Saturday, March 30, 2019

95. ESAL Art Show at the Latrobe Art Center April 3-30, 2019



The East Suburban Artists League will be exhibiting the month of April at the Latrobe Art Center, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  The Awards Ceremony and Artists Reception will be Saturday, April 13th, 6-8pm.  Admission is free and the public is welcome.

I have entered two new oil paintings for this show.  April Showers (right), oil on canvas, 16 x 20 and Spring in the Mountains (below), oil on canvas, 14 x 18. Hope to see you there!





Sunday, March 24, 2019

94. Acrylic Landscape Class in Monroevoille a Success


The Acrylic landscape Workshop I taught on March 23, 2019 at the Monroeville Library was a complete success.   About two dozen people showed up and had a great time painting a summer landscape.  In addition, we had a number of people sign up as new members of the Monroeville Arts Council!  My thanks to all the people who participated and helped with the class and to the Monroeville Arts Council and Nancy Dalverney who made this event possible.   

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

93. Offering two new Landscape Art Classes

I will be teaching two different landscape art classes in the weeks to come.  The first one will take place Saturday, March 23, 2019, in Monroeville, PA, where I will help a group of people to make their own acrylic landscape painting to take home and enjoy.  The 2-hour class is free (except for $10 to help cover materials, which are provided).  Click on the poster above for more details or visit my website at bobbickers.net.   

The second art class is for the more serious artist.  I will be teaching three different landscapes --in oil or acrylic (your choice)-- in 3-hour classes that will take place on three consecutive Saturdays.  We will be painting a winter scene, a spring scene and finally, a summer vista. This will take place at the Greensburg Art Center on March 30th, April 6th and April 13th.  Students will provide their own materials and the cost is a total of $90 for all sessions.  Click on the poster at left for more details.

For the Greensburg art class, here is the Materials List.

My thanks to Nancy Dalverny with the Monroeville Arts Council and at the Greensburg Art Center for making these opportunities possible.

I hope to see you at at least one of these classes and look forward to slinging some serious paint!


Saturday, March 9, 2019

92. An evening with Pittsburgh painter, Ron Donoughe

On March 7, 2019, I had the opportunity to hear Ron Donoughe, celebrated Pittsburgh landscape painter, speak at the meeting of the East Suburban Artists League here in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.  Ron had last paid us a visit in 2006, so I decided to put together two posters commemorating his visit to our club on each occasion.  My sincere thanks to Mr. Donoughe for being our guest this week. I look forward to seeing you again in the future.


Monday, December 31, 2018

91. A Review of 2018

(Detail) Big Bone Wonder; 22 x 28; oil on canvas [Yes, my feelings exactly about 2018!]
This past year has been a busy one for me, filled with traveling and seeing new sights as well as visiting old haunts.  We had a lot of snow in the Pittsburgh area early this year, but kept busy with major renovations to the house (all done ourselves).  

Diane and I took my mother from Memphis on a trip to Miami, Florida, to see my daughter and her family, including my only grandson, Greyson.  It had been a long time since my mother had been to Florida and the opportunity to see her great-grandson and wade along the beach with him was a wonderful sight to see.  Driving from Memphis to Miami and back was itself an adventure as well.

Diane & Bob Bickers
Diane and I then bought a lightweight camper trailer as an alternative to sleeping on the ground in a tent in preparation for our travels in the future. This was a 25th anniversary present to ourselves which we then took to Cedar Point on Lake Erie for an initial shakedown.  In a trip that spanned almost a month, we helped our son move to San Antonio, Texas with the camper, and then continued on to El Paso, Tuscon, Sedona, Gallup, Holbrook and 80 miles west of Amarillo, Texas where our car broke down and almost left us stranded on the prairie with blowing sleet and high winds that almost toppled our trailer.  We eventually made it to Amarillo where we were stranded for three days undergoing repairs (at least it was covered under warranty).  We continued on to Memphis and then back home to Murrysville,  Pennsylvania.

Cactus Medley
View from camper in Tuscon
From Sedona on, we seemed to keep one step ahead of snow and sleet, as we never intended to be out west in mid-October.  At least the heat was not a problem, and the camper's performance was outstanding!  Everywhere we stopped for gas, several people would come up to us to inquire about our curious little camper which was extremely compact, looked sharp, and, apparently was pretty rare (we never saw another one on the road).  It was a true adventure and I have plenty of photos and materials for future artwork.

Diane, the Explorer
I did manage to get a few pieces of art done before the end of the year, including an acrylic landscape of the Conemaugh River Lake area in winter and another oil painting featuring some of the dinosaurs on display at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Great things are lining up already that promise to make 2019 one of my best years for art yet!

