Don't know who he is, but I feel I know him.

110gsm cartridge paper

Lamy ABC School Pen

Pentel Brush Pen

Inktober 2018 No 8

#Inktober2018

The Cornell Farm

West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 63

•Date: 1848

•Medium: Oil on Canvas

•Dimensions:

oOverall: 93.3 × 124.4 cm (36¾ × 49 in.)

oFramed: 119.1 × 149.9 × 6 cm (46⅞ × 59 × 2⅜ in.)

•Credit Line: Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

•Accession Number: 1964.23.4

•Artists/Makers:

oArtist: Edward Hicks, American, 1780-1849

Overview

Edward Hicks, having apprenticed to a Pennsylvania coachmaker at thirteen, became a minister in 1811. He was torn between his calling as a Quaker minister and his love of painting, worrying that his art kept him from “the Lord’s work.”

Hicks precisely identified this subject with a long inscription along the bottom of the canvas: “An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock OF JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, October the 12, 1848 Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.” Though the punctuation and capitalization are inconsistent, the quality of the lettering proves that Edward Hicks was schooled in sign painting.

Having no background in academic art, Hicks employed the direct approach of a primitive or folk painter. The horizontal band of livestock across the foreground, although childlike in its simplicity, clearly presents each prize-winning animal as an individual portrait. Hicks’ delight in creating ornamental pattern is evident in the arrangement of fences, while the rich red and bright white of the house and barn symmetrically flank this central landscape. Although the stark silhouettes of figures and buildings seem naive, Hicks softly blended his paints over the orchard to give the impression of space existing well beyond what the eye can see.

Inscription

•Across Bottom: An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock of JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, october the 12, 1848 / Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.

Provenance

Painted for James C. Cornell, Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; to Theodore Cornell, his son; to Russell Cornell, his son; to Mr. and Mrs. J. Stanley Lee (Mrs. Lee is Hick’s great-granddaughter), Newtown, Pennsylvania, by whom sold in 1954 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1964.

Associated Names

•Cornell, James C.

•Cornell, Russell

•Cornell, Theodore

•Garbisch, Edgar William, Mr. and Mrs.

•Lee, J. Stanley, Mr. and Mrs.

Exhibition History

•1882—Bucks County Bi-Centennial Celebration, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1882.

•1957—American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, no. 81.

•1957—Art Our Children Live With, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1957, no cat.

•1958—American Folk Art. Part of American Art. Four Exhibitions, Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, Belgium, 1958, no. 84, 45, repro. 51.

•1960—Edward Hicks, 1780-1849, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1960, no. 37.

•1961—101 Masterpieces of American Primitive Painting from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, New York, 1961-1964, no. 75, color repro. First venue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

•1966—Three Self-Taught Pennsylvania Artist: Hicks, Kane and Pippin, Carnegie Institute of Art, Pittsburgh; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966-1967, no. 33, color repro.

•1968—American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: 111 Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., 1968-1970, no. 73, repro. First venue: Grand Palais, Paris.

•1970—American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, organized by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., and Mainichi News., Nihobashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo, 1970, no cat.

•1970—The New World: 1620-1970, Chrysler Museum of Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1970, no. 15.

•1971—What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co. [benefit exhibition for the Museum of American Folk Art], New York, 1971, no. 46, color repro.

•1974—Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water, organized for International Exposition, Spokane, Washington, 1974, no. 15.

•1978—The American Folk Art Tradition: Paintings from the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978.

•1980—American Folk Painters of Three Centuries, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1980, 96, color repro. (cat. edited by Jean Lipman and Thomas Armstrong).

•1981—American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, 1981-1982, no. 26, color repro. (cat. by Ronald McKnight Melvin).

•1985—American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 36, color repro. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.

•1988—La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 36, repro.

•1996—1846: Portrait of the Nation, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1996, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

•1997—Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition, Allentown Art Museum; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997-1998, no. 40, repro.

•1999—The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks, 5 venues, shown only at the first two, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999-2000, no. 82, fig. 171.

•2018—Outliers and American Vanguard Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018-2019, no. 35.

Bibliography

•1947—Editorial, Antiques, 52 (October 1947): 252-253.

•1950—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. Primitive Painters in America 1750-1950. New York, 1950: 46-47.

