Seen Through My Lens, Mid-October

Playing Around in Photoshop This Morning

Zinnias, indoor with tiny cars

Yellow and peach dahlia

Green tomatoes, Jet Star variety

Bittersweet turning red, on lilac

Sunny cosmos

Fire dahlia

October's leaf canopy

Cranberry dahlia

  

Button zinnia with overlay of my piece "Checkerz"

Zinnias, indoor with perilla

Ripening Celebrity

Boomers' Study Hall Fantasy, 1970 Style

1970 Holden Torana GTR-X concept car. This car is everything a young man coming of age in the 1960s doodled in his notebooks during home room and study halls. It's low, it's lithe, it's sleek and swanky and looks like it's going a million miles an hour sitting still. Somehow it escaped me for all of these years. I was blown away when I found these photos tonight online.

Headlights in closed position.

The taillight graphic wraps into the rocker panel trim.

Super sleek and sexy, this Holden was even hotter looking than the contemporary Opel GT.

• There is a little bit of info for the GTR-X at this Wiki, almost last entry.

• You can see a photo of this car today, here, apparently it still exists.

• Slightly more in-depth article here.

• It reminds me of this slightly later GM concept for the US, the XP-something or another. It, too, had a really long snout and a tiny cabin. I haven't found it googling this evening.

Seen Today Along the Shoreline

I'm not an expert at 1800-spotting, but I'm making an educated guess that this is a late '60s P1800S. I believe the 1800E of 1970 had a different grille and side trim. Roger Moore as the Saint drove one of the these cars in the popular sixties TV show. Here's some good info at Wiki on the P1800 series.

These cars were designed in the late fifties and stayed in production through the early 70s, ending with the P1800ES sportwagon.

This is a great period publicity piece for the original 1957 Volvo P1800. I like the original "cowhorn" front bumpers and the way the chrome side trim follows the actual contouring of the body scallop. In later years they straighted the chrome strip left the scoop-like indent in the sheetmetal. This version is the cleanest and most pure, one of the really great examples of later mid-century transportation design, imho, of course! It's everything a close-coupled closed sport coupe should be. The short, rounded rear fins really define the derrière of this brilliant design.  

$3.99 Car of the Week:

1955 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria, 1/43 Scale, Discount Store

Admittedly crude discount store find. Red and white paint is thickly applied, the trim is disproportionately scaled, and is generally awkwardly rendered, but there is a charm to any scaler of a unique or collectible vintage car like the tinted plexiglass-roofed Crown Vics of the fifties. This is a link to the Crown Vic Wiki. There's a small section on this first year model.

Showing off popular fifties fad, the rear-mounted Continental kit, the famed Fairlane "checkmark" chrome side trim is also evident in this view. While some Crown Vics came with an all-metal roof, this scale model has the optional green plexiglass insert. A snap-in cloth shade was available for bright days.

The chrome roofband "tiara" is seen from behind, the indented/painted scoops at the trailing edge of it rendered as a row of dots on this 3-inch long dime-store model. I appreciate the attempt at detail... The decals are close but not quite right in any detail or placement, lol.

The transparent roof is obvious in this view. Besides the Fairlane above, the same plexiglass roof was also available as the Mercury Sun Valley coupe in '55, below.

Google image of the '55 Mercury Sun Valley. No chrome roofband and fixed B pillar, but the same plexiglass roof insert on this pillarless coupe. Mercury's trim was always pretty thickly applied in their upper echelon series, imo. Lovely lines though, good bones, as they'd say in fashion.

Here's a suitably glitzy '55 metal-roofed Crown Victoria. Crown Vics were frequently over-accessorized, as many are even at today's car shows. These cars are fantastic, though. The '56 was just as beautiful. My parents owned a '56 Sunliner convertible when I was born, in pink and black. This image CV was found with Google Images.

Filtered Fairlane for Five-Hundredth Post

This little electronic ditty celebrates this blog's five-hundredth post... It's a nice, low rear view of the new Fairlane scale model. Image is filtered and rendered more artistically. I love to set up little photo shoots, and try to do so almost every night. Click to see larger and in more detail. All of these shots show the model atop a cardboard quilt still curing from its first layers of paint.

