Favorite blog posts this year

 As I look back over this tumultuous, largely negative year,  the pandemics have helped rescue this blog, though I didn't realize it until recently.

"Te Ata portrait," back in January

I began going back, month by month, to choose my favorite posts, which in some ways was like reading a diary, a journal of a plague year, where I found, painted and wrote about much of the beauty still here. It became a purpose, a cause, to provide color and thought to offset the horrors. 

My posts and paintings helped the blog set a record. More on that tomorrow. But I also found that the more I painted, it spurred me also to write about the art, leading me to more reading, and more metaphor and thought. I painted more than ever, spurring my learning, as I put together slide shows of the work.

So here are some of my favorite paintings and articles, month by month. Scroll through them for a look back in time.

January--My first portrait: Te Ata

February-- Trees ; Manners

March-- The virus

April-- A new word ; Magic tree ; OKC bombing

May-- Pandemic journal-1 ; Granddaughter's graduation ; Edmond Sun execution (one of five editorials/sketches)

June-- Pandemic poetry ; Bitter icing on Edmond's cake

July-- Pandemic journal-2 ; Rocking & Rolling watercolor

August-- Pandemic poetry ; On the Llano ; Fort Reno chapel

September-- Art show ; Chimayo

October-- Back roads poetry

November-- Americans voting ; Uncle Mike

December-- Truchas inspiration ;  Truchas dreams

Bookends---my readings in 2020

Last books completed in 2020

 "Bookends," is a favorite song of my favorite singers, Simon and Garfunkel, and the title and mood fits as I think about the books that have helped me survive this pandemic year.

I finished the last two books of the year yesterday, bringing to a total of 49 completed. When the pandemic got serious in March, I determined to read a bunch of books I should have read and hadn't...and early on I accomplished some of that. 

But these last two are about art. One, At Home on the Great Plains of Texas, by Laura Lewis and Christina Mulkey, is a Christmas gift from my daughter Dallas Bell, owner of Burrowing Owl Books www.burrowingowlbookstore.com in Canyon and Amarillo. 

It features some of the dramatic paintings of West Texas, an easy read, but inspiring. She proves you can find beauty and subjects to paint anywhere, if you just look and see, even on what many people consider the monotonous Llano Estacado.

The other book, a gift from beyond the grave from my Dad, is Elementary Principles of Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson. I first wrote about 10 years ago this month. You can read about those discoveries on the post linked below. But this time, I read it all the way through, part of my continuing Do It Yourself art school, still learning.

This book was first written 97 years ago; my Dad bought it in February, 1943, and inscribed it to me in October, 1969. 

From both of these gifts, I've learned much, and found more inspiration for the coming years.

The other books I've completed since early November:

• This Tender Land, novel, by William Krueger.
• The the Days of Our Unrest, poetry, by Nathan Brown, written about yesterday.
• Ghost Ways, non-fiction about two unsettling places in Britain, Robert MacFarlane.
• Black Sunday, poetry, Benjamin Myers, written about yesterday

Summing up the year, I read:

• 7 books of poetry--plus three partial which don't count
• 9 art books
• 12 novels, plus one unfinished (Moby Dick--half read--too wordy)
• 2 books of short stories
• 13 books of non-fiction plus two unfinished which do count
• 4 books of inspiration and wisdom
• 1 book discarded after one page--doesn't count

I keep track of these in my little Book Journal, purchased about this time last year from bestofbooksok.com in Edmond. Highly recommend. You keep track up to 100 books, and then there's a section for more details and comments, etc.

I buy most of my books from Best of Books, avoiding at almost all costs  the A*****n monster.

P.S. There are three already just begun books, two novels and one history that will begin my new year.

Most recent, again from my daughter for Christmas, is Stephen Harrigan's monumental, 850+ page history of Texas, Big Wonderful Thing (a quote about Texas from Georgia O'Keeffe when she taught in Canyon)--as a Texan I've naturally already read the chapters on The Alamo and San Jacinto; and two novels from Best of Books, The Tinderbox, Lou Diamond Phillips, and  Below Zero, C.J. Box 

Here's the lint to the post about my Dad's book:

Pages from beyond Death, 2010

Here are the links to two earlier posts on my readings this year:

Readings through June

Readings to November