•1952—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1952: 97, 107, 108, 121, color repro. opp. 108.

•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:480, color repro.

•1970—American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 68, repro.

•1971—Campbell, William P. “The American Heritage at the National Gallery of Art.” Connoisseur 178 (December 1971): 270, 272.

•1974—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. The Flowering of American Folk Art. New York, 1974: color pl. 70.

•1975—Parry, Ellwood. “Edward Hicks and A Quaker Iconography.” Arts Magazine 49 (June 1975): 94.

•1976—Lipman, Jean, and Helen M. Franc. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1776. New York, 1976: color repro., 60.

•1978—King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 100, pl. 63.

•1979—Haverstock, Mary Sayre. An American Bestiary. New York, 1979: color repro., 146.

•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 175, repro.

•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 10, no. 19, color repro.

•1983—Mather, Eleanore Price. Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings. Newark, Delaware, 1983: 85, 195, no. 106, color pl. 8.

•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 543, no. 820, color repro.

•1985—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, His Life and Art. New York, 1985: 234-236, color repro.

•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 90, no. 22, color repro.

•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 202, repro.

•1992—Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 194-196, color repro. 195.

•1992—National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 226, repro.

•1998—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1998: 97, 108, 120, repro.

•2001—Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 178-179, 216, color repro.

•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 300, no. 242, color repro.

From American Naïve Paintings:

1964.23.4 (1936)

The Cornell Farm

•1848

•Oil on Canvas, 93.3 × 114.4 (36¼ × 49)

•Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Inscriptions

•Across Bottom: An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock of JAMES c. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, October the 12., 1848 / Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.

Technical Notes

The tacking margins on the fine support are intact, although unusually narrow (1 cm). The off-white ground is smoothly applied. The darker and cooler colors were applied first in relatively thin layers. The lighter colors were placed over them in heavier application. Low impasto is evident in the highlights and details. There is no visible underdrawing in natural light or infrared reflectography, and no design changes are apparent. Vertical streaks in the sky appear to originate beneath the paint film. The picture is in excellent condition with only a few tiny losses scattered in the sky and foreground.

Provenance

James C. Cornell, Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; to Theodore Cornell, his son; to Russell Cornell, his son; to Mr. and Mrs. J. Stanley Lee (Mrs. Lee is Hicks’ great-granddaughter), Newtown, Pennsylvania, by whom sold in 1954 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.

Exhibitions

Bucks County Bi-Centennial Celebration, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1881. // NGA, 1957, no. 81. // Art Our Children Live With, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1957, no cat. // American Art, Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, Belgium, 1958, no. 84. / / Edward Hicks, 1/80-1849, AARFAC, 1960, no. 37. / / 101 Masterpieces, 1961-1964, no. 75, color repro. // Three Self-taught Pennsylvania Artists: Hicks, Kane and Pippin, Carnegie Institute of Art, Pittsburgh; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966-1967, no. 33, color repro. // in Masterpieces, 1968-1970, no. 73, color repro. // Tokyo, 1970. / / The New World: 162.0-19/0, Chrysler Museum of Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1970, no. 15. // What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1971, catalogue by Mary C. Black, no. 46, color repro. / / Twenty-five Polk Artists: Their Lives and Work, AARFAC, 1971, no cat. / / Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water, organized for International Exposition, Spokane, Washington, 1974, no. 15. // Whitney, 1980, 96, color repro. / / Terra, 1981-1981, no. 26, color repro. / / American Naïve Paintings, (IEF) 1985-1987, no. 36, color repro. // Italy, 1988-1989, no. 36, color repro.

Toward the end of his life Edward Hicks created four farmscapes of the Pennsylvania countryside.1 These late paintings, which feature calm, harmonious views of Bucks County farms, are considered to be his finest works. Hicks’ granddaughter reported that the artist “always considered the Cornell picture his masterpiece.”2

