March 9, 2009
Woke up to rain this morning. Very nice out. Got a big coyote lying in wait for Peaches every morning. He is so aggressive he's been coming right into the driveway to grab at her.

Had a so-so weekend on art. Made lots of mud. Been working on rim lighting:

But ruined a couple boards trying to extrapolate the effects for a face of anguish. This one, at least is presentable:

But not very anguish oriented. Meanwhile, Deena Bean and Frank came out yesterday for Bobbycakes (dad's pancakes). We got to talking about her trip to Washington D.C. where she spoke at a conference. She also told us how much she enjoyed the Natural History Museum and the art museum. That led to a discussion of the merits of Van Gogh and then to a museum we visited in Madrid in 2003 called El Museo Sorolla, which was in the house of the painter, Joaquin Sorolla. I had forgotten how much I was impressed with this Valencia talent. Got out the book I bought at the museum and poached a couple scenes for my daily sketches:

The sketch at the bottom is called "Madre" which is Spanish for Mother. it's a simple painting of a mother in bed with her newborn. Just their heads are showing. The other Sorolla poach is "Cotilde con sombrero". Cotilde was Joaquin's wife and he painted her wearing her big hat.

Trying to finalize a cover idea for our Alamo package. Thanks to the many comments on this site, I have been noodling a concept of showing Davy, excuse me, David, swinging his trusty Ol' Betsy as he's being overtaken, literally by Burger King, Ripley's Believe It Or Not and various sky scrapers. It's going to be a jarring cover, but then that is the heart of the dilemma.

"In times like these, it's helpful to remember that there have always been times like these."
—Paul Harvey