They Snuck Up On Me

These dark pink violets started blooming while their side of the "violet forest" was facing the sun. I didn't notice them until this morning when I turned around their large, hand-painted pot, so the other side would get more light. The rest of this grouping has a darker, true purple blossom. The leaves of a hanging lipstick plant dip into the photo on the right. As usual, I can't take a photo indoors without some sort of small car being visible. At the bottom right is a red 'late '90s Camaro convertible by Matchbox.

They All Come Around, Eventually. Bentley Working on its Own Four Door Coupe?

My Bentley Blue Train Coupe from last year. While a pillarless bodystyle such as I've created here has zero chances of entering production, I suspect that Bentley will choose the Continental platform, as I have, for its Panamera/Rapide competitor.

My Bentley Greenbrier 5 door hatch. Luxury and utility in a manageable size. 

My Bentley Excellence Saloon from almost five years ago.

A  U T O MO T I V E   N E W S — Once again, Autoblog.com is reporting that Bentley is indeed working on a Panamera/Rapide competitor. I remind my readers I was there first! : )

Autoblog's link to their story today.

Studies in Red and Yellow. (and pink and green)

We're finally seeing some color on the trees. This is in the center of town, across from the grocery store I use. It was a very dull, cloudy day today when I shot this, and it's pouring outside right now. The colors look so much brighter when the sky is bright blue. The hues and textures of the different tree species really caught my eye even without the benefit of great lighting.

Refusing to give up despite the cooler temperatures and shorter daylight period, the red and yellow Dahlia continues to open up new blossoms.

The newest dahlia, in pink and yellow, continues its maturation process. This is the prettiest it has yet been.

Two red vases illumined in the early afternoon light today. The "flower power" paperweight below them is a white river rock I painted when I was 10 years old. The bright yellow Mustang I Matchbox is to the right. I've managed to find a properly painted white version, with blue stripes as per the original, so I'm leaving this little car yellow with black stripes.

Happy Birthday Hoohoo

HooHoo's Honeymoon Harley, approximately 30 x 18 inches; paint, paper and polurethane on plywood. Click on each image in this post to enlarge,

Left—I'm holding a puppy named Harp that belonged to a family friend. Hoohoo watched it for a week while they were away, You'll see Hoohoo's face in the mirror behind me. This was taken in her 1766 home, and I still have most of the items behind me. Right—A portrait of Hoohoo in the early 1950s holding one of her cats. The early morning sun was striking it just right.

Hoohoo and me, 1967. I've published this photo before in this blog, but it's a really good one of her, one that really shows her personality, and is exactly how I remember her.

Hoohoo at a young age, holding a bunch of wildflowers and wearing a flowerprinted outfit. She's at the shore near their beach cottage which was only a stone's throw from their main house. The family house, while very close to the shore, lacked water views, being up a large hill and and down the street a bit. The cottage on the other hand, was right on the water, with granite steps going from the lawn right into the water.  

O C T O B E R  1 5 ,  2 0 1 0 — Today would have been my aunt Hoohoo's 85th birthday. She died in her 57th year, so it's hard for me to imagine her elderly. I can tell you that if she had her health at 85, she would have been a force to be reckoned with and my life would be totally different today. As it is, I probably wouldn't be here today had it not been for her in my young life. My parents were great, Hoohoo was my mother's sister, but she "got" me at an early age, supported me through the bad time, and made me the artist I am today. I've written quite a bit about her in this blog, so I'll leave it at this: Happy Birthday Hoohoo, and I'm so sorry we didn't have more time together once I grew up. I miss you every day.

Choppapalooza!

Mercedes started the recent "four door coupe" trend several years ago with it's gorgeous CLS model. This chop "reverse engineers" the concept back to the early '80s 123-series. I've given the sedan the coupe's laid-back windshield and given it a period vinyl roof. I made the bodysides a bit lower and incorporated the door handles into the mid-body trim strip to help camoflage them, adding to its "coupeness." I also lowered the car on its suspension and tidied up several other details to make a more elegant four door coupe. The name follows MB's early '80s convention, with this model having a 2.5 liter inline 6 cylinder engine, and CS standing for CoupeSedan.