In this resplendent panoramic view of his friend’s neatly cultivated property Hicks presents convincing atmospheric perspective and suffuses the landscape with the golden light of Indian summer. Against this naturalistic background, however, Hicks parades Cornell’s prizewinning livestock across the foreground in an unnaturalistic way, their flat, sharply delineated shapes reminiscent of the crowded collages of animals in some of his peaceable kingdom pictures. Most of the figures populating the middle ground have one arm extended, appearing to call attention proudly to outstanding features of the bountiful farm. Descendants have identified the belted figure as the farm owner, James Cornell, in conversation with his friend William Janney. Their inspection of the farm may represent a real scene, since Cornell was awarded several prizes at the 1848 Newtown Exhibition and Janney apparently was on the committee of judges. In addition to honors for his horses, swine, sheep, poultry, and native stock, Cornell was presented with “the first premium of $5 for the best cultivated Farm over 100 acres, regard being had to the quality of produce, mode of cultivation, and general appearance.”3

Although Hicks relied on his observations of nature, another source of inspiration for The Cornell Farm may have been The Country Fair, 182.5 (private collection) by John A. Woodside (1781-1851).4 Both paintings depict houses and barns perched on gently rolling hills with a variety of animals arranged in profile across the foreground. Although Woodside distributes his animals and figures more evenly throughout the landscape, both artists include men with stiff, outstretched arms pointing to features of the farm and conversing with each other. Hicks’ farmer with a plow, on the right, also seems to derive from two plowing farmers on the left of Woodside’s canvas. The animals in both paintings may ultimately derive from British livestock and sporting prints of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which frequently depicted animals in profile or aligned horizontally across the composition. These prints were extremely popular, serving as wall decorations and advertisements for stockbreeders.5

Hicks’ farm scenes may also reflect his own reverence for farming. He tried his hand at it briefly in 1813 and later remarked, “[I] verily thought then and still think farming more consistent with the Christian, and was willing to sacrifice all my fondness for painting.”6 Hicks’ farmscapes present this ideal Christian way of life; they are secular peaceable kingdoms occupied by men and animals in complete harmony with each other.

America’s earliest landscapes, like those painted by Winthrop Chandler (q.v.) in the eighteenth century or Ralph Wheelock’s Farm (1965.15.13) of c. 1814 by Francis Alexander (q.v.), were often “portraits” of a landowner’s property and possessions, and The Cornell Farm falls within this tradition. Some writers, recognizing the relationship of Hicks’ farmscapes to these early landscapes, have concluded that they have “no historical or religious connotation,”7 but it would seem incongruous for the deeply religious Hicks to paint a scene without some allusion to his strong Quaker ideals. Although The Cornell Farm and the other farmscapes relate to the topographical tradition, they are “profoundly Quaker pictures.”8 Their harmony, serenity, and richness prove that industry and Quaker piety can result in an earthly perfection.9

The Cornell Farm was painted for James Cornell himself, who must have been pleased with the portrait of his prize bull which he had commissioned from Hicks two years earlier in 1846.10 Slides taken at the farm’s site reveal that Hicks attempted to portray its actual topography and appearance. The landscape today remains similar to Hicks’ depiction; two wagon houses still stand, although the original house was replaced and the barn burned down in the 1960$.

LW

Notes

1.Hicks’ other farmscapes are The Residence of Thomas Hillhorn, 1845 (AARFAC; Mather 1983, cat. no. 101), his earliest farm scene; The Residence of David Twining in 178 5, c. 1845-1846 (four versions; Mather 1983, cat. nos. 101-105) and The Leedom Farm, 1849 (AARFAC; Mather 1983, cat. no. 107). The latter, like The Cornell Farm, shows expansive, panoramic views, while the other two focus on only a segment of the farm. It is generally assumed that Hicks was inspired by his actual Pennsylvania surroundings. The Residence of David Twining 1785, however, is based on Hicks’ memories of his childhood rather than on a contemporary scene.

2.A 1954 letter,}. Stanley Lee to Colonel Garbisch, records Edward Hicks’ granddaughter quoting the painter to Lee.

3.The Doylestown Democrat and Bucks County Republican, 17 October 1848.

4.Reproduced in Virgil Barker, American Painting (New York, 1950), 373.

5.While Ford 1951, 97, mentions the possibility that Hicks may have seen Woodside’s painting, she believes it unlikely. However, Woodside was a contemporary of Hicks and a leading sign painter in nearby Philadelphia, and the possibility should not be discounted. Since Hicks was concerned first and foremost with religious pursuits, his Memoirs contain little information to assist historians in pinning down his artistic influences. On Woodside, see Stuart P. Feld and Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Greenwich, 1965), 151.

