More Early Morning Sun and Tagging

Two more in the Washington Crossing Park series of early morning sun pastel images.

Recently I was "tagged" by Loriann Signori, a terrific pastel landscapist and waterscapist, who occasionally paints donuts.   The deal is that I must list seven things about myself that people might not know, and tag seven other blogs.  I can list 7 things:

a) My middle name is the French Henri, making my name Robert Henri Lafond, which I find amusing.  I have inherited the art spirit.

b) Many years ago, I discarded a large set of Rembrandt pastels, thinking I would never use them.  There's a lesson there.

c) I worked in an art museum for almost 20 years as registrar.

d) I painted abstract pictures for over 20 years, all in oil.

e) My favorite artist is Richard Diebenkorn, who died too early.  His Ocean Park series is probably one of the greatest group of American paintings ever made.

f) I rode a bicycle  over 500 miles in a week for charity ten years in a row.  I now walk for exercise.

g) In fact, I have no qualms lugging my guerrilla box with pastels in a backpack for several miles to where I want to work (in warm weather).

The seven blogs, in no particular order, are:

a) Peter Fiore's Landscape a Day, a very new blog.  Peter Fiore lives near the Delaware River, and paints beautiful scenes in which the river seems to be just beyond the horizon.  See his web site for more.

b) Learning to See, a blog by Paul Foxton, who returned to drawing and painting after "a gap of many years."  He paints beautiful still lifes, and has great passion and discipline.  

c) A new blog by Victoria Ryan, who does wonderful pastel landscapes.  See her web site for more.  

d) A blog by Sheila Evans,  who does closeups of leaves and flowers in pastel that are extraordinary.  

e) Bill Cone's blog, where you can see his pastel paintings of rocks in western landscapes.  He is a master.

f) Simon Jones, a painter in oil who does very unusual, dark, whimsically odd, fascinating paintings.

g) A blog by Keith Wilkinson, called Filbert and Rigger, whose landscapes I like because they are very painterly and always interesting.

I have not notified these wonderful artists that I have listed them.  They certainly will appreciate the publicity, as meager as it is, but I am not sure they will like the tagging part, so I am chickening out.