Peering out from Shagbark Lumber Shed

First Church, East Haddam CT - looking from Venture and Meg Smith's Gravesites

Venture Smith was a prominent member of the East Haddam and Haddam communities in the early 19th Century. Venture Smith was an African-American farmer and craftsman. Yet, except for his own accounts,  there seems little to document his contributions to Haddam Neck and East Haddam. This painting of First Church, Congregational, is thus symbolic perhaps. His family burial area at the cemetery adjacent to the Church is prominent and overlooks to the sanctuary. 

In his early sixties, he was unjustly charged with the loss of a white man's property and charged for ten pounds while visiting New London. Although being absent from the scene with witnesses, he was still prosecuted. Smith then carried this matter to other courts, claiming his innocence, but the judgment was never reversed. This misleading judgment was made out of discrimination against Black people. Remembering this experience, he said: "Captain Hart was a white gentleman, and I a poor African, therefore it was all right, and good enough for the black dog.^[9] "

It would not be surprising, then, that even though he achieved financial success before he died, that - as an African man - the powers-that-be kept a certain social isolation between the white settlers and Smith.   Just like the stone wall keeps the Smith family gravesites apart from the European area settlers.

Kidnapped when he was six and a half years old in West Africa and taken to Anomabo on the Gold Coast to be sold into slavery. As an adult, he purchased his freedom and that of his family.

Smith experienced multiple personal setbacks. He bought an enslaved Black man for 400 dollars. However, he wanted to return to his old enslaver, so Smith released him. Venture Smith purchased another enslaved Black man for 25 pounds. After his daughter, Hannah was married, she came down with an illness. However, her husband did not pay adequate attention to her health. Although Smith nursed her, she died.  

In 1775, Smith bought a farm at Haddam Neck, on the Salmon River, in Connecticut. By 1778 he had expanded the initial 10 acres to form a farm of at least 130 acres. Additionally, he made a living by fishing, whaling, farming his land, and trading in the Long Island basin.

He lived the remainder of his life at Haddam Neck.^[1] 

(Birth name: Broteer Furro) (c. 1729 – 1805)

Venture Smith (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_Smith
 

Acrylic on board: The Pond"

 

In private collection

Watercolor/Gouache: Volcano Walker

Based on a 2016 documentary film Into the Inferno film directed by Werner Herzog-

 

plein air : At the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, Lavore, TN

This Historic site, The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, in Lavore, TN, is on a river that was dammed up in the 1960s, in order for the Tennesee Valley Authority to build a nucear power plant. The construction resulted in flooding lands where members of the Cherokee Nation had been living.

Naming the site after a local Native American Indian was considered a small political token to the Cherokee in compensation for the dam-flooding and destruction of their historic sites that TVA required to control flooding on the Tennessee River.

 At the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, Lavore, TN ~ plein air watercolor (c) 2011 / Will Brady

In a sense, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum is also a monument to the "Second Trail of Tears" for the Cherokee Nation.

Acrylic painting ~ "Fully Involved"

 "Fully Involved"

acrylic on canvas in frame.

Doing this was particularly intriguing - taking on a triple challenge of depicting water, fire and a night scene in the same piece.

(c) 2021 / Will Brady - in private collection

acrylic painting: Pheasant's Eye

 

oil painting: Rose of Cairo

This is the Nile River delta. The colors are infrared colors so the large red section in the picture are actually agricultural fields. 

oil on canvas board. 

  

 

combine: "La Guerre des Anglais et Indiennes"

 I was with friends recently who asked about if I'd completed any new combines, and I mentioned "La Guerre des Anglais et Indiennes" and they automatically reflex-stated "The French and Indian War".

So well incorporated is this war in the American psyche as the latter, the people fail to see that this is titled as the Canadians (the Quebecers, in particular) describe the war, which was about the exploitive English who made alliances with some of the Iroquois to fight the French and English colonists

watercolor: "The Basics About Painting"

 

watercolor: From a Dream

 

September Watercolors

 

Pennsylvania Farmlands

Chrysler Building NYC

Moodus Res from MSC

Shady Acre, San Diego Area

Remembering the World Trade Center

Remembering where I was:

I went to work on September 11 just returning from vacation.

At the time I was the senior patient advocate at a maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital.