Keeping the same theme of four door coupes, this is my version of a Hyundai Genesis sport sedan. I used Nissan's old 4DSC descriptive, standing for 4 Door Sports Car. I eliminated the beltline dip and changed the front grille from the donor coupe, in an effort to give this luxury sport sedan a bit more elegance and brightwork. 

Moving back to Mercedes Benz, this is an attempt to bring back some of the class that was inherent in Benzes before the early 90s when MB needed to compete with Lexus. I've called this smaller-than C Class the 190E Heritage, and have given this 5 door hatchback 18" wheels designed to look like the painted wheel covers of the past.

Modifying the current C Class, I've given it a smoother aerodynamic appearance for this hybrid version, changing almost every line on the car. I've gone back to the '80s for the smooth wheeltrims, and painted the slats of the new grille. I've also changed the very clunky Mercedes door handles to a more contemporary appearance.

Meet the VW Taifoon. Yes, the German word would be Taifun, but I'm anglicizing it slightly to make sure Americans would pronounce it correctly, lol. This Golf 5 door has been given a more upscale appearance with added aluminum brightwork, reworked roofline, a carbon-fiber hatchlid and restyled taillights and trim. In short, pretty much everything has been changed in some way to give this high-priced Golf a distinctive appearance.

Dagmar Bumper Bullets 1 & 2. February Repost.

DAGMARS 1. This piece is on two pieces of plywood, cemented together, the smaller one mounted on top of the larger base unit. The image is a photo I shot of a 1956 Cadillac front bumper guard, or Dagmar as they were known back then. Dagmar was a very 'busty' B actress of the period, and these bumper guards grew more voluptuous by the year... This is one of my earliest pieces on wood, approximately 24 x 26 inches.

DAGMARS 2. This is a variation using the same base image of the '56 Cadillac. This piece is one of my cardboard 'quilts' and has a secured plywood backing for hanging. The basic image is centered and various colorized versions surround it. A paint treatment of squares and stripes are also used in this piece, with silver foil applied along the edges in places. approximately 27 x 33 inches. Wall joint compound is also used, to bring out the dimpled nature of the corregated cardboard, another way to add my favored graphic repetitive motif. 

B T W :

C A R D B O A R D   Q U I L T S — This technique consists of three layers of corrugated cardboard squares cemented together in an alternating pattern for strength. Then a plywood backing piece is used to mount the 'sandwich.' As these piece age, and dry out in my 150+year old house, they tend to warp and curl just a smidge, giving them a very cool 3D appearance when hung. I'd love to say I planned it that way the first time . . . When I saw the effect after I finished it though, I realized how much I liked it and have actually enhanced it on subsequent cardboard quilts.

They'll Be Gone Soon Enough. Until Then . . .

More Flowers!

A darker magenta Cosmos has decided to show up among its paler cousins. The sky has been unbelievably blue lately.

The newest dahlia really started opening up today. I have a day lily variety that is the exact same shade of yellow and peach. If only they could open up at the same time of the year, but the lilies were done blooming 2 months ago.

There are still about a dozen tomatoes remaining on the stems. The fruit is much smaller than in "the season" but still tastes much better than any grocery store tomato. I will miss them when they're gone! The green patches around the base of the plants is flat-leafed parsley

A Bit of "Colour" Around the Old Place Yet

Mid-October around Pink Gardens, and there are still some flowers blooming if you look for 'em. 

At the top is a very small purple aster-type flower. I'm not exactly sure of its name. It was given to me last year by a woman at the grocery store I helped in the parking lot when her bags broke. After we got all of the stuff put in her trunk, she asked me if I didn't mind, if I could help her one more time with a large plant that over at the curb. While I got it and brought it to her car, she ran and bought me this little purple-flowering plant, and it turned out to be a perennial. Next to it is the dark purple Perilla, a native perennial coleus relative. They look nice together.

