&gt; Kami's stuff reminded me of a little hand-painted Russian pill box on my mantelpiece. <br /> <br />Pretty! :) <br /> <br />I have a number of painted items from Russia (or which I suspect are from Russia; since I usually buy second-hand there is often no indication as to the origin). I think this painted metal plate is Russian: <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1OdKwar7mVQIwMYtwQhkt D0CJ3YRDw1" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1OdKwar7mVQIwMYtwQhktD0CJ3YRDw1_ thumb.jpg" border="0" />

&gt; As usual there were some which needed discarding. <br /> <br />(I love how the digital camera makes this so painless, even if the image quality is not QUITE as good (IMO) as with a regular camera.) <br /> <br />&gt; But a little tweak with the filter gallery produced a nice effect. It's almost as if i was trying for it! <br /> <br />Serendipity can be a good thing: The result is lovely! :) (I might be tempted, though, to crop out/modify/remove the orangeish &amp; yellow(sp?) stuff near the name of the ship: the colours are fairly bright &amp; I think they distract attention from the full moon and front of the ship, which are the focal point of the picture for me.) <br /> <br />I've taken a couple hundred photos recently of a nice spot by a little river 10 minutes walk away from me. I'm just a noob at Photoshop, but I kind of like this result: <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1HBpHgU8icNz2zcdGvPHB vMYPgO0cr" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1HBpHgU8icNz2zcdGvPHBvMYPgO0cr_t humb.jpg" border="0" />

It is cool.

I agree with shep, take it another step.

Very cool, John. <br /> <br />I have been do stuff like that for a while, I got brave and brought some of my work down to a fall sale. I don't think it was the right place to take the stuff but at least I took the step and got it out there. <br /> <br />I had this one output on stretched canvas for our neighbor. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1xELiBkT5klRJHSvCIy8Y 22IwDOdWX" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1xELiBkT5klRJHSvCIy8Y22IwDOdWX_t humb.jpg" border="0" />

Thank you. :-)

U.S. casino magnate gives Picasso's dream the elbow

Wed Oct 18, 9:43 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Picasso's famed "Dream" painting turned into a nightmare for Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion dollar canvas an elbow.

Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called "Le Reve" (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago.

Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, who witnessed and related the incident in her blog on the Huffington Post Web site (www.huffingtonpost.com), said Wynn had raised his hand to show the group something about Picasso's 1932 portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter.

"At that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise," Ephron wrote, noting that Wynn has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that damages peripheral vision.

"Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Oh s---,' he said. 'Look what I've done. Thank goodness it was me.'"

Wynn's office on Tuesday confirmed the story, an account of which also appeared in this week's The New Yorker. Both accounts said Wynn had decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself.

Wynn, a millionaire casino developer and art collector, developed The Mirage and Bellagio resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s, which spearheaded a profusion of luxury hotels and casinos on the once-seedy Las Vegas Strip.

"He's 90% blind and a graphic artist."

Remember Beethoven, penning symphonies after he was stone deaf.

Does anyone remember MC 900ft Jesus?

>Does anyone remember MC 900ft Jesus?

Yes, and Vera Lynn.

Does anyone remember laughter.

Dave... Bueller, somebody....

The artist (I can't find a signature) who did this piece paid especial attention to the eyes. I don't know how well this will come out in the picture. <br /> <br />I like this picture for its 'Rousseau-ian' quality &amp; its odd distortions (the oddly skewed eyes of the animals; the little 'hooves' that the man posesses). It is at least moderately old, as the paint is somewhat cracked. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Sf7y7JuK9QRoH7BAKd2p qSLYMIPEj1" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Sf7y7JuK9QRoH7BAKd2pqSLYMIPEj1_ thumb.jpg" border="0" /> <br /> <br />The artist who did this picture (Gerda Christoffersen) has also done some of those GHASTLY oval-eyed native children in papooses that one sometimes sees (google her name &amp; you'll find some :( ). This is somewhat better.... <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1dT3jgztbjl56IRtM2zmA LGvaFqyiu" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1dT3jgztbjl56IRtM2zmALGvaFqyiu_t humb.jpg" border="0" /> <br /> <br />This piece was painted fairly rapidly and surely; traces of the pencil 'roughed out image' still remain, but add somehow to the appeal for me. The face and costume are rather idealized, but I find him still quite individual. The frame was made by the artist. This has a companion piece of a woman with a red headdress; it is not as striking a piece, IMO. (I was fortunate enough to get these pieces at an art auction.) <br /> <br />Anyone else have any original art - not their own! - around their homes that they'd like to share?

When I happen to locate a spare moment at home, I will take a pic of a silk-screened print my sister had created back in the '70s which she was planning to toss in the burn barrel when we were cleaning out our parent's basement...

Original pics? Sounds like a plan! :)

For myself, I don't much care for reproductions of famous pieces (that is not to say I do not like the pieces themselves). I'd rather have an original of something good on my wall than a reproduction of a piece of 'great art'. Since I'm not rich, I got most of my stuff (I have a hundred or so paintings of various sizes & various media) at second hand stores a number of years back. (While I still go to second hand stores, the paintings worth while to buy are now few and far between. Seems as though folks are selling them on the net these days. :( )

> Is it bad when you answer yourself using a different name?

Nah... it feels good, actually. When I get to post using all three of my names in sequence it's like, a high, man! ;)

> We have several original watercolors by Gary Bukovnik. He's been a good friend since we worked together 30 years ago. His work is widely collected and reproduced.

Nice pictures! I think I like the pine cone the best. It's nice having talented friends, eh?

(Water colours are a difficult medium; it's so much more difficult to correct mistakes than it is with Oils, Acrylic or even Gouache.)

> His work is widely collected and reproduced.

Of the stuff that I have, Ms. Christoffersen is the only artist that is of any repute (that I know of); I do think some of the pieces I have might appreciate in value over time & if the Mughal-style miniatures that I have ARE actually old, they'd likely be valuable too. (If anyone knows of an authority on Far Eastern art, I'd love to hear...)

Art I Like

Well somebody does!

Can you afford one?

Some of the others are better.

I worked at an outdoor advertising company; in the Paint Department, it was their wont to mix all the day's paint on an 8'x4' piece of masonite. After a period of time, these sheets were cropped and cut into appropriate sizes and hung around the company. They were quite attractive and Pollockesque.

I'm afraid I can't look at a Pollock without being reminded of them.

Now you know the inspiration for this shirt (composite front & back views) I did when I did weekends at the silkscreening company:

(half size; "View Image" for full size)

>(half size; "View Image" for full size)

What's that mean?

Thanks. I figured it was something like that. I'm on my old iMac with IE5 and it doesn't have that option. Thanks for the reminder too, I need to get Firefox for my new(-er) Mac.