6.Louisa Dresser, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” Bulletin of the Worcester Art Museum 2.5 (Spring 1934), 17.

7.Three Self-Taught Pennsylvania Artists: Hicks, Kane and Pippin [exh. cat., Carnegie Institute of Art] (Pittsburgh, 1966), unpaginated.

8.Parry 1975, 94.

9.It is worth noting that Hicks painted this scene at the same time the Hudson River School artists were creating their tributes to God’s nature. The Cornell Farm seems to relate philosophically, as well as in subject matter, to this academic landscape tradition. Hicks, in this peaceful scene with its warm, glowing light, shares the Hudson River painters’ belief in the manifestation of God’s presence in nature and light. Like the academic landscape painters, he considered man in harmony with the landscape or as “part and parcel of God” (Ralph Waldo Emerson as quoted in Barbara Novak, American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism and the American Experience, id ed. [New York, 1979], no). In fact, the Quaker belief that all men possess a portion of the Spirit (Eleanore Price Mather, “A Quaker Icon: The Inner Kingdom of Edward Hicks,” Art Quarterly 36 [Spring/Summer 1973], 85) resembles the Emersonian belief in physical facts as “the end or last issue of spirit” (Emerson as quoted in Novak 1979, in).

10.James Cornell’s Prize BU//ÍS at AARFAC and reproduced in Mather 1983 (see Bibliography), cat. no. 108. A receipt which was removed from the reverse reads: “James Cornell / To Edward Hicks Do / To painting his prize bull. $15.00 / Rec 5th mo 16th 1846 the above in full / of all demands by me / Edward Hicks.” As Mather explains, this work has its precedents in Dutch pastoral lithographs (81-86).

References

•1947—Antiques, 51 (October): 151-153 (untitled editorial).

•1950—Lipman and Winchester: 46-47.

•1951—Ford (see Bibliography): 97, 107, 108, in, color repro. opp. 108.

•1971—Campbell, William P. “The American Heritage at the National Gallery of Art.” Connoisseur 178 (December):

•2-70, 2.72-

•1974—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. The Flowering of American Folk Art. New York: color pi. 70.

•1975—Parry, Ellwood. “Edward Hicks and a Quaker Iconography.” Arts Magazine 49 (June): 94.

•1976—Lipman, Jean, and Helen M. Franc. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1776. New York: color repro. p. 60.

•1979—Haverstock, Mary Sayre. An American Bestiary. New York: color repro. p. 146.

•1983—Mather (see Bibliography): 85, 195, cat. no. 106, color pi. 8.

•1985—Ford (see Bibliography): 134-136, color repro.

He must be contemplating the big day tomorrow. Maybe there will be some generous tippers in the holiday spirit?

group photo--

everyone smile!!!!

Guatemalan worry dolls

legend is share a worry with a doll before going to bed,

put it under your pillow,

and the doll will take your worry away

Don Lucho, and old man who plays with a yoyo in plaza de armas in Santiago.

>>

this picture is one of my first hdr in my age of point&shoot.

...There should be laughter after pain

There should be sunshine after rain

These things have always been the same

So why worry now?

ten little worry dolls that came with some nice beads.

(according to wikipedia: very small dolls originally made in Guatemala. A person -usually a child- who cannot sleep due to worrying can express their worries to a doll and place it under their pillow before going to sleep. According to folklore, the doll is thought to worry in the person's place, thereby permitting the person to sleep peacefully. The person will wake up without their worries, which have been taken away by the dolls during the night.)

funny... its almost 2:30 am... maybe i should whisper to one of these lil guys!

Those frames are IG famous.

MK4_127ra

The Worry Vessel is a self-supporting container built entirely of seed beads. It is designed to be a modular project which can incorporate some or all of the various modules of the design. It is entirely up to the beader to decide which, how many and what order the modules are added. Two of the modules are designed to rotate around a central core. A lid topped with a crystal rivoli closes The Worry Vessel.

Learn to use thread tension to control the rigidity of the structure. Learn to increase and decrease peyote to give the structure contours. Learn to use colour placements and embellishments to create interesting variations to an otherwise plain background. Use Cubic Right Angle Weave incorporating sparkling fire polished beads to weave one of the two rotating modules. Use netting techniques to add pearls to the second of the rotating modules.

