Plane Air December

To Dallas                           To Tucson                   To Chicago

                   

Sketching Arizona

On my way to Tucson

Sunrise over the J W Marriott firepit. Not long after I sat down, last Sunday morning I organized my painting paraphernalia  and started to capture the stripes in the sky. A man in a ski jacket entered the circle and stood facing the same view directly in front of me. I made a snide comment, like, let me know if I get in your way. He placed a couple things on chairs nearby and mumbled something about the sunrise that I didn't quite hear or understand. Awhile later, as I finished the plein air sketch, a man dressed in Navajo garb came and stood directly in front of me again to block "my" view. A bit miffed, I took a breath his time and said nothing out of embarrassment that I said something before. Luckily... I realized it was the same man.  He placed sage on the fire and bowls of it around the pit. He pulled a flute from his bag and described an honoring song to all those who came before.. I put down my brush, closed my sketch book and relinquished "my" view. Like he said, "To all my relations." 

At Miraval - The hot tub and a view of Mt. lemon

A fireplace at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson.

A high contrasting room to Westward Look at the post modern Palomar in Phoenix.

Architectural Artifacts, Chicago and Painting Like Hemingway

When plein air is too cold in Chicago...

A couple Sundays back, I spent more than an hour wandering around Architectural Artifacts, an antiques warehouse on Chicago's north-side Ravenswood area (right by the El), where five-foot cheese burgers go to rest... on top of merry-go-round horses or counter from a jewelry store. Seriously, every few feet, I found myself reminded of grade school or the time we..... There are all kinds of items I said, what the hell? In one room, there were several high top tables standing at different heights - waste, neck sternum-tall with a round stainless surface on top of an industrial-sized slinky. You could press on it and it would go up or down - no hydraulics. They must have been used in some kind of manufacturing that a workman needed to maneuver from bottom to top on a big piece of something. If I only had room for one! (Gratefully, I don't.)

It took a lot of hunting to find a place where I could sit, lay out my brushes and paints where it would be convenient to me and out of the way of anyone else, and with a view I wanted to paint. Ok, that last point is moot - the place overwhelmed with possibility. What surprised me was the finding that once I sat still and narrowed my view, what I intended to paint went out of focus. Instead, saw angels - literally, angels on the bank work stand. Each of the four legs of the table held a different metal sculpture with opulent detail. I wonder how many people really saw them? I didn't until I sat nearly eye to eye with them, but they were at a stand up table. I wish I knew the thinking behind them... the interior designers consideration for telling the inner story of a bank... Here at the altar of commerce, I commend my money. The angel I looked at directly spread it's arms and wings, the one in the distance with flowing robes nearly took flight. The other two were behind lout of sight behind other furniture and artifacts.

To paint this, I sat on a black metal bench that had ridges creating a serpentine of Ss down the middle to outline where butts (small ones, by the way) should rest in a Brazilian ice cream parlor. Every two sections for seating, the designer placed a twelve-inch round on a pole to serve as a table. On one of those, I placed my watercolors and cup of water, and on my lap my Arches watercolor board.  (You know how every interest and hobby has it's efficiencies? For watercolor, Arches paper  company stacks high quality paper bound to a heavy hard cardboard - a rip-off note-pad of watercolor paper. The rubber binding in this case goes around all but an inch of the entire stack. No matter how much water one puts on the paper in the process of painting, the next page of the stack doesn't get wet. A miracle innovation! I carry a mini-Swiss army knife to gingerly remove a page from the deck to begin a new piece.)

You, as a reader, may already notice that I have trouble editing. I try to include too many thoughts, and too many words. This is a personality flaw and not confined to writing. My painting is the same. I wish I could include every hair, freckle, crack and dust-mite. I wish I could, but I also don't have the patience. There is way too much to say or paint. I want to paint like Hemingway's complete six-word story... "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn."  Bam! What a word picture. Right?

Unfortunately, I've also learned from writing that the brilliance isn't in the words you first lay down, it's about the editing. This painting is hugely edited. There were many more things on the walls, hanging from the ceiling and on the table tops in view between the angels and me. 

My guess is that when I go back again, the items will be sold or moved and I won't be able to attempt the same view again,  though I'd like to do so. I will remind myself, no matter what I find, to narrow my focus to see more.

BTW, Architectural Artifacts is also an event space where I want to be invited... maybe throw a party. There's info to the event planner at the link above. 

Extraordinary Thanksgiving Leftover Cauliflower Soup

Thanksgiving Leftover Cauliflower Soup

I've revised this because I buried the lead i(n all the directions for the stock), as  journalists say.

I found this super easy way to make a great soup by mashing together  in equal amounts the left over cauliflower and the turkey stock I had made from the giblets, carcass and drippings. That's how simple. Below, in the rest of this posting, is just how I made the stock and some of the other ingredients I added to brighten the flavor of the cauliflower soup.  

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday when the whole family could gather together. For the most part I cooked a Paleo friendly meal using sweet potatoes and mashing cauliflower as another vehicle for an amazing mashed vegetable/turkey drippings gravy, I found when I looked up Paleo Gravy. 

Turns out, the recipe for the brined turkey in the article was already Paleo hacked from Epicurious, basically using ghee instead of butter for basting. Epicurious and the hacked one, didn't include bread stuffing, only veggies and lemon in the cavity and around the bottom of the pan. 

That recipe instructs you to gather the veggies and blend them for gravy adding some of the drippings.  No flow. It was thick and good.

So now It's Wednesday and I'm at that point of dreading another bite of turkey, and I still have a few leftovers and ingredients I didn't use up in the last couple days.  I don't like to waste food. Here's a really simple soup I made from the leftovers. t

First I made a turkey stock 

I turkey carcass in a big pot with enough water to cover it.
I added the following:

• The contents of the little bag i took out of the turkey cavity. 
• The other half of an onion used in the turkey brine
• Carrots cut up and left over from the crudite' tray about 3 whole or a hand full of baby nibs
• Celery cut up and left over from the crudite' tray
• Stem of rosemary chopped fine - that I didn't use in the turkey
• Stem of thyme chopped fine, also that I didn't use in my turkey
• 1 lemon cut in half I took the seeds that were visible out (I threw a lemon stabbed into the cavity of my turkey with the same veggies and herbs listed above - it was a huge help in keeping the meat moist)
• Black pepper (my turkey was brined and already was well salted)

I brought it to a slow boil and simmered it till rest of turkey fell off. I let it cool and spooned off the fat. 

Cauliflower soup

Put left over mashed cauliflower in a sauce pan. I had about 3 cups. Because I had some, I added a stem of thyme, a stem of chopped rosemary, a couple shakes of nutmeg and a few twists of pepper. If I hadn't brined the turkey, I would salt it too.

Pour an equal amount of the stock only into the cauliflower (no veggies or meat). You could use store bought stock. You won't know the difference.

Stir while it's heating till it blups and bubbles  Voila'! Really good, satisfying soup. 

6 cups 2 or 3 servings (it's really good, it's barely any calories. Don't judge)

Plane Air - November 2015

My business travel for the year is over. These sketches were done  earlier this week on my way to, from my hotel and on the way home from Dallas. It wasn't till I saw them together that I noticed that I instinctively chose a Fall palette. Now to fly somewhere where I will intuitively use brighter colors.