Milescapes Art – Gifts, Original Artwork and Photography [Blog]

A large group of Rotarians  showed up to distribute dictionaries at the Reynolds school this year, Nov 2010.

Reynolds' Third Graders

Here’s Jacquie Olmsted giving an introduction (more…)

I saw this prepared on the PBS Series: Chefs A’Field. This soup was created by Chef Patrick O’Connell. I  was hoping to link the recipe to Facebook but had no luck so here it is:

(Not only do we make it every Fall, but now our friends are asking for it every year. It is really wonderful!!)

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/4) butter

1 cup onion, roughly chopped

1 cup Granny Smith Apple, peeled, seeded, cored and roughly chopped

1 cup rutabaga, peeled and roughtly chopped

1 cup butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped.

1 cup carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 cup sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped

1 quart good chicken stock

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup maple syrup salt and a little cayenne pepper

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, apple, rutabaga, squash, carrots and sweet potato. Cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent.

Add the chicken stock. Simmer for 20-25 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked through and tender.

Mash all the soup/vegetables with a potato masher until all the chunck are very small. Add the cream, maple syrup, salt & pepper.

We like it with hot biscuits.

I just wanted to add a couple of portraits to the Blog.

The latest one is of Jaimilee and I just finished it last week.  I think if I just keep practicing I’ll be able to, eventually, really nail them.

Here’s Jaimilee:

And here is Jaimilee with the photograph that I used for a model:  (more…)

I’m not sure how I found the time because I’m usually so busy in the Fall, but I managed to try a few more people portraits. The first one I worked on was another Kaya picture, using a photograph taken by my daughter-in-law Joanna, as a model. It was strongly backlit but I just tried to draw what I saw. I decided to use pencil because I believed that I had more control using graphite, knowing I could use an eraser….

The final Kaya Portrait, in graphite

I was really pleased with the way this came out but…. (more…)

I often spend Sunday afternoons with my knitting, watching old movies, and totally vegging. Yesterday was so-o beautiful that I just had to go out and get some new foliage pictures. My friend, Rebecca Jensen was kind enough to drive me around, patiently stopping for every photo opportunity. Here are just a few of the beautiful sights we saw between B’ville and Oswego.

The canal and Lock 24 have not closed for the season yet but traffic has certainly slowed for the second busiest lock in the New York State Canal System

(more…)

When I was home last summer I tried to photograph all the painted bears because I knew their visit would be short. I think I got all of them except the one(s) on Pleasant St. A few years ago we had Painted Ponies here in Syracuse. What a great idea!!

There are many more, and often, two views of each … (more…)

Here are a few pictures we took in sackets Harbor on Saturday, October 10th, 2009.

Kagumi Yoshida & Yuka Sunano, Members of the Rotary International GSE Team from Japan

This next picture is looking out at the marina from the gazebo. (more…)

The Finished Portrait

March 12, 2009

Melinda suggested that I do more work on his face. Actually, so did my friend Jimmy. I’m not sure you can tell how hard I worked to give him more expression. It’s about as far as I can go, though. The paper won’t hold much more color and the painting is in danger of being overworked. I’ll keep trying. I have two new sets of pastels – the Sennelier soft pastels for portraits and a 96-stick box of hard NuPastels. I do want to do a painting of the old Baldwinsville train station with an engine that was actually used here, and I’m sure I’ll keep trying portraits because David has been so encouraging.

Kaya Meets the Snow

The First Draft

March 9, 2009

After spending years doing Pet Portraits I decided to try (more…)

It’s that time of year again and the Baldwinsville Rotary Club is busy with everything from Spaghetti Dinners to Turkey! Here are a few pictures from the December spaghetti dinner and the Senior Citizens’ Holiday Party:

Dawn Custer, Chef & Club President

(more…)

It’s that time of year again! The Baldwinsville Rotarians are visiting the schools to give every 3rd grader in town a new dictionary.

Members of the visiting GSE Team, Howard Tupper, Norma Widmann, Jacquie Olmsted, and Pat Booth visit with the 3rd Grade at St. Mary's.

Recipients also include students in private schools and those who are home-schooled. The program is (more…)