The Worry Vessel is designed not only be functional as a container for all that is precious. The rotating modules are also designed to be somewhat of a worry vessel, not unlike worry beads, allowing you to rotate them as you contemplate what your next beading project should be.

Living the life of Riley this fine morning on Quirino Avenue.

When there is not enough space on the factory premises of Stadler, they park the trains sometimes far outside. Double-deck train of Zurich's S-Bahn in Altenrhein, Switzerland, May 30, 2015.

Made by ink and watercolor.

mamiyaRB HP5+ rodinal

Worry people! They live under my pillow :)

باكستان و الهم الذي لن ينتهي .

Koala at Cleland Conservation Park Adelaide Hills South Australia

black pencil, white paper, A5

1h 55min

Did this on the train..

The biggest problem was that I didn't have a sharpener with me..

- Kombolói -manipulated with one or two hands and used to pass time

- Komboloï - genre de petit chapelet utilisé pour se relaxer ou comme passe-temps

Just a quick post to say thank you to you ALL who wrote comments and emails wishing my dad, my mom, and me well.

My dad is fine.

Glad I was worried for nothing.

On another note, remember this mess? Well, it's all finally gone!

Then I spent the day playing with Wii Fit. It will be good for me to burn a few extra calories here and there and work on my balance, but that's about it.

It was fun though!

This was an old 365 picture. I just found it in a random folder, thought I had somewhat of a worried look, cropped it, and slapped a texture on it.

At least it's a new photo skill to add to my vast knowledge that includes crop, cut, paste, and erase.

Again - thank you all. Your love and support really means a lot to me.

Small, without worries, just smileing and do crazy things.

Trip to Las Descargues 8th August - 18th August - Macro Moths

I made a trip back to Robin Howard's beautiful place in the Midi-pyrenees with my wife on the second week of August.

We planned to stay over our anniversary but we were unsure of what the weather would be like, so very opted for a slightly longer stay of 10 days incase the weather wasn't too good.

We are very glad that we did as the first 4 days were quite wet and windy and with daytime temperatures not getting much higher than 18 degrees, it felt like the trip back in June al over again!

Thankfully by Saturday the temperature had recovered and we were enjoying the sunshine finally and by Monday we made use of the stunning swimming pool that we had all to ourselves (although it was quite cold and took your breathe away). Typically on the last day (Thursday) it was really warm and the pool felt a bit warmer so we made the most of it!

Of course Moths were once again on the agenda, a I was granted permission to use traps aeound thr garden, extending to the ridge with a generator if I wanted to.

The first few nights were hard going and measly pickings but of course every trap had it's surprises in, and having not been here in August before there were plenty of moths that i'd never seen before.

2 of the traps on the first couple of nights got water-logged and then I had the challenging time of dealing with lively Hornets, albeit they are quite docile once the sun has rose and some mornings I just had to wait for it to get light before I could get near the traps.

We also lost one of the bulbs in the lower garden, I woke up to find it glowing green/white and thought it was odd and then getting nearer and realising the bulb had smashed, not good as Robin didn't have a 3-pin spare. How on earth it smashed when we had no rain that night (and it had a secure rainguard on it anyway) is beyond me. I could still see the light in my vision for about 15 minutes after which was slightly worrying!

By Saturday and Sunday, nights were really warm and temperatures kept in the high teens some nights even when the sky had cleared and working the traps in the morning (sometimes 4) was pretty hard work to say the least. Potting stuff up I didn't recognise, keeping a list on a notepad, the traps were full up and some mornings each trap had about 400 moths in, and I had 4 running! The best night I had around 160 species which is pretty incredible for August apprarently.

This first post I will list the Macro Moths that I saw on my trip.

I still have a few for identification as always but so far the Macro Moth species list stands at 193 species.

Species highlighted in red are completely new to me.

