in garden beds, then in pots and containers inside and outside. This is a series of Hibiscus flowers sent to me throughout the summer season by my loyal reader, PhantomX. I tinted some of them slightly as I put together this poster/collage today, artistic license and all that, and today just happens to be his birthday as well. I know everyone here will join me in wishing him, "Happy Birthday, PX!"

Deja View

My little friend, Deja, stopped by on Monday afternoon with her grandmother, my close friend. We walked around the yard and I snipped some Zinnias and Ageratum for her, and you can see the colors were an exact match for her festive Madras sundress. Deja is my youngest collector, being the proud owner of the Princess Rocking Chair I posted two weeks ago, and also one of my paintings, posted in May. You'll notice Deja somehow matched her outfit to the gift that day, too. It was not planned! 

I love this photo, the absolute epitome of childhood innocence and happiness. It reminds me of this piece of mine, a photo of my mother as a child. Her eyes are closed in the same expression of childhood giddiness and that feeling of complete safety and happiness. Approximately ninety years separate these two children's photos, but children are children are children. As the Talking Heads sang in Once in a Lifetime, "Same as it ever was, Same as it ever was, Same as it ever was..." (Note: This video is from a live performance in Germany in 1980. Where did those thirty years go? This is not my beautiful life!!!)

Nita's Little Hood Ornament, 27 x 32 inches on layered cardboard. Childhood innocence personified ca 1920-21.

Seen in the Backyard Today

The small lavender-colored annual daisies next to the granite bench, are blooming profusely these days. I like the shadows of the daisies on the nasturtium leaves in this photograph.

A Lemon Cucumber is just about ready to be picked. I have one in the refrigerator, but I still haven't tasted it yet, lol. June says they're quite good, tasting pretty much like a regular cucumber, with just a slight lemon taste. I'll probably eat it today. They seem to grow to about the size of an apple. If I get many of them before we get our first frost, I think I'll make pickles out of them. I've never made pickles before but I've been looking through old recipes to see what I can find.

Seemingly floating in a sea of green, this orange Zinnia has been blooming for more than three weeks! It's nestled in between the six-foot Cosmos leaves to its right, and its fellow Zinnia leaves, almost five feet tall themselves, on the left. I'm not going to pick this one, I'm really curious as to just how long it will continue blooming.

Sunflowers Soldier On

The Lemon sunflowers are still blooming, but between the birds, the bees, the relentless sunny days, and the weight of the flowers themselves, they're starting to wilt and bend a bit. I'm not sure the smallest buds will open, but I'll keep watering them in the evenings. The lemony color of the petals is really an attractive addition to the vegetable garden.

The second variety of sunflower has finally blossomed. This one is a brighter yellow, and is more than 8 feet tall! In these photos it looks very similar to the lemon sunflower. The sun was so bright today, its darker color really washed out. I'll try to remember to shoot some photos later in the afternoon, or even early evening the next time. It's a giant, but only has this one large flower, almost 12 inches in diameter. The bees love both types of sunflowers. You can't take a photo without bees all around them.

Shooting up into the sun isn't the best idea when all you have is an automatic exposure on your camera.