Rusty Old Truck Layered into Posey Park Painting

“I’ve learned that people whill forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Dr. Maya Angelou
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Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Rusty Old Truck

I painted this from a reference photo by Skappy at WetCanvas.  I left the background empty on purpose, so I could do this….

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Maya Angelou

Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou’s unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race. Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

Chicago Fire Truck

“We are, each of us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.”
– Luciano Decrescenzo

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Chicago Fire Truck -  4″ x 6″ Watercolor

I painted this from a photo by Savatage at WetCanvas.  I had a great time with it.

I bought a new vinyl cutter yesterday and it is supposed to be here today, so I can get back to making signs.  At home, in the mornings, I’ve been working on more bookmarks.  I think I have 8 of them inked.  It’s a great project to take my mind off of computers.  I’ll share later. 

About Luciano Decrescenzo

 

Luciano Decrescenzo, the Italian writer, filmmaker, and intellectual, has published 28 books on subjects ranging from Greek philosophy to his own childhood in Naples. He was born in 1928 and worked as an engineer for IBM for several years before turning to philosophy and writing. He has also directed, written, and starred in a number of Italian language films and received honorary Athenian citizenship in 1994.

Paint Delivery to Bethville – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through.  Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.  This is a kind of death.”
–Anais Nin

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Paint Delivery to Bethville – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

I drew this picture  while I was at the car dealership, waiting for them to replace my defective headlights.  The truck was (very) loosely drawn from a Publisher’s Clearing House ad for a little metal truck.    Then I painted it last night.   Color is just so much fun!!

(Yes… I send those PCH entries in, so my future is set.)

Anaïs Nin (February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) was a French-born author who became famous for her published journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death. Nin is also famous for her erotica, which not only proves sensual, but also acts as a study of sexuality in its perfection and flaws.  More…

Little Orange Truck – Watercolor and Prismacolor Fine Art Marker

“The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn, you can’t congeal: There is a forward motion to yearning.”
– Gail Godwin

I like that quote!

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Little Orange Truck – Watercolor and Prismacolor Fine Art Marker

Well, I looked at that flowerdy truck and could not come up with a cool background in my sleepy state this morning, so I whipped out a little orange truck.  35 minutes of fun and it’s just a couple inches.  I’m sure I’ll play with both of these trucks some more to add some background interest.  Have a great weekend!

About Gail Godwin

American author Gail Godwin is best known for her well-developed characters in such novels as A Mother and Two Daughters, The Odd Woman, and Violet Clay, all National Book Award nominees. She was born in 1937 in Alabama and raised in North Carolina. She married and divorced twice and lived with composer Robert Starer for 25 years until his death in 2001. They collaborated on ten musical works. She has written 13 novels and two short-story collections. She lives in Woodstock, New York.

Flowerdy Truck Paint Job – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor, Ink & Inktense

“Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.”
– Erich Fromm

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Flowerdy Truck Paint Job – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor, Ink & Inktense

I had 45 minutes to paint this morning.  Yesterday, I painted the fenders, tires and interior, so today I did the paint job.  Tomorrow, I do the background.  Backgrounds are usually my least favorite part.  Maybe I can use photoshop to layer it in front of a painting I have already completed.  Hmmmm….. check back tomorrow and see. 

About Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm, the humanist German psychoanalyst and author, is best known for his book, The Art of Loving, which describes love as care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. Born in Germany in 1900, he emigrated to the United States in 1934, fleeing Hitler’s regime. He taught at a number of universities in the U.S. and Mexico and wrote eight books delineating his view of human nature. He believed that modern society makes us feel isolated and long to reach out to others. He died in 1980.

A Vintage Truck Sketch – 5″ x 7″ Work in Progress

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
– Anatole France

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

A Vintage Truck Sketch – 5″ x 7″ Work in Progress

I do some art nearly every morning before I get ready for work.  It’s like I need to do art and it always makes my day better when I start it this way.  Yesterday morning I drew this truck.  This morning, I inked it and started painting it.  Tomorrow, I’ll paint the truck and maybe the background.  It’s red in the photo I drew it from, but I’m thinking it may be a little fancier.  We’ll see. 

About Anatole France

Anatole France was the pen name of Nobel Prize–winning French author Jacques Anatole François Thibault. He was born in 1844 in Paris. His father was a book dealer, and France spent his life among books, including 14 years as assistant librarian to the French Senate. His novels, including the Contemporary History series and The Gods Are Athirst, often use allegory and religious symbolism as vehicles for moral questions. He died in 1924.