Typically, even when gone for the weekend there is always someone – usually two or three – who want to see me.  I’d been away for over a week. Checking the voice mail, making note of those who’d asked to see me I expected I’d be busy all morning.

Once in the building while walking past the nurse supervisor’s office, some staff were inside talking about a plane crashing into the side of a building and how shocking this was. My guess was they were talking about a film on TV the night before. I gave it little thought. Given how many had called asking to speak with me I headed toward the units to make my rounds through the building.

The facility is constructed as a roundabout. Anyone going to one of the units quite literally passes through each one to get to the next.

During day hours there’s considerably more social and emotional distance between unit staff and the patients; interacting with some reserve except for when patients are attending groups or need fresh bedding, towels or some other items brought from storage. Yet that day things were different. Unusual for the hour (9 am) the nursing station on the unit was empty save for one person, and no one was in the hall.

Everyone had gathered in the two big common rooms. I could hear the TV’s on. There was virtually no conversation taking place. Even the clinicians (who usually didn’t interact with patient or direct line staff except in formal meetings) joined patients and staff filling the two TV rooms. I had to squeeze into one of the rooms to see what they were watching.

People acknowledged my presence, but everyone was focused on the screen. People who had called me said they’d speak to me later.

The north tower of the World Trade Center was on fire. Someone turned to me and said that an airplane had crashed into the tower, just like staff in the nurse supervisor’s office had said.

The second plane had yet to hit.

So I went on to the second unit. Same thing. Everyone crowded into the TV rooms. Everyone intermixed sitting and standing side by side. I don’t think I’d ever seen this before

Upon arrival on the third unit, the halls were empty. So was the nurse call station. The TV rooms were at the far end of the unit. Some were standing in the hall looking in.

As I came to the doorway of one of the rooms, I saw – as did everyone else – a second plane headed towards and witnessed it smash into the south tower.

Off unit activities for the morning were cancelled though people were permitted to go out into the courtyard.

The twin crashes of the towers brought everyone together in a muted unity. Any rancor that might usually have been reported remained unstated.  All of us were stunned.

No one had anything to say.

Watercolor: Landscape: Creek Row

 

Distractions: Jigsaw Puzzling

 

I do jigsaw puzzles daily. About 20 minutes a day. As an exercise. On two different puzzle sites (I'll get to that):

The exercise helps focus on, and sharpen, observational skills needed when I make paintings, calligraphic style texts; or the Combine/Collages.

Some examples:

• aligning shapes with one another;
• recognizing the subtleties of color [for instance, the same color can appear darker or lighter; more of one hue than another);
• visual facets of f a subject in a picture appear alike together are quite dissimilar when apart . . . as two [or more] distinct puzzle parts.

Zimad's Magic Jigsaw Puzzles and Microsoft Jigsaw - doing the daily challenge - are my go-to.

The images are oft mundane, even boring ; but there is setting to change the puzzle form shapes that allows for some change in how the exercise plays through.

ASIDE: Suggestions are welcomed but especially:

• Outer Space / sci-fi / gamer image-ish;
• Anime
• hustle and bustle of life sites
• (cityscapes; farmers markets;
• busy bustle social scenes
• bodegas,
• arts & culture events;
• except for futbol/soccer; rugby, basketball; swim meets, wrestling matches; woodmen's competitions
• but NAH on pro sports extravaganza stuff.

And I >DO< use hints options sometimes, tho try not to. It's not cheating to use tools to help complete a task more adeptly and help improve skills. Magic Jigsaws has an easy to use hints button (lower right panel on this screenshot.

Used it to complete the puzzle and stay in my allowed time parameters [20 minutes] otherwise I could get totally wrapped up and forget everything I need to do for jigsawing.

Haven't the patience to do individual searches on these jigsaw visual options, but welcome site specific suggestions.

IMAGE : Screenshot of a Magic Jigsaw Puzzle I worked on today 3 Sept 2021.

Waterscapes: six works in various mediums

Key West Squall - watercolor

Leaving Belize - watercolor

Night scene - CT River - acrylic on canvas

CR River - Moonset - acrylic on board

Maine Lake - Watercolor

Misquamicut Beach RI - watercolor

 

Illuminated Text: "Governments Exist by Consent"

 

Watercolor series: Wrestlers

 

Combine: LUG

 

Watercolor: Wild Mushrooms