Illuxcon Photos

I did a terrible job of taking pictures at Illuxcon but here are a few. First a turkey that blocked the road on our way there (below):Michael Whelan was pretty much a blur during the demo. He started 5 or 6 paintings (below):Here's Matt Stewart at work (below):Michael adding a detail to a painting Bob started (below):Bob Eggleton strikes an artistic pose (below):David Lee Anderson, great artist and friend, and, my wife, Andrea (below):
Matt Cavotta and Daren Bader who I met for the first time at Illuxcon. I don't remember taking this. That's my display behind them on the left and Lars Grant-West's on the right of the column (below):Mark Zug's last name may bring him up last a lot but his art is first rate (his display is behind him)- below:My silly friends who do seriously fantastic art, Omar and Sheila Rayyan, listing to the side with their art directly behind them (below):You can see much better pictures of the convention by searching 'Illuxcon Photos' in Google. Bob Eggleton, Boris and Julie Bell, Tor.com and others took pictures and posted them.
And late edition, the masterful watercolorist Gary Lippincott (below):

Jailbird: A Photoplay

When you travel to foreign lands you should know the laws and customs of the countries you visit. There are some unusual rules that you are likely not to expect so study your travel guide. Above is how suspected ne’er-do-wells are treated in Canada. It's strange to think that my wife would spend time locked up with these reprobates for something considered quite laughable where we live. All she did was strangle a hobo.


Here she is looking quite sad and repentant in her jail cell. Such expressions of remorse are required to impress the court. Canadian judges are known for being lenient if the prisoner manages to look pitiful. After all it’s not like my wife killed the tramp, she just choked him till he passed out.


With a little bit of work, and a small bribe, I was able to convince the hobo to withdraw his charge and the judge found my wife’s histrionics so comical he released her into my custody the following day. She was quite happy and promised not to strangle any more hobos till we got home.

With the trouble my wife gets me into, you can see why I’ve gotten behind on my blogs.


Back to the real world. I thought this was funny. While we were walking along a beach this little girl came up with a recent find. Her brother said, "That's what killed the Crocodile Hunter. I watched that show until he died." Kids say the darndest things. By the way, as I write this I believe that Art Linkletter is still around. He’s got to be in his mid 90’s.

Where Was This Taken?

Staying with the animal theme, I’ve put up another wild creature, well, urban wild. I wonder how well the cookie diet works for this rodent? This city has a large black squirrel population. Washington, DC does as well and I think that the squirrel populations in these two nations’ capitals are distantly related. I read that somewhere. Enough hints, where was this taken?

Red-Tailed Hawk

It's likely you've come here from my art blog so you already know I'm an artist. Last weekend I went out to do some plein air painting in a spot a short walk from my house. On the way back, carrying all my painting stuff I saw this (see below):


My wife came out to help me bring everything back because I had two wet paintings and my French easel holds only one. At first we thought we saw a groundhog. Then I realized it was a large bird and most likely a hawk. They don't normally sit on the ground like that. I told my wife to wait and I went over to get a closer look (see below):





The whole time I was taking pictures of it it was watching me like a hawk but made no move to fly away. When I got home I called my bird expert friend Nick. He gave me some places to call to help this clearly sick bird. It was Sunday so all I could do was leave messages. I went back out and took more pictures of the hawk (see below):




When I walked around behind the hawk it swung around and puffed itself up big. Was I about to get my face clawed off?

I walked back home and called another animal expert friend of mine and Nancy told me to see if the bird had something it had caught. When I went back it looked like the hawk had flown away but I saw it in another section of the field. And I took more pictures (close-ups below):


Below is the hawk's nictating membrane working in just one eye.




On my fourth trip out the bird, sick of me taking pictures, finally took flight.


I followed it and took these.


It looks like the raptor has recovered here and has returned to his throne.