Back at it

Hey, what the heck.
Let's face it the dream house is just that and may stay that way for quite a while.
Life goes on, and I might as well expand this blog to other interests.
My painting has been going it's own jekyll and hyde ways of late. When I get a warm free day I try to get out and do some plein-air painting — when it's dark and cold and I have time I work on some of my other ideas. Lately they have taken me to steampunk/dieselpunk concepts. Since a boy I was always interested in WWI flying machines and equipment. Over the last few years I've used this as a starting point for ideas for drawings, paintings and digital art. All of the sudden there is a great interest in this genre too so I'm trying to get some stuff out there and see what happens.Lets get it started with

Start Your Engines
48"x36" acrylic on canvas

RainShine House

5/18/09
Saturday we spent the day touring modern homes during the yearly Atlanta event. There were some wonderful houses, among them new designs by DentCity and others, but the shining star had to be Bob Crain’s RainShine House in Decatur. Located on infill lot in a friendly neighborhood, it is the first modernist home built in the southeast that is Leed Platinum Certified. It was just as impressive for it’s aesthetics as for all it’s technology.

I was keen to see the inside for all the details —most of these being similar to our project. The house has a steel tube frame just as ours will and has a similar style with generous overhangs and a clerestories all around. The inside has abbreviated walls and is filled with built-in storage and furnishings plus store front type glass. The steps and railings are also like the designs for the shop. This house had a much higher cost per sq. ft and more luxurious finishes than ours —most notably the use of reclaimed heart pine throughout for floors, ceilings and in some cases the cabinets.
I was particularly interested in the MDF cabinets and case work that are used. Some of these have the pine faces but many are straight MDF with a stain finish and low VOC varnish on them. All the pieces were computer cut and milled for the European hardware with great accuracy. This is on my list of musts for our kitchen.

In the wonderful master bedroom Bob designed the built in a master bed with storage that I would like to reproduce almost verbatim. This room was my favorite, with double 12 ft doors opening on to the rear deck.
Of course the integration of energy saving features is the most significant innovation in this structure. The butterfly roof has an inexpensive TPO rubber covering but with this design it can not be seen from outside. Rain water is funneled into four large cisterns in the root cellar and from there used for toilet flushing and irrigation throughout the property. This might be something we can incorporate in our design. Solar cells collect energy on the roof that is used throughout to run vital systems along with being sold back to the power company when it exceeds usage demands. A geothermal heating and cooling system are used and supplement the houses natural energy efficiency that channels warm air out operating windows placed along the clerestories.
In addition many features of the structure address air quality. Low VOC finishes are used throughout and the cellar is sealed against radon and other harmful gasses.
This RainShine House has all of Mr. Cains style—modern with just a hint of the southern vernacular. It is what attracted me to his work to begin with. I believe that this structure is extremely important and although our project is is more restricted in scope and budget it has many of it’s attributes.

Ruins

3/17/09

This is a shot from down in the designated basement. It does look like ruins. If I had a lot of energy I would go up on the weekends and dig this out by hand.

Along the Chatahoochie

3/15/09

A few weekends ago I took about 100 photos a few miles up from Robertstown along the river. I take reference shots to help me with my paintings, but occasionally I frame one up. This section of the river is beautifully dense with hemlocks, rhododendrons and mountain laurel. It is the spot that I did the original painting at about four or five years ago. It was early AM and the shadows were just like I wanted — except they were coming from the East!

Jekyll and Hyde

3/5/09

I’ve been working on a few new paintings. Both are didactically different except for the use of acrylic on both. It’s been years since I’ve used it, but I decided to work on these two canvases with the cheaper acrylics and then finish off with oil. So far I have not done that, and really don’t think I need to. All my acrylic alchemy came right back along with some new ideas for concoctions I’ve mixed for glazing.
The first painting—Hold Your Fire is a fantasy developed from a series of sci-fi comic strips that I have been playing around with for years. I thought that enlarging them would be an interesting idea. So I bought a large canvas and traced one up using my new projector. I was psyched-out and worked feverishly about a month or so but struggled to finish it. At the same time I stretched a large canvas—90 inches tall by a very thin 36. This is my more usual tree in the forest...but It’s very big. I developed the idea from a small painting I did of hemlock trees along the Chatahoochie—again I enlarged it with the new projector. It’s almost like scenery for a play. In any event I’m still working it. I’m not sure they were painted by the same guy.

Visit to Frog Town Winery

2/22/09

Went up to Helen Friday night and on Saturday afternoon I decided to check out some of the local vinters. We first stopped at Habersham Winery just as you get into Helen. I've been there several times, but never tasted. I tried most of their reds and bought a few bottles. But the good thing was they gave us a map showing all the vineyards in the area.
So we drove up to the Frog Town Winery. It's about 5 miles south west of Cleveland, and sits on a big hill with a commanding view over the vineyard and North toward Mt.Yonah and Unicoi. The pavilion is a recently built traditional farm house design with porches all around. The inside is wonderful and has an open 3 story entrance, all timber framed with a stone veneer. The parking lot was full and the place was busy with mostly younger upscale adults hanging around. It took a while, but we ended up getting the $10 deal. Seven or eight reds — 6 of which I thought were very good. I bought a bottle of the Touche. The owner has a bunch of pure bred hound dogs that hang out like...hound dogs, entertaining the crowd. All in all—a nice place to check out, enjoy the view and drink some good wine.

2/19/09

Up and around —STIMULUS!
Had some fun up at the shop taking pictures. I should of posted them before—whatever. Jim put some metal strips weighted down with cinder blocks on top of the walls to prevent too much water getting in. You can see them in this shot from the back plus what it may look like someday.
We have a new administration but I was not figuring on any bail-out/stimulus cash coming my way. The only thing I can say is that we are not spending any money—and I’d advise everyone the same.
I take that back. Today I saw that if you modernise your insulation or HVAC you can take up to 30% of your taxes next year . Mine is about to go. So what do you know­—Stimulus Cash...in about a year!