Ellen’s House 8″ x 10″ Watercolor

“Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise.”
– Thomas J. Watson

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Commission Finished – Ellen’s House 8″ x 10″ Watercolor

I had so much fun doing this house.  The windows and shutters were my favorite part.   I haven’t heard from Ellen yet.  I hope she likes it. 

About Thomas J. Watson

 

American businessman Thomas J. Watson built IBM into a Fortune 500 company. He was born in rural New York in 1874. He sold sewing machines, musical instruments, and cash registers before becoming president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording company, which merged with IBM in 1924. His paternalistic business style was a model for later Japanese management, and his motto, “THINK,” became his company’s slogan. Under his leadership, IBM funded the first computers. He died in 1956.

Future – Hunter & Gage - My Sweet Great Nephews

“If we wait for the moment when everything is ready, we shall never begin.”
– Ivan Turgenev

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Future – Hunter & Gage

Hunter is a newborn and Gage is three and a half.  They are my great nephews.  These are their little feet.  The word for Illustration Friday this week is “future” and I can’t think of anything more perfect than these two little boys.

I am going to paint it, so this also a future painting. 

About Ivan Turgenev

 

Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, celebrated for his dark, realistic novels about Russian life, is best known for the novel Fathers and Sons, about the conflicting ideologies between generations. He was born in 1818 to a wealthy Russian family. He and his brother were raised by an abusive mother who was rumored to have smothered one of her serfs. He rose to fame with A Sportsman’s Sketches, which may have influenced the Tsar to free the serfs. He died in France in 1883.

A Laundry Day Painting

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
– Lady Dorothy Nevill

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Laundry Day – Watercolor on Masa

I did this little 3″ x 7″ Painting last spring.  The photographer was Lisilk at WetCanvas.  I like the dog.   

About Lady Dorothy Nevill

 

Lady Dorothy Nevill, the noted British gardener, was one of the most celebrated society hostesses of her day; her salons attracted leading writers, artists, and statesmen. She was born Dorothy Walpole in 1826 in England. She married a wealthy cousin with a 23-acre estate, where she pursued her interest in plants. She built 13 greenhouses and carried on an extensive correspondence with Charles Darwin. Her memoir, Leaves From the Note-Books of Lady Dorothy Nevill, was published in 1906. She died in 1913.

A Rainbow Colored Cat in a Hat

“Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.”
– James Russell Lowell

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Keetah – A Rainbow Colored Cat in a Hat

This is Keetah, Sharrm’s (from WetCanvas) cat.    It’s another old one, while I work on my commission.  Have a great day!

About James Russell Lowell

 

James Russell Lowell, the sometimes romantic, often ironic American poet, was also a diplomat, serving as ambassador to Spain and, later, Britain. He was born in 1819 in Massachusetts and became known as a New England poet. His satire The Bigelow Papers was his best-known work. While a professor at Harvard, he wrote critical studies of Dante, Shakespeare, and Chaucer, among others, and also served as the founding editor of the influential magazine The Atlantic Monthly. He died in 1891.

Ellen’s House in Ink - A Kansas City Commission

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”
– Harvey Fierstein

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Ellen’s House in Ink – 8″ x 10″

This is the first of four commissions I got from the show in Kansas City.  I went to Ellen’s to take the photos.  Her house is so beautiful and in a great neighborhood.  The neighbors were visiting and walking and pushing their kids in Ellen’s tire swing.  It was a real Mayberry feel.  This stage of the painting has been approved and I’m on to paint in the morning.  Yay! 

About Harvey Fierstein

 

Harvey Fierstein, the raspy-voiced American actor, playwright, and gay activist, is best known for his semiautobiographical play, Torch Song Trilogy, which garnered Tony Awards for writing and acting. He was born in Brooklyn in 1954. His onstage debut as a female impersonator at age 16 led to a role in a 1971 Andy Warhol play. He adapted the French show La Cage aux Folles into a Broadway musical and, later, the movie The Birdcage. He has appeared in such varied movies as Independence Day and Mrs. Doubtfire.

I know I saw that rooster...

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
– Muhammad Ali

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

I know I saw that rooster…

This is an older painting, but I always liked it.  The reference photo came from Sharrm at WetCanvas.  I am working on a commission, so no new paintings for a bit.

I have a 13 mile drive to work, on country roads.  This morning, a car passed me and about 10 other cars, some in a no passing zone through Longtown.  They were sure in a hurry!  I imagined all kinds of scenarios that required them taking so many foolish chances to get into Eufaula faster.  The part that made me laugh right out loud… they turned into the McDonalds drive thru line with about 15 cars ahead of them. 