Bouncing Down a Country Road – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Ink

“If we blindly accept someone else’s beliefs or opinions – taking them as our own – then we set ourselves up for disappointment and heartache. If we do not examine another’s viewpoint, in the light of our own experiences and abilities, we place the control of our happiness or sorrow in someone else’s hands.”
–Liane Cordes

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Bouncing Down a Country Road – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Ink

Bounce is this week’s word for Illustration Friday.  As this truck bounces his way back home after a trip to the farmer’s market, the rocks on the bumpy road are causing his load of fresh fruit to nearly bounce completely out of the truck.  In afterthought, I should have painted a couple pieces of fruit laying on the side of the road.  Oh well… too late. 

Liane Cordes is the Author of Reflecting Ponds.  I could find no biographical information on Liane, but I found this about her book:

The Reflecting Pond is a collection of meditations that takes one subject at a time and covers it in depth. Whether we have a concern about self-acceptance, fear, friendship, or love, there is a chapter full of understanding thoughts. Used as an extra dose of support on specific issues, this book will help us think through day-to-day living problems.

Little Red Chevy Painting

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Little Red Chevy – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Sharpie

I painted the Chevy from a photo I found in the WetCanvas RIL.  Everything else came from Bethville.

It’s Whole Hawg weekend here in Eufaula, Oklahoma.  It started with a rodeo last night, continuing through the weekend.  Tonight at 6:00 there will be a parade down Main street.  That’s always a fun one.  Saturday, there will be a boat poker run on the lake,  carnival, a car show, an arts and crafts fair, hawg cooking and a sandwich giveaway at 5:00 pm.  I’m sure there is more going on that I forgot to mention.  People will be cooking hawgs all over town for judging at 3:00.  Then they all cut up their meat and make sandwiches to give away.    It’s a fun event and did I mention… I get to design their logo every year? 

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of the greatest American jurists of the twentieth century, was called the Great Dissenter because of the brilliance of his dissenting opinions. He was born in Boston in 1841 and was named for his father, the author and doctor. He was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1902 and became known for his pithy, quotable opinions. He stood strong on free-speech rights and was an advocate of judicial restraint and objectivity. He died in 1935.

A Happy Old Orange Truck in Bethville

“We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.”
– Etty Hillesum

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

A Happy Old Orange Truck – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Sharpie

I painted this from a photo by rue d’oak from the WetCanvas Reference Image Library.  It was actually rust and green and it was in a city environment without the hay in the back.  I like this way better, but I’m grateful for the WetCanvas RIL for the inspiration. 

About Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum, less famous than her contemporary, Anne Frank, lived a short life of great courage. She was born in 1914 in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and a Russian mother. She studied law, Slavic languages, and psychology. Hungry for knowledge, she cut down on food in order to buy books. She went voluntarily to the Westerbork camp to help fellow Jews interned by the Nazis. Her letters detail her experiences; her more meditative diary focuses on issues of faith. She died at Auschwitz in 1943.

Little Red Farm Truck

“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.”
– John Burroughs

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Little Red Farm Truck – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Sharpie

This is another painting of the same truck, from the photo by Elainesq at WetCanvas.  It’s so fun to just make up what that old rusty truck could look like all cleaned up. 

John Burroughs was born on April 3, 1837 on his family’s farm in Roxbury. He spent his youth working on the farm and exploring Old Clump Mountain. His favorite place he called Boyhood Rock, where he would sit and study the ways of Nature around him.

He was a teacher, a journalist, a treasury clerk in Washington, DC (where he met and befriended Walt Whitman), and a bank examiner before returning to his beloved Catskills. In 1871, his first book Wake Robin was published. In 1874 he bought a small farm in Esopus, and devoted himself completely to his writing. Later, he would divide his time between “Slabsides“, his summer retreat at West Park, near Esopus, and “Woodchuck Lodge” in Roxbury.

Source:  Catskill Archive

Pink Farm Truck

“Hope is not a dream, but a way of making dreams become reality.”
– Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Pink Farm Truck – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Sharpie

In the reference photo by Elainesq at WetCanvas, the truck was under the barn awning and was actually rusty and tired looking.  I drug it out into the open and gave it a fresh paint job. 

About Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens

Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens played a major leadership role during the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960′s; his reforms include reciting the liturgy in modern languages, expanding the role of laypersons, and opening a dialogue with other religions. He was born in 1904 in Brussels. Wealthy relatives wanted him to study economics and manage their fortune, but instead he entered the priesthood. He was witty and charming, with an enthusiasm for soccer. He died in 1996.

