Little House on the Prairie

Last week I took this picture of a cabin which was modeled after the type of cabin that is mentioned in the books, Little House on the Prairie. Near Independence, Kansas, is the historic site of the childhood home of the Ingalls. Besides this log cabin and an old school, there is the original post office; and the undeveloped countryside containing wild flowers that stretch out over the flat view.

Fort Scott, Kansas

What is this item? My sister and I visited Fort Scott in Kansas last week on our “sister trip.” The fort is superbly restored. This item was located in a bedroom. I bought, sold, and restored antique furniture for 20 years; and I have never seen this item before. It looks as though it is made from metal and it is folded up. Does anyone have a clue as to what it was used for? You will be seeing many more pictures from Fort Scott later, but most items I will be able to identify.
__________

I have found the answer to my question. I wrote Fort Scott, and this item is a portable bed that is in its storage configuration. The Museum Technician at Fort Scott National Historic Site told me that I wasn’t the only person that thought it might be a quilt rack.

Fort Scott National Historic Site Museum Object 1008.

2008 MO State Fair - Aug. 16

August 16 will be the day I share Missouri Life Magazine’s booth at the Missouri State Fair. I will donate a framed copy of this picture (valued at $275) to be given away at the State Fair. I will receive recognition and promotion in the hourly Public Address Announcements made by the state fair on that day. Missouri Life will make space in their booth in the Fine Arts Building for me to display other pieces of my work for that day. I won’t be selling my work, but it will be great exposure to a self-selected audience in the Fine Arts building. I will be passing out my cards.

Hadsall House

This last weekend, my sister and I traveled through eastern Kansas on our annual “sister trip.” This house was located off of paved highways--about three miles on gravel roads and turning left at the fork in the road (is this “the fork” or is this just a turn-off?). My sister and I laugh because we always end up on gravel roads as we travel.

What we were looking for (and found) was the Hadsall House that was built by Charles C. Hadsall, a second cousin of our Great Grandfather. We were very pleased to find that it had been restored in 1961. This house is near the site of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre which is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. It is being maintained by the Kansas State Historical Society. The road on the far right of the picture below is the Kansas and Missouri state border.

Online Artists' Village

I have a new web page that tells about my art work. It is the same information, but this time it has been added to the Columbia Art League's web site. It is called the Online Artists' Village.
http://cal.missouri.org/village/index.html
http://cal.missouri.org/village/coffman/index.html

I joined the Columbia Art League in Columbia, MO, in 2004.

Family Reunions

This weekend, I will be attending two family reunions. We will have a carry-in meal and share stories about our families.

I have been thinking about a picture that I created which has a picture of my grandmother (on my mother’s side of the family). She died a year before I was born. This picture was juried into the Foundry Art Centre’s Photography Show in 2007 in St. Charles, MO. I will be sharing this picture with the family members.

4th of July 2008 pictures

We watched the fireworks this year in Jefferson City with our daughter and son-in-law. I was able to get pictures of the fireworks with the capitol in the foreground.

Winter sunset

I was printing this picture today, and it brought back some memories of a trip to St. Joseph, MO, in January. We were driving home after delivering some pictures to the Albrecht-Kemper Art Museum. I asked Jim to pull over as soon as he could find a good spot so I could grab a few pictures of the sunset. I saw a big flock of geese, so Jim found the perfect place to stop. As soon as my first foot hit the ground, I knew I was in a mess. As I felt the mud oozing up around my shoes, I asked Jim to grab a sack out of the back seat of the car and put it on the floor of the car. I got my sunset pictures plus a clean-up job when I got home.

What do you think of when you look at this picture? All I can think about is that awful feeling as my foot sank into that soft sludge.

Coffee House Show

Tomorrow, I will be putting up new pictures at Rendezvous Coffee House. They are very nice to allow me to keep three or four pieces of art work in there. There are five of us that show our work there. Please stop by sometime when you are in the area and have a cup of coffee or sandwich as you are enjoying the art.

Rendezvous is located in Broadfield Plaza just west of HyVee on Broadway in Columbia, MO. Their web page is: http://www.rendezvouscoffeehouse.com/home.html

The pictures that I will be hanging are Fluttering (the butterfly picture that I have posted earlier on this blog), Spring at the Lake, and Wave Sounds. They are all digital art. Spring at the Lake was taken this spring. I used similar effects on it as I did with Fluttering as I described in my entry called – Process of creating my art.

Wave Sounds is a different method of digital art. This is a collage of four photographs. The ocean and sky are in Florida. I have combined this with some musicians to give the impression that they were performing on a boardwalk near the ocean. After combining the photographs, I painted it. On the layer above the photograph, I painted the picture using oil paints. (Remember that when I say that I am painting, I’m really doing it all on the computer.) The brush is picking up the color from the photograph. I am using different sized brushes with the smallest sizes on the seagull in the sky. I have included close-ups of two portions of the painting so that you can see the detail of the individual strokes of the brush and bristles.