February 9, 2010

It was cold on Pontoosuc Lake when I walked on it to get the Sunday Times. The wind was blowing in my face as I headed North and I had to pull on my orange fleece headgear.

I hated taking my gloves off to  take pictures. But it was one of those mornings where you had to take pictures.

One of the shots I took was this one of myself. I had earphones on and was listening to my CD of The Woman in White, the 1860 mystery by Wilkie Collins.  The one below is looking north. The cloud banks contained hints of mauve and rose.

 

 

 

February 7, 2010

Photo by Barbara Horner/All rights reserved

Babbie stepped barefoot on an elephant a couple days ago and that's how I ended up cooking the Chicken Tetrazzini yesterday.

That's not an easy thing to do - stepping on an elephant, or cooking Chicken Tetrazzini, for that matter.

The thing is we use a heavy iron elephant, which started life as a bookend, to hold the bedroom closet door closed.

It was an accident waiting to happen because Babbie passes within a foot of it every time she gets into or out of bed.

This time it had stampeded into her path and gashed the bottom of her foot. In the emergency room they used seven stitches to close it and put her on crutches for a week.

That's the reason I cooked the Tetrazzini. That involves about 17 pans and 24 bowls and 87 ingredients and assorted kitchen utensils. To say nothing of making a sauce that uses half a cup of butter, 2/3 of a cup of flour and 6 cups of chicken stock, which is derived from simmering the chicken in water for an hour.

I won't bore you with all the details. But it took a long time to make it and I had to keep consulting Babbie, who had made it many times before, and who gamely simmered the chicken hopping around on her good leg. Babbie, not the chicken.

After it was all laid out in its large baking dish waiting to be shoved into a 350 degree oven, I felt a little rattled. So I had a glass of wine while I washed the 17 pans and 24 blowls and all the other assorted pieces of kitchenware.

It tasted great. Which is fortunate because it should last for another two suppers.

I replaced the photo originally accompanying this post with a reconstruction of the scene taken by Babbie a few minutes ago.

P.S. The recipe is from the second edition of "Good Eating around the Clock" by the women of the Second Reformed Church in Tarrytown, N.Y. I went to that church and so did Babbie. And that's where we were married in 1960. I think the cookbook dates from that era. When I looked at the beginning of the book, I realized I knew four of the seven women on the Cook Book Committee.

 

 

 

February 5, 2010

Photo by Riley Nichols/All rights reserved

Riley and I were involved in drive-by shootings one afternoon last week. No one was hurt. We were shooting with a camera.

The sky was dramatic and the late afternoon sun was hitting buildings and tree tops.

She got the great shot of downtown Pittsfield from the back seat while we were headed south on Center Street.

Before I turned the camera over to her, I got the picture below while we were stopped for a traffic light.

Then we went to Dottie's for a treat and my 10-year-old granddaughter gave me tips on how to use my cell phone, an instrument that baffles me.

 

Photo by Grier Horner/All rights reserved

Part Two

Last night I took in Bob Stone's show at Berkshire Community College's downtown gallery at the Intermodal Transit Center on Columbus Avenue. Here's a painting of his that I like a lot.

Bob has a sign painting business down in the old Wyandotte Mill below Pontoosuc Lake. I like the way he works some of the techniques he uses in his trade into this painting, and the one below.

I love the photo of Bob on this card for the show. It was taken by Sue Geller. (And in fact Sue took the picture of the card for me. Thanks Susan.) Before the show ends February 27, Bob plans to replace all the work with new pieces.

 

 

February 3,  2010

(Post 1)

Photos by Grier Horner/All rights reserved

A student sits in front of this fine abstract expressionist painting at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington. I'm embarrassed to admit I can't remember the painter. (Margaret Cherin, the curator of my show at Simon's Rock, filled me in yesterday. It is by Nicolas Carone, a New York artist now in his 80s.)

She was one of many attending the opening reception an panel forum for Illumination:The Diversity of Contemporary American Ceramic Art - a terrific show at the Gallery at Liebowitz (the red barn across from the school's main entrance).

Here two women contemplate Boxer by Sergei Isupov of Cummington. His studio is in Project Art, a residency project housed in a building owned by Isupov and Leslie Ferrin of the Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield.

That's Leslie on the left in the photo below, which illustrates the back of Boxer. She was one of the three panelists.

And below that are two students, a self portrait in a gallery skylight, and This is What You Were Born For (after Goya), a work by Richard Norkin, another of the 25 artists in the show.

Illumination is open on Fridays through Sundays from noon to 5 through February 24.

 

February 3, 2010

(Post Two)

Photos by Grier Horner/All rights reserved

Last night I gave my first Powerpoint presentation. It was before the Community Development Commission. In it I showed slides of the 77-acre Ponterril property across from my house.

Ninety three houses are planned there. I urged preservation of the hedgerows and protection of the ridge line show in the photo below. (See my January 27 post.)

The third shot is a self portrait with burrs encountered during me trek through the property. I'd like to say the commission gave me a standing ovation. But I'm not going to lie.

 

 

 

February 1, 2010

Today we're looking at photos I took of a fashion video on my computer screen. They are also self portraits.

Photos by Grier Horner/All rights reserved

A note on readership.  In January Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man recorded 101,406 hits - a record. The previous high was 88,477 in November. Another record was set in January when the blog had 4,868 visitors, beating the previous high by more than 1,000. Circulation is climbing.

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