The Midnight Visitor

[Bob Boze Bell]

January 2, 2013

Kathy took off for Spain yesterday morning so I'm bachin' it for three months.

 

I haven't painted in over a week. Always stiff when I try and get back in the water. Went home for lunch today and finished a panorama I started at least eight years ago. It was inspired by a Frank Tenney Johnson nocturne I especially love, which I believe the title is "Old Indian Trading Post." I started my version (and another one just like it) with the intention of using it as the header and logo for our department we call "Trading Post". Never quite came together and we went with something else. Found the two unfinished underpaintings in the garage a couple weeks ago and brought them back into the studio for one last go.

 

Went home for lunch today and tweaked the second sucker and added a horse and two people and came up with "Midnight Visitor."

 

This is a closer look. Here's the entire panorama:

 

This rock house is similar to many I used to see in Mohave County, especially down on the Big Sandy, with corrals right up to the walls of the house. My grandmother told me stories about her youth when outlaws would show up in the night and leave a spent horse in the corral and leave with a fresh mount. Sometimes the spent horse was better than the one they took. She remembered them galloping off into the night. Made quite an impression on me. Not sure, but I believe the visitor is wounded, or, just horny.

 

My secret Santa gifted me Neil Young's new book, "Waging Heavy Peace," which by the way refers to his battle with iTunes and Apple over what he believes is inferior sound on MP3 players. Someone asked him if he was waging war on Apple and he replied, "No, I'm waging heavy peace." Such a hippie. And I mean that in a good way.

 

All in all, he's a very inspirational guy.

 

"I want to be good enough to be worthy of my family's love."

—Neil Young

 

"

[Gold Lady]

Bob, my friend, Kathy just left. Don't be painting horny dudes!

[Bob Boze Bell]

Dang! Freudian slip?

[Wolfgang]

Nice . . . . . :

[Christopher Zimmerman]

Batchin it for three months?  Super Bowl party at Bob's house!  I'll bring the guacamole. 

[Jim Holden]

Ask Ol' Neal if he still listens to "Sweet Home Alabama", cause "A Southern man don't need him around anyhow".....LOL!

[Bob Boze Bell]

@Jim,

   Neil allegedy loves the song and, according to his account in the book, in fact sang it at a concert in Alabama. I would pay to hear him sing that line. I wonder if he altered the lyric? "I heard I put 'er down. . ."

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

Oops. I meant to say, Very colorful and evocative. Charlie Russell (not Bill Russell, an artist of the ball court) would have been happy to have painted it.

[Bob Boze Bell]

Or, Bill Russell would have blocked it.