The Last Draughtsman: Robert A. Nelson

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Robert Nelson,

Professor Emeritus, Millersville University, is a highly respected contemporary painter, sculptor printmaker and collage artist. Nelson studied art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1950 and a master's degree in 1951. He taught at his alma mater as well as the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and the University of North Dakota before returning to school at New York University, where he received his Education Doctorate in 1971. The next year he began teaching at Cleveland State University, where he stayed until 1975, when he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I had the good fortune to meet and interact with Nelson in a printmaking workshop during my undergraduate days at the University of Nebraska. Nelson is the consummate draughtsman and is quickly becoming a vanishing breed. While he handles multiple mediums effortlessly, perhaps his greatest asset is his drawing skill. I discovered this profile video and am happy and surprised to see that Robert still has the gift and is working away at age 89.

I hope I'm as lucid and creative as Robert in my sunset years.

Mark Zimmer: The Relativistic Observer

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Click image to visit the Relativistic Observer blog

My brother-in-pixels and good friend, Painter creator Mark Zimmer, has recently launched a blog, the Relativistic Observer. With his terrific insight, Mark covers a wide variety of subjects:
The future, technology, gadgets, MEMS, Painter, creativity, energy, world events, security, cryptography, image processing, mathematics, and my past. Oh, and maybe a few songs.
Mark is an inveterate note taker (a page of Mark's notes is shown above) and shares many of his insights, including the creation of Painter, which I was fortunate to be a part of. He also writes about his musical composition chops and shares some of his songs.

A good read and highly recommended.

Arched Oak

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This unusual oak tree—a favorite of mine—resides in a nearby park. I have no idea why it has chosen to grow this way, but it makes for an interesting portrait of a unique tree.

I'm currently working on my Painter 12 Essentials title for lynda.com. Scheduling has gotten moved around and I won't be recording until sometime in the Jan/Feb timeframe. Expect its release sometime later in the first quarter of '12.

Stumbling into History

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During my most recent trip to Southern California, I photographed this interesting architectural landmark near the Santa Barbara airport. This is a Barnsdall Rio Grande Oil Company gas station built in 1929 and turns out to be one of the most architecturally significant structures that represents the best existing examples of California gas stations built in the heydey of automobile travel up and down the California coast.

Besides its architectural significance, this station was utilized as the set for the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.

You can read more about this unique location here.