If Cars Could Talk...

Old Headlight, Phyllis Denton

Did you know cars can talk?  It's really not a question of if but when!  This old headlight and the little orange guy beside it can say a lot! "We've been through hardscrabble times, good times, and President Hoover - no less than fourteen presidents to be exact!...And now warm our old metal in the hot desert sun and that's a fact!!

 
Some cars seem to think they will never pass thirty..."Slow Down! How can I?!!" exclaimed CameroZ "There's another race I must go see - if I slow down now it's just not me!"

 Time Warp, Bill Wakeley

Blue Dasher has flash and now a guaranteed future.  "Pop!" Up goes the hood "Would you like to take my picture?!"

Big Trucks, Bob Orsillo

In base tones behind me I heard a low blast "Can you believe it?!!  Some cars never stop it's just a lot of hot air and gas!!"

Suddenly an ear splitting GGGRRRRRRRUUUUMMMMM with all turbines burning I looked over to see "Is it a plane, a bird?! It's the Daytona reincarnated!!"

Speed Coloring, Peter Chilelli

  
"Just stopping for some gas, a tire change and I'll be on my way!" said the Daytona supercharged racer leaping nimbly out of his vehicle that was still trailing smoke and ashes...

Fintastic, Peter Chilelli

"Fintastic!" gushed Pink Pearl Caddy with a giggle and a flutter of her long pink eyelashes!

Parking Meter Time, Bob Orsillo

"Time Out!" I cried, my head just swimming, "My ears are splitting and I'm feeling rather faint because of all the loud exhaust, fumes and smelly paint!"

 
You could have heard a pin drop it was suddenly silent.  Then I heard a chorus of voices all speaking as one "We're sorry we'll be quiet we don't want the EPA to check us for offending fumes, gasses and starting a small riot!

"You're forgiven" I said turning to leave, "I guess I'm just prone to sniffling" with nothing up my sleeve..."It was those crazy pink eye lashes, so I'm not peeved!"  

 Downton Abbey, Suzanne Powers

Suddenly there appeared as if out of heaven a car and a driver to take me to an English estate called "Carleaven."  As we drove out of sight I turned and I said "Happy emissions to all and...Oh, don't forget to drive right!"

My Family And An Edwardian Kitchen

This Old House kitchen

The Downton Abbey kitchen is not the only place to see the Edwardian style.  Did you know a popular design style in kitchens today is Edwardian? When you see old school pendant lights or funnel industrial style pendants it is mimicking the Edwardian period. A simple trim is usually incorporated into the design.  My family's farm had Edwardian appliances in the kitchen.

The husband of the couple who live in the house above grew up with an AVG oven.  The one pictured above is in the style of the old wood burning stoves like the stove below that was used in the Edwardian period.  You can't see it there is an old wood box under the stove filled with split wood.

My great aunt never married and lived on the family farm in West Virginia with her widowed mother, divorced sister, child and unmarried brother the other children had married and left home.  They supplied eggs to the Greenbrier Resort during the Great Depression. 

My great aunt's sister worked in the doctors clinic at the resort where millionaires would come for a checkup along with some R&R. My great aunt's job supplied most of the income during those years for the family, my great uncle also worked the dairy farm but it didn't provide enough income for the family.

The Family Farm is now a B&B, The Old Stone Manse, Caldwell WVA

The stone and wood plank house was built in the early 1800's, my great grandmother arrived there on horseback at the turn of the century as a bride, my sister inherited her ladies side saddle from that trip.  The house was never renovated except for electricity and running water.  When you walked on the floors the wide planks would creak.    

My great grandfather was a clerk of the court and died before the birth of his last child.  My great grandmother never married again and raised my great aunts and uncle on her own.  Three of the children received a college education.  My great uncle and aunt stayed to work the farm.

The stove in the kitchen was an old black cast iron wood burning stove.  The stove above looks fancier than what my great aunt had.  It was the same stove that cooked the food my father ate when he would go for long visits as a boy in the summer during the 1920's and 30's. 

Root vegetables my great-grandmother would keep in the cellar

  

My father joined the Navy during WWII and became a pilot in the Pacific theater.  He made a "visit" to the farm flying his plane under the telephone wires to show off, scaring my great-grandmother but she enjoyed it just the same.  That's how she was a good sport and fun loving.  I think she's one of the reasons Dad loved the farm so much and what child wouldn't love to be on a farm.

