Life cycles

Tomorrow the three pigs will go to the processsor along with a pig from another farm close by. Processor is just a polite term for slaughterhouse, a term that always makes me cringe.

Living on a farm one is supposed to become steeled to the fact that animals are part of the food chain and in some ways I have come to terms with that. But the pigs.... The pigs are more amicable. You can scratch behind their ears and they make grunting noises. You can pat their solid backs and sides and they snort. You can rub their pink, rubbery noses and they look at you trustingly. Am I turning the pigs into my own versions of Babe?

I've tried to push it to the back of my mind all day but each time I think of their fate, I feel rather sick. They've had good lives. They've eaten corn and apples and potatoes and had the best accomodation, clean water, listened to CBC in the absence of humans and had geese and baby ducks for pen mates. They've had heat lamps to take off the chill of night when they were small and large fans to cool them in the hottest days. They've lived a good life. Just rather short. They are 24 weeks old and weigh about 180 pounds each. There are people waiting for the meat, but I still don't know if I can eat them.

Farm life sucks sometimes.

So I draw. The beginning of a sketch of Tripod. That accusing stare. His right eye I think was affected by the loss of his leg on that side and is sometimes closed more. Its more apparent in this drawing and makes it look lopsided, but the eyes really are shaped differently.

Opera with soul

Luciano Pavarotti 1935 - 2007

Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown. Their legacies are their music and together, what music they create.

Many years ago I had my first taste of real opera in a small after hours club in Ealing. Some Covent Garden opera singers were having a drink and relaxing and decided to sing a little. I remember distinctly how their voices became almost palpable and filled the large room. I was amazed at the tones and volume and wondered just how a human voice could produce such beautiful sound.

I still do whenever I hear Pavarotti. This morning I heard him talking about his work and life and music. ....it is the oxygen of my life.... he said. How many of us can say that we do what we love so much every day that it becomes vital to our existance?

Ruby completed

Ruby
9 x 12 colored pencil on Canson
copyright Jeanette Jobson

This is the update of Ruby, the boxer, which I am now calling done. I'm not completely pleased with the nose as the nostrils look a little outlined. I may tweak those a little later to soften them. Its funny how you can see something so clearly on screen that you can't see when you look at the image in front of you or even stand back from it in your own studio.

I had taken an extra day to make the Labour Day weekend longer for me in the hopes that I woudl fit more drawing into it. And I did do a reasonable amount of drawing and painting but also a lot of cleaning and sorting at my mother's house too. I feel as if I need another weekend to make up for lost time.

The eagled eyed of you may notice that I've expanded my list of links to other artists' work. While I thoroughly enjoy my visits to all the 'regulars', I am exploring more of other forms and techniques, especially oils. In wandering through the sea of sites, there were a number that I came across which struck a chord with me for several reasons. It could be subject matter, content, style, technique - a range of things that make me stop and think.

My links are not only to share my finds with others, but to act as reminders to myself of where to go to find inspiration, assistance and friendship. I hope you enjoy them too.

Comfrey

Turkeys are curious birds and need to be occupied, like most living things, or they get bored in the confines of even a large pen. So they are provided with bunches of herbs and ears of corn suspended from the ceiling for them to pick at.

In this photo, it is comfrey that they are eating. Comfrey is one of my staple herbs that I use frequently when making topical creams or lotions. Comfrey contains allantoin which causes cells to divide at an increased rate, thus healing bones and wounds more quickly. Comfrey may be used topically -- as a salve or poultice -- on cuts, bruises, abrasions, and burns.

For turkeys, comfrey is pure protein and they seem to love it. They get a bunch about once a week as a supplement and to amuse them with.

Figs

Figs
Oil on canvas panel 5 x 7
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I am determined to find my legs again in oil paints so did this little piece last night and today of some Mission figs that I bought. I had drawn the curtains to block out the hot sun on me as I painted and the resulting light set the scene.

I love the feel and smell of oil paints and how they flow from the brush onto the canvas. I need more practice to get back to speed again I know, but am moving in the right direction.

I was researching the great surge of painting a day artists that have evolved since 2004 and wondering just how many of them succeed in their goal and how many actually sell their little paintings. From what I have seen, there is about a fairly low success rate in actually producing paintings on a regular basis and in having them actually sell. I think that can be comparable to most activities, including blogs. For blogs statistics show that many do not make it past the three month mark. The same seems true for daily painting production too.

The need and want factors are what push people to succeed.

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.
Then you throw away the skin
Which is just like a four-sepalled calyx,
After you have taken off the blossom with your lips.

But the vulgar way
Is just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite.

Every fruit has its secret.

The fig is a very secretive fruit.
As you see it standing growing, you feel at once it is symbolic:
And it seems male.
But when you come to know it better, you agree with the Romans, it is female.

Figs
By D.H. Lawrence

Juggling

Juggler - Granville Island
Graphite 8 x 11
Copyright Jeanette Jobson

I feel a bit like I am juggling lately. There is so much going on in my life that its hard to keep up sometimes. Work, home, the farm, art, classes to prepare, prints, cards, etc etc. And now my mother.

I spent yesterday cleaning and clearing out her house. Well clearing out what she would let me. She clings, like many older people, to possessions even if they no longer have any value. Its so difficult to clean in her house as there is so much junk there. That, compounded by the fact that two large, very furry cats live there too, doesn't help.

Crisis management is the order of the day with my mother. There is no reliable forward thinking, as she wants intervention on her terms, which are difficult, and by the time intervention is required it is a crisis.

I will go to her house again today and finish what I started, then try to persuade her to have a cleaner come in a couple of times a week to keep on top of it. That I fear will be short lived.

Ruby

I've made a start on Ruby, the boxer in coloured pencil. I can't say that boxers are my favourite dog, but there is a certain interest in drawing such an unusual face.

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. ~Phil Pastoret