All of the Macro Moth species that I took photos of can now be viewed on my flickr page HERE

Adactylotis contaminaria

Angle Shades

Barred Hook-tip

Beautiful Hook-tip

Beautiful Marbled

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Birch Mocha

Bird's Wing

Black Arches

Black V Moth

Blair's Mocha

Blood-vein

Bordered White

Bright-line Brown-eye

Brimstone Moth

Broad-barred White

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Brussels Lace

Buff Arches

Buff Ermine

Buff Footman

Buff-tip

Burnished Brass

Campion

Chinese Character

Clay

Clay Triple-lines

Cloaked Carpet

Cloaked Minor

Clouded Border

Clouded Buff

Clouded Silver

Common Carpet

Common Footman

Common Rustic

Common Wainscot

Common Wave

Common White Wave

Copper Underwing

Coronet

Coxcomb Prominent

Crescent Dart

Dark Spectacle

Dark Sword-grass

Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet

Delicate

Dewick's Plusia

Dingy Footman

Dotted Clay

Double-striped Pug

Drymonia querna

Dumeril's Rustic

Dun-bar

Dusky Marbled Brown

Ear Moth

Early Thorn

Engrailed

Epilecta linogrisea

Essex Emerald

Eupithecia semigraphata or impurata

False Mocha

Festoon

Figure of Eighty

Flame Shoulder

Flounced Rustic

Four-spotted Footman

Foxglove Pug

Frosted Yellow

Garden Carpet

Garden Tiger

Gem

Grass Emerald

Great Dart

Green Silver-lines

Grey Dagger

Gypsy Moth

Heart & Dart

Hoary Footman

Horse Chestnut

Humming-bird Hawk-moth

Idaea deversaria

Idia calvaria

Iron Prominent

Jersey Emerald

Jersey Tiger

Knot Grass

Large Yellow Underwing

Latin

Latticed Heath

Least Yellow Underwing

Leopard Moth

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Lesser Cream Wave

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Lesser Treble-bar

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Light Emerald

Lime Hawk-moth

Lime-speck Pug

Lobster Moth

Lunar Thorn

Lychnis

Lythria cruentaria

Maiden's Blush

Marbled Clover

Miller

Nutmeg

Nut-tree Tussock

Oak Eggar

Oak Hook-tip

Oak Processionary

Orache Moth

Orange Footman

Paidia rica

Pale Mottled Willow

Pale Oak Beauty

Pale Prominent

Pale Shoulder

Passenger

Peach Blossom

Peacock Moth

Pebble Hook-tip

Peppered Moth

Phoenix

Pigmy Footman

Pine Hawk-moth

Pine Processionary

Pine-tree Lappet

Pinion-streaked Snout

Plum Lappet

Poplar Hawk-moth

Poplar Kitten

Poplar Lappet

Portland Riband Wave

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Riband Wave

Rosy Footman

Rosy Marbled

Ruby Tiger

Rustic

Satin Wave

Scalloped Hook-tip

Scarce Bordered Straw

Scarce Footman

Scarce Merveille du Jour

Scarlet Tiger

Scopula tesselaria

Scorched Wing

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Shark

Shears

Silver-Y

Single-dotted Wave

Small Angle Shades

Small Black Arches

Small Blood-vein

Small Dusty Wave

Small Fan-foot

Small Fan-footed Wave

Small Mottled Willow

Small Purple-barred

Small Ranunculus

Small Rivulet

Small White Wave

Snout

Speckled Beauty

Spotted Sulphur

Square-spotted Clay

Straw Dot

Straw Underwing

Swallow Prominent

Synopsia sociaria

Tawny Prominent

Tawny-barred Angle

Tephronia sepiaria

Toadflax Brocade

Treble-bar

Tree-lichen Beauty

True Lover's Knot

Vestal

Vine's Rustic

Waved Umber

White Ermine

White-point

White-speck

Willow Beauty

Wood Carpet

Yellow Shell

Yellow-barred Brindle

Yellow-headed Phoenix

Yellow-tail

Illustration -- Pen drawing

Don't worry--the motorist hasn't gone around the crossing gates. This locomotive is heading towards us. Metra MP36PH-3S #403. is enroute to Union Station to pick up its train.

taken late 2003

Me taken today. Inspired by a little some I have called asthma :)

My Brain decided to go into overdrive this morning at 4 am worrying about things I can't control at the moment.. Phew not so fun!

Note: to see the overall theme of photos in this particular Flickr set, click here to see the summary description and thumbnail images of the photos in the set.

Note: this photo was published in a Jul 6, 2012 issue of Everyblock NYC zipcodes blog titled "10025."

Note: I chose this as my "photo of the day" for Jul 6, 2012.

