My 2011 Book Reading List

I rate my books by using a star system. One star is low and four stars are the best. Last year I had two four star books but this year I read several that were two star several only one star. Either I was very picky with my stars or I need to change my choice of books. Since January of 2002 I have ready 227 books and only 15 have received the top four star rating. Well anyway here is the 2011 list.
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
     (a rather slow book but a great description of the hell no one wants to go to)
Native Son by Richard Wright
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
The Wedding by Danielle Steel
Blue Beard by Kurt Vonnegat
Lone Eagle by Daniell Steel
The Portrait by Iain Pears
     (the last four on vacation and chosen from the cottage shelf)
Chasing CeZanne by Peter Mayle
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
     (took a very very long time to read)
Trinity by Leon Uris
The Trial by Franz Kafka

New Blog Look

I was so bored with my blog appearance I decided to try a new design. Now I just have to figure out how to work it. :-)

BRODERICK GALLERY THE MAY DAY ART EXHIBIT

 BRODERICK GALLERY

THE MAY DAY ART EXHIBIT

       A REGIONAL SHOW

 

    DON’T MISS IT –OPENING RECEPTION

              MAY 1  FROM 1 TO 6 PM

 

 

http://www.broderickgallery.com/

george@broderickgallery.com

 

George Broderick

503-703-5188

Broderick Gallery

P.O. Box 1357

313 East "B" St.

Rainier. OR  97048

www.broderickgallery.com

http://broderickgallery.blogspot.com/

Brookwood Parkway Path

"Brookwood Parkway Path"

Oil on Canvas
10" x 8"

This is in the same area as the library path only further around the park. A large hawk sat in the tree top most of time I was painting but I just thought it would look to fake to include him.

Hillsboro Library Trail

"Hillsboro Library Trail"
10" x 8 "
Oil

I seem to be going down a series of paths in my paintings lately.

Chicken Tractor

Ok no laughing!

This is our new chicken tractor. Ladies you know your husband loves you when he builds you a chicken tractor or a mobile chicken coop. We can have up to three chickens in the city. No roosters because they have a tendency to crow at the street lights all night.  In the top photo you can see the adjustable tires. Just set them in place and lift the other end and move to a new location. The tires can be up for moving and stay in position with a long bolt through a hole or down so the pen sets flat on the ground. There are two small round wire covered vent holes. One is on either side. Plus there is the sliding open/shut wire covered vent/window. The ladder hoists up at night if you want by using the rope you see hanging down the side and the rope wraps around the small post sticking up. The end has a door for food and water placement. We added a clear plastic plant tray (99cents) over the feed jar to keep the rain out and it works really well. The bar across the top has hooks under it where the feed container is attached so when you lift the tractor to move to a new location it lifts the container too. I'm still working on something to lift the water. You can't poke a hole in the top to add a hook because it lets out the suction that keeps the water in the jug. I'm thinking maybe a macrame plant hanger. The girls deserve the best. An access door in the back opens to the nesting boxes, the roost bar and oops, the poop tray which is a screen covered box so the chickens don't walk in the mess and it can be easily removed for cleaning. As you can see we have two very nice Rhode Island  Red poults. We named them Laverne and Shirley after the comedy show. Hopefully they are going to help us with our wormy apples and pears by eating all those nasty critters. The coop is sitting in the lawn area for today because we haven't quite finished pruning. After they finish off all those bugs etc. then they get to work on scratching up the mossy patches in our lawn so we can regrow some grass there. They have lots of work to do and our lawn maintenance crew (our sons) never laid eggs while they worked.

2010 Books

This post is for all you book readers out there.

In 2010 I read the following list of books.
The Associate by John Grisham
Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ricochet River by Robin Cody
2001 a Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke
2016: Odyssey three by Arthur C Clarke
3001 The Final Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
Landscape Painting by Mitchell Albala
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Bone is Pointed by Arthur W Upfield
Tisha by Robert Specht
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhentsyn
Daughter of the Eagle by Don Goldsmith
Ragtime by  E L Doctorow
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Cain Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Candide by Voltaire
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

My favorites were Demons and The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
If you are prone to depression don't read Demons and if you are prone to depression read Ultimate Hitchhiker, it's a gas. :-)  Although it was fun to read the Space Odyssey series especially since this was 2010.

End of the Scholl's Tile Factory

 

This is the a group of artists that I was painting with. I am the one in the middle with the long ponytail hanging down my back. This building used to be used to make red clay drainage tiles. It is now abandoned but there are still large kilns inside and pieces of old broken tiles laying about. Plus the property is now owned by a plant nursery and some of the crates and garbage are laying around. There are also piles of stone you can see in the photo. I'm not certain if those were used by the tile factory or the nursery for landscape material.

"End of the Scholl's Tile FActory"
11" x 14"
Oil on Gesso board.





This painting is now on display at the
Columbia County Courthouse along
with work by 5 other artists from the
Columbia Arts Guild.


 I chose to paint the end view because you could see part of one of the huge kilns, the rusting corrugated metal color and the turquoise color of the painted metal shelving among the trash. I know, I know it is trash but I just loved the colors and shapes and the reflection in the small rain puddle.

Twin Paintings

These are two different paintings. The one at the top is titled "In the Channel II" and was painted from an old photo of the first painting. Unknown to me a couple were considering purchasing In the Channel and were having a conversation with my husband while I sold the painting to another couple. The first couple were so disappointed they later asked me if I would consider revisiting the painting for them. The photo was one of those old peal apart kind and had darkened some but as you can see I think my second edition original turned out. I took that photo with a 3 megapixle Kodak.  I've only painted twin paintings once before and don't plan to make a habit of it because it really is difficult.

 They are different sizes. Even though the top one looks larger hear it is actually the smaller painting. It is 16" x 20 inches painted on canvas board and the one at the bottom is 20" x 24" painted on canvas. 

I hope both couples are happy.

Salmon People

 This painting is on display at American Trails Gallery in Ashland,Oregon