1950 Chevy Truck in Red

“When you bring your attention to the things you are grateful for in your life, your brain actually works better.”
–Daniel Amen

Copyright Beth Parker Art

1950 Chevy Truck in Red – 3″ x 4″ Watercolor

Here is my second attempt to practice painting a truck.  It was kinda fun, even though I overdid the sharpie a bit.    This weekend, I am hosting the WDE in the All Media Art Events forum at WetCanvas.    It’s fun!   Go check it out and play with us.   Artists from all over the world will be doing art based on the photos I put up for references.  

About Dr. Amen

Daniel G. Amen, MD is a physician, child and adult psychiatrist, brain imaging specialist, bestselling author, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the CEO and medical director of Amen Clinics, Inc. (ACI) in Newport Beach and the San Francisco area, California, Bellevue, Washington and Reston, Virginia .

ACI is the world leader in applying brain imaging science to clinical practice. ACI has the world’s largest database of functional brain scans related to psychiatric medicine, now totaling more than 70,000 scans, and the clinics have seen patients from 90 countries.

Dr. Amen is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, where he teaches medical students and psychiatric residents about using brain imaging in clinical practice.  Source:  AmenClinics.com.

1950 Chevrolet Pickup

“We have a lamp inside of us, the lamp of mindfulness, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We have to light up that lamp of mindfulness so that light will shine out and the darkness will dissipate and cease. Our practice is to light up the lamp.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh

This quote is from my newest little book called Wrinkles Don’t Hurt – Daily meditations on the joy of aging mindfully. I am loving this book by Ruth Fishel, who also wrote another great one called A Time For Joy.

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2011

1950 Chevrolet Pickup – 3″ x 4″ Watercolor

I am doing all these paintings with buildings in them and the streets are suspiciously empty.  I decided to practice painting vehicles, which I am terrible at.  I wouldn’t mind them so much if they didn’t have tires.  The perspective, shadows, placement, etc, of tires are just bewildering to me, as you can see in this little painting.  The front passenger side tire is in the wrong place somehow.  I like the rest of the truck, I think. 

Thích Nhất Hạnh ( born October 11, 1926) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who now lives in France.  Born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Thích Nhất Hạnh joined a Zen (Vietnamese: Thiền) monastery at the age of 16, and studied Buddhism as a novitiate.  Upon his ordination as a monk in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích is an honorary family name used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan.  He is often considered the most influential living figure in the lineage of Lâm Tế (Vietnamese Rinzai) Thiền, and perhaps also in Zen Buddhism as a whole.  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Old Murphy – Spud Drive In Mascot

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.”
– Martha Graham



Old Murphy – Spud Drive In Mascot

This is a 6″ x 8″ watercolor  from  Driggs, Idaho.  I was going to try to go to a movie at this cool old drive in, but I ran out of time.  I did stop and get a photo of Old Murphy, but I didn’t try to paint his name on the door of the truck.  There were also eyes on the windshield that I left off.  Artistic license. 

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts,  Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.

She danced and choreographed for over seventy years. Graham was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, “I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”

Texanna Rural Fire Department

“Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing.”
– George Sheehan




Texanna Rural Fire Truck
16″ x 20″ Acrylic on Canvas

Do you remember this painting?  I originally posted it here.  I changed the sky, so that it would match the rest of the painting better and called it done.

Yesterday, it was donated to the Texanna Rural Fire Department.  They were thrilled to have it, as it is a portrait of their old International truck.  It’s new to them and it’s still in use.

Here is Phillip Nichols with his new painting.  It will be hanging in their community center.  Cool!

About George Sheehan

American doctor George Sheehan changed course midway through his life. He was born in Brooklyn in 1918 to a cardiologist father and grew up to follow in his footsteps. At age 45, bored with his life, he began reading philosophy and took up running. Within five years he ran a 4:47 mile, the fastest ever clocked by a 50 year old. He started a weekly column and became medical editor for Runner’s World. He wrote eight books. Bill Clinton dubbed him the philosopher-king of running. He died in 1993.

Rural Fire Truck

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.”
– Louis L’Amour

 

Rural Fire Truck
16″ x 20″ Acrylic on Canvas

I have really been struggling with this painting.  I am not used to painting so large and when I mess up, I mess up BIG!  It’s the sky.  I have repainted it 3 times and I’m not sure about it this time either.  I would love to hear your thoughts on it.  No really… I can take it! 


I set it into a frame to see if it would help.  It’s not actually framed or even signed yet.

About Louis L’Amour

Louis L’Amour, the author known for his pulp westerns, wrote more than 100 novels in his lifetime. Born in North Dakota in 1908 as Louis LaMoore, he worked across the southwestern U.S. on a string of backbreaking jobs including longshoreman, elephant handler, and cattle skinner. He saw his writing as akin to telling tales by a campfire and wanted to be remembered simply as a good storyteller. He won the Medal of Freedom in 1984 and died in 1988.