"Gator Got Yo' Granny" ...

"Chomp, chomp... Gator sketch by Ben Bensen III

Good "Gator Got Yo' Granny" Saturday, y'all.

I arrived early at Fontainebleau State Park yesterday, for a change, and decided to scope out an interesting bayou scene to paint. Mary Monk, Carol Hallock and Laura Fischer Saxon were to join me on a rather wind swept afternoon at the lake.

I found this trail through the reeds paralelling the lake that lead me to an interesting little cove protected from the wind and perfect for a plein air extravaganza. As approached closer to the waterline, a blue heron gracefully headed for the skies. A few steps closer and then there was this big explosion of water and reeds. Apparently, I had startled this five or six foot gator that was no more than a "first and ten" away. 

I didn't take the time to see if it was gonna chase me, but I did freeze momentarily enough to see "what big teeth Grandma had."

I didn't look back until I was back on the sandy beach. I found me a park ranger to explain to him the size of that dinosaur as he nonchalantly explained why the reptiles were not hibernating. I was huffing and puffing so I didn't completely hear him say something about the spillway opening up fresh water into the lake...

"Yeh, I said between adrenalin gasps of air, "that makes sense, but I thought it was still too cold for them to be out and about!"

"Nah," he said. They're as confused with this weather as much as we are!"

"Oh okay, I guess so," I replied.

As I walked away down the sandy beach, I turned back toward the reeds and thought to myself, "yeh, but what'cha gonna do about that monster back there sitting in that cove!"

First cup of "glad to be alive" coffee!

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"Ah Yes, Pierre's Playmates Are Back!"

A quickie sketch...

So nice to have our dog's friends back so they can keep him entertained and out from under my feet.
That lizard kept Pierre transfixed long enough for me to sketch him... the rest was just to fill in the blanks!

                                                           Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"Just Wondering About Garbage"...

Missing opportunities...

Good early morning blues and grays, y'all on a Monday morning!

We, here in 'da Bayou, are gonna get wet for a few days.That old matchbox hole has me thinking about garbage. Not just any garbage, but that kind of reusable stuff that we all throw out instead of recycling.

Therese started recycling when I was away on location for the summer and it is amazing how little garbage we have to leave out for the garbage men. There's a huge recycling bin in Mandeville where you can discard plastics, styrofoam, tin, aluminum, glass and paper, but, as of yet, no cardboard (I don't know why not!).

We'd throwout food stuffs into our compost pile if our dog wouldn't be in a race with the raccoons to get to the "leftovers" first. It is truly amazing how little garbage we give for pickup on garbage day.

I wonder if our "waste management" company would give us a discount for only picking up our garbage once instead of twice a week?

First cup...

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"Tuggin' At My Heartstrings!"

"Oh the stories it could tell...

I thought about bringing it and I thought, long and hard, about leaving it home, but I really wanted to practice enough to play some songs with friends at a Christmas party. It was gonna be a long stay in LA, and I wanted to use the down time to practice and to try to work out the stiffness in my left hand, which seems to be getting worse with each passing year.

Well, I didn't want to buy an extra seat for the instrument and I didn't think it could possibly fit in the overhead compartment on the plane. ( I later found out that would have been the best place for it! ) With a good bit of trepidation, I sent my baby with the rest of my baggage in the baggage compart-ment of the aircraft. I mean what could possibly go wrong. It was insured. Christmas travel is so crazy, I just knew this was the best I could do, short of leaving it home.

I bought the Guild D-55, in California, way back in 1979 just before our son was born. Originally, I wanted to purchase a Gibson Hummingbird, but I really could afford it. The Guild actually sounded as good as, if not better than the Gibson... at least, to my untrained ear.

Well, my flight to LA went fine. I was looking forward to visiting a lot of friends and enjoying the wonderful Christmas weather there. Standing at the turnstile with my carry-ons strapped across my shoulders, I patiently waited, like everyone else, for the bags to start down the conveyor belt and on to the rotating turnstile.

Twenty minutes later, and with each passing minute, my heart sank just a little bit more. I started to chastise myself for being so naive. Christmas was certainly gonna be horrible, no matter how good it will be, if I lose my baby. What was I thinking?

With a resolute and heavy sigh as the conveyor belt came to a halt, I wandered over to the baggage claim department to see if they had any knowledge of my six string companion.

"Miss, I seemed to have lost my guitar." It never came down to the turnstile!" I said.

"Sir, is that guitar over there in the corner, yours?"she said with a "I'm glad to be a service to you" smile!

"Oh man! That's the one! That's mine!"I said as appreciatively as I could.

"You've made my holiday", I said.

"Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays," she said with a nod...

"And a Merry Christmas to you, m'am!"

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"Another Sketch From The Air Museum"...

The other unfinished Paso Robles sketch...

Here's the second of two quick sketches that I started about ten minutes before Tee, me and our hosts, Ed and Irene Rush, decided to leave to get some lunch in downtown Paso Robles. I did have time to, at the Estrella Warbirds Museum, capture fairly well an F-86, a T-33 and the tail section of an F-104.

After lunch, we decided to visit an artist in residence kinda co-op called, "The Studio On The Park" which is located across the City Park square in downtown. I had a few great conversations with some of the artists. Anne Laddon, who created the concept of the studio, was very congenial, as was her studio mate, Tamara Thornton. They both share a studio together and I found, through asking many questions, that both ladies came from an advertising background and had to deal with the idea of eventually being put out to pasture.

They seemed to have made the change into a fine art arena quite successfully having felt that they had accomplished all they had expected to accomplish as ad women. Nice place to be.

Anne's site is: http://www.anneladdon.com/artwork/ and Tamara's is: http://www.studiosonthepark.org/artists/artist-directory.php?artist_id=96

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"Hello, Is There Anybody There?"

Hello... is there anybody there?

Just sittin' here a thinkin' bout that old matchbox and wondrin' why it takes so long to accept incompetence.

Since my mother passed away almost one year ago, I've been wrestling with closing out mom's account. It's taken six months or more to jump through the many hoops the government and the bank were putting before me...

It's a joke to know that the bank didn't know whether they even performed this task anymore. I waited politely and patiently and then decided to passed the time away sketching. The paper of choice was the envelope that my mother's statements came in. The sketch/doodle took about ten minutes or so, but the transaction took over one hour, and it still wasn't done correctly...

While sitting in traffic, after depositing the check, the bank calls me and tells me NOT to deposit the check...

IT WILL BOUNCE!

Hello, is anybody there!

First cup...

"Maybe, There's A Lesson To Be Learned Here"...

A quick sketch...

Good Monday "MLK" morning, y'all...

Staring out of my matchbox hole, this morning, thinking 'bout who knows what, when two chickadees landed on the birdbath for a drink. Problem was the birdbath was pretty much frozen over.

Five minutes later, a blue jay hopped unto the "frozen tundra" and gave the ice two good whacks with its bill, and got to the water underneath the ice. A few more minutes passed when that chickadee couple came by for a sip or two.

There's a lesson to be learned here... I just have to figure out which one to stuff in my pocket for the rest of the "MLK celebration".

Second sip... I mean, cup!

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III