Road to Sedona.
Cactus Rainbow







Bob, the Desert Rat










Conemaugh Winter; 16 x 20; acrylic on canvas










Petrified Wood

Friday, November 24, 2017

90. NEW HORIZONS : Landscapes in Oil by Bob Bickers

Announcing an exhibition of fine oil paintings by Murrysville, Pennsylvania artist and photographer, Bob Bickers during the month of December, 2017 at the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. (http://www.monroevillelibrary.org/gallery-space)
Diane & Bob Bickers

The show, entitled "NEW HORIZONS : Landscapes in Oil by Bob Bickers" will take place December 1-30, 2017 at the Monroeville Public Library, 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146, by the Gateway School. An Opening  Reception was held on Saturday, December 9th, 6:00-8:00pm.  A portion from the sale of artwork benefits the volunteer group, Friends of the Monroeville Public Library. Gallery hours during the exhibition are: 9:00am-9:00pm Monday-Thursday; 9:00am-5:00pm Friday & Saturday; and 12:00pm-3:00pm Sunday.  The Library and Gallery will be closed on December 23rd, 24th 25th, 31st and January 1st.
place

Directions to the Monroeville Public Library: Take Parkway Exit 84A or Turnpike Exit 57 or Route 22 to Monroeville, go south on Route 48 (Mosside Boulevard). Turn right at the 4th light onto Gateway Campus Boulevard. Then turn left at stop sign to library.

Bob Bickers is an artist living and working from his home and studio in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, where he has created art in oils and acrylics for many years.  The bulk of this show’s paintings are new landscapes and have never been on public display before, hence the show’s title, “NEW HORIZONS”.  Having recently retired from the practice of law, the show also represents Bob’s new explorations as a full-time artist.

A virtual tour of Bob's exhibit is available on Bob's website HERE.

A price list and biography of Bob can be found HERE.

More about Bob Bickers can be found at his website, http://www.bobbickers.net and his art blog, http://fineartbybobbickers.blogspot.com

Friday, October 6, 2017

89. The Great American Eclipse of 2017

On August 21, 2017, my wife and I found ourselves in a remote desert in Wyoming where were watched our first total eclipse of the sun. 

Our location was about half a mile east of Route 104 and three miles south of Arminto, WY, which is about 50 miles northwest of Casper. The maps shown at right mark the exact location. We arrived a couple of days in advance and pitched our tent at a remote campsite that required an hour of driving over extremely rough roads.  It was tough, but the scenery and the photos below show that it was well worth the extra effort.

The first video was from a camera set up looking to the north as it had a clear horizon and a good view of the distant mountains.  The second video was set up facing east as it too had a clear view of the valley below and our views  to the south and west were blocked by hills.

 
After reviewing my videos, I discovered that I had indeed captured the moon's shadow, perhaps not rushing across the landscape as I had hoped, but moving across miles of high clouds as it raced from west to east.  Below are segments from my video showing the shadow of the moon crossing the sky.  When the sun emerges where we were standing, I noticed that the distant clouds to our east did not immediately reappear as they were still in the moon's shadow.


I had been planning this trip for a couple of years and had long ago decided that the best place to see the eclipse without clouds would be in the desert of Wyoming.  Diane and I had been near this location years before, and using Google Maps, I scouted out the best place to view this spectacle.  Many of my plans, unfortunately, did not pan out.  I knew all motels would be booked, and what few campground there were would be full.  While the Bureau of Land Management did have campgrounds and overflow sites, I noticed one of their very remote campgrounds where we could pitch a tent for free (having only a tent would give us more options, especially if we simply had to camp in the desert).  Grave Springs Campground, however, was located back in rough hills and mountains and could only be reached by an extremely rough drive for an hour through a colorful desert on gravel and stone roads.  The view was worth the effort, in my opinion. We arrived on Saturday afternoon before the eclipse on Monday.

On our trip to Wyoming, we listened to radio accounts of communities along the path of totality making preparations to accommodate the crowds of onlookers.  Many of those plans were ruined as we learned on our return trip through the same areas when rain and thunderstorms covered the skies. We saw clever highway signs referring to the eclipse, heard car dealership ads about new prices eclipsing the old ones, and many puns too.  Signs warned people all along the totality path for people to NOT stop their cars on the side of the road during the eclipse, and to be aware of people who may do just that.

In Casper, the only large town near us that weekend, local business owners complained that despite the hype and the profits by hotel operators (we saw Motel 6 rooms advertised for $600 a night!), many of the other businesses, especially restaurants, had not noticed an uptick in business.  In fact, it appeared that hoards of people had traveled from wide and far in campers and brought their own food, anticipating to be gouged like the hotel businesses were doing.