In the middle is the newest dahlia to bloom, the fourth variety. This one seems to be a peach color gradually changing into a bright yellow in the center. We've all seen how my dahlias change over time, so I'm excited to see this new one mature, I have buds coming on two more dahlias that haven't bloomed yet, so let's all hope we don't get that first frost for a while!

At the bottom is a white Joe Pye Weed bush. Most of these that I've seen have been purple and were blooming profusely in bright sun in August. This variety was given to us this year by one of June's friends. She gave us three nicely mature bushes and told us it was shade-loving. I did as she said, and have been rewarded by these small bright white flowers, absolutely perfect for the shade garden. Checking this white variety online, it seems to be called Chocolate, 'though I have no idea why!

Breaking News: Success!

I haven't posted any "breaking news" on my blog before, but this is a great time to start. The first of the trapped Chilean miners, Florencio Ávalos, 31, has made it to the surface. He has been reunited with his wife and his 8-year old son, and seems to be in good, robust health. It was tremendously touching to watch in real time. Now we all have to hope that the next 35-36 trips go as well. There were 33 trapped miners, and 3-4 paramedics and rescuers have made the descent and will have to be lifted out. Each round trip takes approximately 45 minutes, so it will be more than a full day and night before they're all safely on the surface again.

New York Times real-time story link.

Where's Waldo [the Turtle] ?

There is a pond in the center of town with a wooden boardwalk on one side of it. This section of the pond is pretty shallow, with a lot of pond lilies and sumac roots, but it's also filled with turtles. Some days you can see 40-50 of them sunning themselves and swimming. In this recent photo there are five turtles, though only 4 are fairly obvious. Some days I stand here and just watch them slide in and out of the water, onto the roots and onto the grassy shore, coming up from the bottom or just swimming around the pond. I believe they're all the same species, a type of box turtle, and measure no more than 6-8 inches in length. Click on the image to see if you can find all five!

Meanwhile, Back in the Jungle:

This snapping turtle is a bit more than 2 feet long from head-to-tail! Last year I shot this photo as this creature was moving from one small pond to another along my road. Once in a while it's in the same pond as the small turtles above, swimming around like Jaws, lol. When I shot this photo, I didn't realize it was a snapping turtle. I thought it was someone's pet tortoise, lol. I petted it and was close enough to it for it to have taken my arm off! I think it was just as surprised by me as I was by him!

Chopping the Chop

Looking at my Seville chop from early September, I really didn't like the way I had rendered the highlight on the side window. I decided to "fix" it and in the process I slightly changed the shape of the quarter window in the rear door, sloping it forward, making the window more of a parallelogram rather than a triangle. I think it works much better now. 

The way I created the Seville in September.

The beautifully sleek, but oddly proportioned XTS concept car Cadillac showed earlier this year which I used as the base for my Seville. I lengthened the hood and wheelbase, and gave it a more seventies notchback roofline. I think it gives it a more "American" look that is dignified while still completely up-to-date and relevant to other modern Cadillacs it would share showroom space with. I think the short hood on the XTS is its worst attribute.

Autumn Views

Awesome neighbor June's front step, displaying a grouping of mini gourds and pumpkins, including a "blue cheese" variety in the back left. This is my favorite type of pumpkin, featuring a pale greenish-blue exterior with deep ribs and a low, squat shape. Rounding out the display are pottery and glass shards we find around Pink Garden's yard whenever we dig in the gardens. The huge slabs of granite used as steps date back to the early 1700s, the oldest section of the house. Click to enlarge all photos.

This is a very subtle photograph, but enlarged, I find it absolutely beautiful. This is a variety of cedar near my friend Nikki's condo. The berries are a very pale blue, almost lavender. They're very similar to Juniper berries, but I don't think Junipers grow this large. The tree is at least 30 feet tall. The bits of bright blue sky at the top really bring out the colors of the berries at the bottom.

The Hummingbird Gate to the vegetable garden, Oct 10, 2010. While the last of our "real" Hummers seem to have flitted away, on their way to Mexico for the winter, our gate still beckons. Beyond it you'll see the newest morning glories to flower and the taller zinnias and cosmos in the "way back." The Audubon bird house is empty right now, too.