Dad mentioned things that happened while visiting, the sheep that died and was burned in the field (apparently they are not buried).  He said he didn't like the smell (it was a mature sheep) and didn't want to eat mutton afterwards.  Stepping in what looked like a solid cow "pie" and sinking down until it covered his ankle and part of his leg!

My father eventually married and brought his family to visit at the farm.  We would stay overnight since it was a days drive from out home in Northern VA.  I wasn't used to old houses with high ceilings having always lived in a new house in suburbia.  At night I would be so scared I would pull the covers over my head be hot all night and never sleep or at least it seemed that way. I was always relieved for the morning and light!
  
Dad is gone now and I wish I had asked him exactly what he did all day at the farm.  I would like to have known more of his routine and his interaction with the family. 
  
Now I would love to stay and walk the mountain behind the house, check out all the rooms and old furniture.  The old milking barn and furniture is gone now, probably the old stove too although it may still be there.  The long front porch running almost the length of the house is gone but that probably wasn't there in the beginning, it looks much better without it.  

The present owners who bought the house from my family made it into a Bed and Breakfast and did a wonderful renovation. My father has since stayed at the house and loved how things looked.

There is usually a mist that comes off the Greenbrier River, you can see it in the picture.  In the early morning it is almost like thick pea soup, you can't see a foot in front of you, at night when it is clear you can see every star in the sky!


Suzanne Powers Art Gallery: http://suzanne-powers.artistwebsites.com 


 

A Contemporary Digital Collage of BBC Sherlock

Clues flying at the speed of light - Sherlock brains his way unraveling mysteries!  The excellent cast and production of the BBC Sherlock series have caused me to want to create a collage that has a contemporary feel and looks somewhat like a traditional collage made with paper scraps with some of the images looking cut out.

It is more involved than many of my collages with more images on different layers (see below).

This is a new look for me and a style that I have dreamed about doing, kind of contemporary without a lot of fussy detail which I seem to do without trying! 

Although some would argue this design is not exactly simplistic, I like that I did not have to be exact in cutting some things out (time consuming), with some images having a rough cut look and not much shading except to use the photo editor curves to lighten or darken some images.  One of my first attempts at painting are in this image.  I painted Sherlock's scarf, as small a thing as that can still not look right if you are not careful.  It wasn't as hard to find the right color and paint it as I thought, so little by little I think I will be doing more painting.

The way this image turned out has given me confidence to want to do some shading with the paint brush and maybe color some areas to emphasis an object in another project.  I did have to do some resizing of images which is normal and makes designing in a digital editor a joy.  Objects can be reduced and not enlarged because pixels can become stretched.  Sometimes I do enlarge as long as it is not stretched too much and put a texture over it.

I got the idea to add to this image the Union Jack for some extra punch although I still like the above image for it's simple design.  I kept these images somewhat dark for a mysterious look somewhat like the BBC

 
dark blue toned ad image with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman looking as though they are on a case in the dark of night.

I am currently working on another project, a Downton Abbey image.  It is always a challenge to try to find images that will have the right look and get the overall style I have in my mind.  A lot of the time I get ideas as I am working on a project.  I am trying for somewhat of a period look, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.  I thought I would share it in the unfinished stage so you can see some of my process.

The image has a large white border around it, I'm not sure what I am going to do with the border, I may make an invitation out of the whole image as if inviting the viewer to a garden party or skeet shoot.  I'm still working out the coloration and not finding the colors of the textures easy to erase so I may get rid of the textures and try painting the different colors.

I see myself gradually getting more and more into painting which is a very good thing.   Painting can be less cumbersome than trying to add textures (I often add two and three to get the right color and effect) and sometimes taking some of it off.  Textures have their place though.

Right out of the program editor (see below)!  I used a color photo of the real Downton Abbey, Highclere

 

Castle (see above), which I desaturated (made into a black and white image) and then used threshold to turn it into a black and white line image.  There is also an old photo of a real servant standing beside a color photo of a yellow and black Rolls Royce. Believe it or not when you view the servant at 50% he turns out to be a handsome young man with white powdered hair!

My gallery website:  http://suzanne-powers.artistwebsites.com/featured/sherlock-holmes-ii-suzanne-powers.html