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This was taken on the southeast corner of Broadway & 96th Street, during the "golden hour" between 6-8 PM a few evenings ago, when the sun drops down over the western horizon and casts its glow up 96th Street…

Crowds of people swirl up and down the street all evening along, and then wait at the corner of 96th Street for the light to change -- so they can cross over to the median strip between the uptown and downtown lanes of Broadway, and then walk into the subway stop of the #1 IRT subway line.

Of all the people in the swirl, I noticed this mop-haired person with the blue shirt and the unruly hair … and I snapped photo after photo after photo as both of them stood on the corner and talked intensely for several minutes.

The traffic light changed, but they didn't walk towards me at all, into the subway station. Instead, they moved even closer and closer and closer to one another ... they kissed, and then they walked away -- one of them heading north across 96th Street, and the other turning east, and walking up the hill towards Amsterdam Avenue.

I'll leave it to you to figure out what was really going on here. I have to admit that I didn't understand it at the time … but one of the other photos that I took (and which I will not be uploading to Flickr) explained the details to me.

By the way, that is not my reflection in the window behind the two subjects of this photo. For photos like this, I am -- and always want to be -- invisible and anonymous.

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Over the past several years, I've grown so accustomed to the "automatic" features in my cameras that I've almost completely forgotten how to do anything manually. I think it was the early 1990s when auto-focus mechanisms began to creep into the point-and-shoot cameras that I used to record birthday parties and other family events; and virtually every DSLR camera I've had provides an "automatic-everything" mode that combines autofocus, auto-aperture, auto-shutter-speed, and even auto-ISO auto-white-balance. Most of the time, it works just fine; and it allows me concentrate on figuring out who (or what) I want to include in the picture. For street photography, that's a full-time job in itself.

But sometimes it doesn't work so well; and sometimes, the photographer wants to override what the camera would do by itself. For example, I normally shoot in "aperture-priority" mode, which means that I'm the one who sets the f-stop; and I'll typically set the ISO (speed), and just let the camera figure out what the appropriate shutter speed would be. That generally works pretty well, especially if I've set the aperture to something like f/8 or f/11 in order to get a reasonably deep depth-of-field (DOF), which results in almost everything being in-focus.

Lately, though, I've been getting more and more obsessed with photos that have a shallow DOF, so that the subject of the photo is in sharp focus, but the background is blurred. Aside from a "prime" 50mm f/1.4 lens that I don't use very much, most of my lenses only "open up" to a f/5.6 aperture ... but sometimes even that is enough to cause some problems if I let the camera do its auto-focus thing. Sometimes the camera decides to focus on something other than the subject that I'm interested in; sometimes it bases its focusing decision on an "average" of everything in the frame; and sometimes it gets so utterly confused that it focuses on nothing at all.

So I decided to spend one evening (when I could take advantage of the "golden hour" sunset lighting) reverting back to manual focusing to see if I could force the camera to focus on what *I* wanted to focus on. Bottom line: it works okay if the subject(s) is/are stationary, and you've got a couple seconds to adjust the focus appropriately. But if the subject(s) is/are in motion, as is often the case with street photography, then it's a disaster. By the time I took this shot, I had given up on the whole manual-focus thing, and switched back to auto-focus. However, I chose a particular form of auto-focus that instructed the camera to base its focusing decision on a very small circular section in the middle of the frame ... and not to worry about anything else. It wasn't quite so crucial on this photo, because my aperture somehow ended up at f/6.3 ... but the camera did focus properly, and the background is just slightly blurred.

Now, if I can just find an affordable f/2.8 telephoto lens that doesn't weigh a ton, it will be interesting to see how this manual-focus/spot-focus thing works out...

Silhouette of a little statue

tonight there will be Cabbage Rolls.

姐妹同心、其力斷金。

Don't worry. Be happy! I dedicate this photo to my very close friends ( Mummu, Wadde, Witte, Empu, Shammo, Baby, Nyl, Riznie, Naiko, Mae, Marriko and Bobby)

Bangalore, India

It's a Worry Hat! D'awww. I even got the blonde wig head out.

Don't get it? Read this:

questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1203

The top is much longer on this as it is made for someone with a fairly largeish head. If you're interested in knitting one, I can put the pattern up somewhere, it's insanely easy. :)