We scouted out a location to view the eclipse.  Hell's Half Acre, on highway 26, is a state or county park where scenes in the movie, Starship Troopers, were filmed.  Inexplicably, the fence at its entrance was closed, chained and locked, and had been locked up for some time judging from the rust.  A lot of other people had the same idea as we saw many others in this otherwise desolate area show up and leave disappointed.  My next plan was to observe from a state rest area on Highway 26 near the turnoff to our campground, but I suspected it would be crowded too.

We then noticed nice locations on the high ground just south of the "town" of Arminto, and decided on Sunday that we would pull off the road to one of these sites the next morning.

We broke camp early on Monday and headed to the site we selected.  Along the way, we saw many people just camping off of dirt roads in what had been deserted areas all weekend.  Seeing a column of smoke behind a hillside, we stopped to talk to a man walking with his dog along the dirt road. We learned that he too had stopped to camp in a remote area. He was cooking breakfast on the back of his pickup truck when someone drove by and shot at his dog with a rifle.  The dog was startled and knocked over the cooking burner, setting the truck on fire and destroying all of this man's belongings. The shooter took off and while we offered our assistance, he declined and had already contacted the sheriff who were on their way (we later passed the sheriff's car a short while later). I guess he'll have other reasons to remember this day than the eclipse.

When we got to our chosen site, someone else was already parked there, so we decided to keep traveling down a gravel road that serviced multiple gas well in the vicinity.  We even passed additional campers and then, around a curve, I saw the ideal site and a large gas well pad to park our car away from the road and away from the gas tanks and structures.  We started to set up our cameras and a gentleman in a pickup stopped by who served these well.  Explaining what we were doing, he granted us permission to stay and watch the eclipse as long as we liked, and then drove off to attend to his duties.  Not another living person could be heard or seen anywhere for miles into the distance --we were completely alone.

The day was not too hot and a gentle breeze blew from the west.  As the moon started to cover up the sun, it began to slowly get a little darker.  Just before totality, I kept reaching to remove my sunglasses that weren't there as the scenery looked as dark as regular daylight looks when I am wearing dark sunglasses.  The video cameras, of course, adjusted their exposure, but just before totality it was a little darker than it appears on the videos.

Up until then, the wind had slowed down, the air was a little cooler, and we noticed the crickets were getting louder as if it was near nightfall.  Looking through our sun filters, the last of the sun disappeared and very quickly, it grew dark.  The air was still and the desert became completely quiet.

We had a clear view of the horizon, especially to the north and east, and were were quickly surrounded by sunset colors in the distance in all directions. A light on one of the distant gas well pads came on automatically. The ground was dark, but more like at twilight than at midnight.  It was light enough to see everything around us, but still dark enough to stumble of the rocks in a way I had not done before totality.  Neither one of us could sit and watch but had to stand and see all that was happening all around us.

The sky was not quite as dark as night as some had predicted.  The sky was a dark blue and in one of my wide-angle photos, you can see very light cirrus clouds that had not been noticed before.  We never did see any other stars and of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter that were supposed to be visible, only Venus stood out (Clearly, other eclipses had been darker. I wonder if has to do with the moon's distance from the Earth and the size of the umbra - the darkest part of the moon's shadow? A larger umbra would have pushed the sunlit horizons further away, allowing less stray light to turn the sky blue and resulting in a darker sky!).  The light that surrounded the moon was a pure pearly white color without a hint of yellow or any other color (I heard someone on the radio later describe it as being like a pure LED light, which was a good description).  It also seemed that the edge between the moon and the circle of light was soft and not hard, a blurring which I now attribute to the cirrus clouds which we could not see before totality began.

Well into the totality, I took in the whole scene and the dark valley before me and marveled at the surreal nature of this entire event, as it must have been similarly perceived numerous times throughout human history. I could easily imagine not only the awe but the fear this could, and would, have induced. And then, just as I was really beginning to enjoy the experience, the edge of the circle of light started to brighten, and suddenly, it was all over.  The sun came out and while the sun's disk was still 98% covered, it was amazing how the remaining 2 percent could make the eye think it was almost as bright as the noonday sun. We were so excited, we almost did not know what to do with ourselves. One thing we knew without a doubt --we have to do this again!

A handful of experiences in my life have left me full of awe and wonder.  The birth of each of my children is one of them; the first time I gazed upon the Grand Canyon; descending down the immense natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns; and riding up to the foot of Niagra Falls are some of the others.  I'd have to add the Great American Eclipse of 2017 to that list as well.

I can hardly wait until 2024!