Have a very nice day!

About Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali, the American boxing legend known for his saucy rhyming boasts as much as his quick fists, was a three-time heavyweight champion. He was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville in 1942. His bike was stolen when he was 12, and a cop suggested he take up boxing. Though he became known as the greatest fighter of the twentieth century, with 56 wins and only five defeats, the sport took its toll in pugilism-induced Parkinson’s disease. Since retiring from boxing, Ali has dedicated himself to civic and humanitarian issues. He was called on to negotiate the release of hostages in Iraq in 1991, and in 2005 he was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Tribute to Another Time - A Rusty Old Truck

“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.“
–Joseph Addison

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Tribute to Another Time – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

Sunday, I had a little time to paint.  (yay!)  I was waiting for approval (of the pencil sketch) on the commission I’m working on and the hubby didn’t feel good, so he was napping.  The word for Illustration Friday this week is “Tribute”, so I thought this old truck fit the bill.  I painted it from a photo by Lisilk at WetCanvas.

…. and I made chili. 

Joseph Addison (May 1, 1672 – June 17, 1719) was an English politician and writer. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. Along with Steele, Addison would contribute the majority of the content for three of the most influential periodicals of the eighteenth century: The Tatler, The Spectator, and The Freeholder, all of which set standards for literary taste and literary criticism that would endure throughout the remainder of the century. Addison was also an accomplished poet and playwright, and his tragedy, Cato, would become one of the most popular plays of the eighteenth century English stage.  More…

Little Cedar House

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
– John Muir

Yeah!  I like that!

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Little Cedar House - 2" x 3.5"

I painted this little house in my hotel room, too.  It just came out of my head.  It is actually the top of a bookmark.  I just haven’t decided how I want to finish it.

This morning, I started on my first commission from the KC show.  I went to Ellen’s house and took the reference photos.  On the other 3 commissions, they wanted their flowers to bloom first and they are sending hi res photos.  Ellen didn’t have to wait.  She just told me to make everything bloom.  I can do that! 

About John Muir

American naturalist John Muir is remembered as a passionate champion of the natural wonder of Yosemite; he was instrumental in turning the land into a national park. Born in Scotland in 1838, he immigrated with his family to Wisconsin in 1849. He dropped out of college to walk 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida. After falling in love with Yosemite, he took a job herding sheep nearby. He developed the theory that the valley was created by glaciers, which is now accepted as fact. He died in 1914.

Little Blue House Painting

“When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do.  Think up something appropriate and do it.”

–Edgar Watson Howe

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Blue House – 4″ x 6″ Postcard

I started this one while in Kansas City and I finished it this morning.  It was fun.
Boy, the sign shop sure is busy!  I don’t know whether to flip, flop or fly!  I’m going to stay offline for the most part, and try to get a handle on it.  Yesterday was spent entirely on getting new orders into the computer and getting some designs completed.  Whew!  It’s crazy!

Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), American author and editor, wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.

Edgar Howe was born on May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Ind. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer’s trade, and he eventually became a journalist.

Howe was editor and proprietor of the Atchison (Kans.) Daily Globe (1877-1911) when he wrote his first and most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883). Harshly realistic, it portrayed, in a rather colorless but easygoing style, the hopeless lives of men and women in two midwestern prairie towns. Unable to place his novel with any publishing house, Howe ran it off in his own printshop. It was a great success. It was praised by such prominent contemporary writers as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain, and years later it was rediscovered and hailed as a classic. Later Howe turned from realism to romance in The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886), which were less successful.  More…

Cliff Houses after I put away the laundry

“A mistake is simply another way of doing things.”
– Katharine Graham

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Cliff Houses – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

I started this before I left and finished it in my hotel room in Kansas City.  It was fun to paint.  My reference photo was from WetCanvas and was dark and gray.  I fixed all the broken windows, neatly folded and put away all the laundry that was hanging off the balconies, and repainted the buildings.  Bring on the tourists! 

About Katharine Graham

 

Katharine Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, is considered one of her era’s most powerful women. She was born in 1917 in New York. After her father bought the newspaper, she joined the staff as a reporter. Her husband inherited the paper from her father, and Graham took it over when he died in 1963. During her tenure, the paper printed the controversial Pentagon Papers and uncovered the Watergate conspiracy. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her autobiography, Personal History. She died in 2001.