Summer leftovers…
Venice Beach, CA Watercolor – October 2014 J.N. Urbanski
West Coast Dispatch: Art
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Daily Archives: October 18, 2014
Side Note: Rhapsody in Hue
© J.N. Urbanski
There’s something very simple, quiet and comforting about being in a group of artists. Eating your bagged lunch in comfy chairs, the morning’s art distributed on the floor for a gentle critique. Sharing a highly windy mountain top for a few hours of Plein Air, during which your easel violently flies at you intermittantly, bringing splashes of paint with it while your painting hat flaps into your face. There’s always a ten minute walk to the nearest toilet with new friends while imparting a brief life story or creeping self-consciously into a stranger’s house to use the facilities. There’s a rhapsody in hue where nothing is explained, but all is understood.
Art Show: Alix Travis
Alix Hallman Travis “The Village, July” Oil on Canvas 36″ x 48″
Alix Travis presents “Catskill Mountain Life, a celebration of community”, a series of paintings depicting the landscape and life in our small towns and hamlets. Ten paintings of the series will be on exhibition from October 24th to November 17th at the Longyear Gallery, upstairs in the Commons, Margaretville, New York. The opening reception will be on Saturday, October 25th from 3pm to 6pm.
Daily Catskills: 10/18/14
Much-needed overnight rain, a clear morning with 55F at midday and then more rain showers beginning late morning and into the afternoon. Cloudy and overcast for most of the day with sun peeping through the clouds intermittantly throughout the rest of the afternoon.
© J.N. Urbanski 10/18/14 2.54pm
Saturday Shopping: Lotions and Potions
The pharmaceutical industry is a trillion-dollar industry in which “simple lab work done during a few days in the hospital can cost more than a car” and patients are reportedly paying $37.50 for a tylenol according to recent investigative journalism like the Time piece by Steven Brill. Consumer expenditure on holistic and natural remedies pales in comparison. Moreover, the toiletries you find on typical supermarket shelves are loaded with preservatives and chemicals like phthalates, parabens and other hormone-mimics that disrupt the endocrine system. There’s much in the natural world that will clean and nourish us more safely and, in coming months, Upstate Dispatch will run a preparatory series on foraging and incorporating natural remedies into our cosmetics and diet. It’s possible to wash your hair and body with products that are entirely free of harmful chemicals purchased here in the Catskills. Today’s potions were Red Clover balm made by Moody’s Mountain Medica of Margaretville, found in The Roxbury General Store and soaps and balms by Green Spiral Herbs containing only natural and organic oils.