Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Merry Christmas 2011


"Winter Wonderland" C. 2011 Ernie Kleven

                                                                                                    


AND
A
HAPPY NEW YEAR

May 2012 bring you
great happiness and prosperity.


Ernie and Nancy Kleven


Sunday, November 27, 2011

I'm back at my easel!

I've recently completed a Design workshop by Margot Shultzke. It was an 8 week program of 1/2 day each Wed which was very rewarding. I'm looking forward to taking another one next year if I get back from AZ in time. I had started a portrait of "Alex" back in March and hadn't finished it. I was kind of "stuck" but was able to complete it with Margot's encouragement. Here is the final result if you haven't seen it on Face Book.

"Alex"

I posted this on Face Book but not without a problem. I first posted the wrong picture which had a
blue cast to it and of course, couldn't remove it, so I had to post it again with the correct image.
I also wanted to post it on my Artist page which I did, but to my surprise, it appeared "again" on my Personal page. Now I have three images posted???  Unfortunately Face Book doesn't allow you to correct mistakes, at least to my knowledge. In all honesty I haven't taken the time or applied the effort to learn all of the facebook intricacies of which there seem to be hundreds.

And then there is the "learning curve"! Man, I seem to be facing one of those every week. I received an I-phone from Nancy awhile back and am still learning the finer points of that. Now Nancy and family gave me an I-Pad for my Birthday (Thanksgiving Day) and there is even more to learn. I guess that good though. It keeps the mental cobwebs from becoming too dense. Still sometimes my brain could just use a rest. In spite of wearing out my brain I do love what these remarkable tools can do.

On another subject I painted a landscape of a Montana sunrise I observed early one morning a couple of years ago. I had just returned from my morning jog and saw this scene over my daughter's home. Because of the lone pine which had so much character I call this "Sunrise Sentinel". That particular tree stands in  her  corral.
"Sunrise Sentinel"


My thought for the day:

Tolerance
"I accept myself just as I am, I'm not here just to please others,
and I accept others just as they are, they are not here just to please me!"
- Ernie Kleven -



Thursday, April 7, 2011

Display Panels E-Manual

"hi, ernie - wanted to show you my finished gallery - we got your manual, made a few small changes to fit my needs. The panels get lots of positive comments, and the gallery is beautiful. Thanks -"    
     I am so pleased to show the Art Display Panels made by a purchaser of my E-Manual. Etty Pacifico has recently opened an Art Gallery/Art Supply store in San Luis Obispo, CA called Art Central. She used her ingenuity & my E-Manual plans to make the large wall display below.


I'm blown away by how great this looks. The panels are covered with indoor/outdoor carpeting which gives a warm professional look. It is a combination Art Gallery and Art Supply Store. She operates it under her married name, Etty Pacifico and it is called "Art Central" and is located at 1329 Monterey St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. She publishes the Art Central Blog. Click on it to check it out. She also paints watercolor under her maiden name, Etty Klinger. You can see Etty's Website here.
     Nancy & I have returned to Loomis, CA where I am busy filling orders for my Display Panel E-Manual through eBay.  Click here to see my E-Manual listing on eBay. Now that the rains seem to have subsided I plan to begin painting my miniature personal 6" x 8" destop paintings. They will be designed to both sit on a desk or hang in groupings on the wall. You'll be seeing some soon. Well, th-th-that's all for now.

Quote for the day: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" by Theodore Roosevelt

Please forward this Blog to anyone you feel might be interested in it and your comments are welcome. If you are a visitor and you would like to be added to my Blog email list please email me at ernie@erniekleven.com. Also please visit my website at http://www.erniekleven.com/ On the other hand if you wish to be removed from this list please reply with "Cancel" written in the subject line.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Art Masterpieces in Parisian apartment

Can you even imagine walking into this place? How exciting would that be? "For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside." Click on hotlink below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html

I don't wish to be arrogant enough to include my work in the class of the above. Still I want to keep you abreast of my progress. Below is a copy of my recent magazine cover of a desert campfire scene published in Jan 2011.  I painted this 2 years ago after I witnessed the scene during a TV filming of our group by the "Retirement Living" show.  I saw the beautiful colors of the setting sun on the mountains on the monitor and was disappointed to find the mountains cropped out of the frame when the show aired on TV.

Thought for the Day: "The purpose of our lives is to add value to the people of this generation and those that follow." 
by Buckminster Fuller. 
What a wonderful idea to aspire to.


Since it's been so long since my last post I want to get this out quickly but I feel I should tell you that I recently spent time in a Phoenix hospital having neuro surgery to prevent a stroke. Before Christmas I took a nasty fall on my head which almost caused me to black out. It was the day before we were to leave for Orange County, So Calif. to spend Christmas with family so I didn't go to the doctor though I had a low grade headache and was quite sore for awhile.

Last week I began noticing some weird things like my right side wasn't functioning normally. My coordination was off and my right foot was dragging a little. My headache returned and I had a loss of energy and overall weakness. The final straw was when I lost my speech for about five minutes. All I could do was to utter gibberish. I tried and tried and after five minutes or so my speech slowly returned. We went to the local fire station in Quartzsite and had the EMT examine me and he advised us to go to the Parker hospital about 30 miles away for a CT scan. It was there that we learned I had a pool of blood on my left side pressing against my brain. They immediately called for an airplane to medivac me to a trauma center in Phoenix. I couldn't see Nancy because she had been waiting in the truck with Taco, our little Chihuahua, I just had to call her on the cell phone and she had to drive home alone to our 5th wheel parked in the desert. Son Keith drove over from Orange county to help her along with some good friends who took care of Taco while she visited me in the hospital.

The procedure was sort of simple. The team of Neurosurgeons had to drill through my skull to drain the blood and relieve the pressure which took about 20 minutes. (they had a really sharp drill) I was in ICU for 2 days laying flat on my back to let the wound drain completely and checked out on the fourth day with no discernable damage. I have to return for a another CT scan and staple removal on 3/9. Otherwise I feel great and very lucky. My guardian angel came through yet once again.    

Please forward this Blog to anyone you feel might be interested in it and your comments are welcome. If you are a visitor and you would like to be added to my Blog email list please email me at ernie@erniekleven.com. Also please visit my website at http://www.erniekleven.com/ On the other hand if you wish to be removed from this list please reply with "Cancel" written in the subject line.