Best posts made by BigDub

For anyone interested, I thought I would share with all what I've been working on.

another addition. This is from Idaho at Redfish Lake. I personally took the reference photos and did this piece as a gift for our Niece and her husband about a year ago

My newest painting. This one got on the front page of the Montgomery News, next town over from me. It will be good publicity for the upcoming show in which I am a participant. Always helpful.

here's another one if you haven't seen it yet

This came up on YouTube only 6 months ago. My friend came across it and posted it. So, it’s me and my friends from 28 years ago. I am on the far left, playing the third part.

here is another one for you to look at. from my hometown of Griggstown, NJ

ready for another one? well, here is one I recently parted with...it is a satisfying thing to have people actually want to add my paintings to their collections. Better than sitting in my studio collecting dust and not have anyone looking at them for long stretches of time!And- maybe this will cool you off a little

today I have a piece from Ketchikan Alaska where there was this scene and we even saw some Salmon trying their best to swim up this very strong current. I love attempting to re create the raging white water, and sometimes I get it, and sometimes not so much!

A scene not too far from my home. This is a small switch house originally from the Pennsylvania RR, but the "myth" that has spread about it is that it was the Bridge tender's house, I have since found out otherwise. The PRR bought the Delaware & Raritan Canal and essentially put it out of business in the early 1930s. At its peak, the D&R canal did more commerce than the Erie Canal.

Thought I would share this recent one, just to send greetings to all for a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Another one you may ask why I did. Answer: I wanted to see how it would come out.

This is a new piece I just completed….also a link to the YouTube video of the entire painting from start to finish.

Last Sunday, beautiful sunny, warm day in my neck of the woods, wife and I took a drive into PA specifically for this barn. A long time favorite of mine in Solebury Township, Bucks County. There are so many stone buildings in Pa that I truly admire. Here is the finished piece.

This is a departure from my usual subject matter, but just the same, I love this subject. I shied away from this because I didn’t want to fall on my face. This is a result of much planning and plotting. 5 or more reference scenes, and completely made up background setting. I took longer to do this than usual but I think I am happy I did. Early on I was not planning to show this to anyone, but saw some potential and thought you’d like to see it.
I called it, “High Meadow ride”

I am not here to tell anyone how they should practice whatsoever, or that anything so far mentioned is wrong, by any means……..but allow me to share my own ( fairly unique, maybe ) method of practice.

Let me give you some facts, first.
I am 70, first of all, and not a “comeback” player, but have more or less been playing for the better part of 60 years. I think many of those years where spent playing more incorrectly than correctly, I might add.
The way I practice lately, I would say the last 5 years at least, does not follow anyone else’s suggestions this far. I'm not a rebel, per se, but I am 70, so, “who cares what you think?”. No offense to anyone.
I don’t necessarily warm up much. I ( almost ) always play music to play along with, most of the time using YSB ( Yamaha Silent Brass )
for peace in the house purposes….
So, the set list is vast, and diversified, and that is what keeps my interest. After all, I get to play with Phil Smith, Chris Botti, Al Hirt, Wynton, Wayne Bergeron, Tim Zimmerman and the King's Brass, Herb Alpert, whoever I can find to play with. The list goes on……
I change my set list every day, though not entirely, and try to make it as difficult as possible, yet still keep it fun. To increase my range, I try to play things up an octave. Everything in the entire song. Endurance? I play things in different parts, same song, until all the parts I may have are covered. So, what, you say?
I repeat my earlier comment, “who cares what you think?”
So since Covid, I guess, my range and endurance has reached levels I have never gotten to, nor dreamed possible. True fact. See earlier quote. I am not recommending this method to anyone here. I am just sharing a personal experience. Probably there are many here ( and with good reason ) who would try to tell me I am going about things all wrong. See quote. I'm 70. IDC.
The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. I speak for myself only, and really, you don't have to believe me, it makes no difference to me here. If you heard me ten years ago, and then now, ( live, in person ) you could make a fair assessment, but you can’t. You only have my word on that, so my word is what you get.
Sorry for the length of this short novel, but I felt everything had to be included, and besides, I’m 70.

One of the guys I play trumpet with has only one trumpet to his name.....
Just kidding.

this is a very good photo of nearly exactly how it looked when it was new. Well. My High School trumpet, the Sears Silvertone ( which was actually a Blessing Super Artist ) has been passed on now to some student in the Payette, Idaho School music program.
This was my first real horn and also the horn I used for practice while I was out in Boise, Idaho. It was very handy to have out there for over ten years now. I estimate it was made in 1965 and I was the original and only owner. The sweet part is that some child who may not have the means will now have an instrument to learn on and maybe end up being a great player.
It was certainly not about making a buck on it at all, either. My satisfaction comes from knowing it will be played and hopefully skills will be developed.

here's a bit of a change for me, in that it's a Historical scene of my home town. Around the turn of the century (20th) this was both a general store and post office. In my lifetime there was never a post office and this store was not there anymore. Another one opened a little down the road.

Today I played "Amazing Grace" with a high school senior accompanying me on piano, for his classmates. We had never worked on it together until this morning. We went over it twice, making a few changes here and there.
Here’s what led up to it. My daughter is the High School teacher for( AP English ) for this student. Let's just call him Frankie. She, ( our daughter) assigned them some sort of senior final project that allows them to share with the class a certain interest or passion they may have. Frankie's is Jazz music and music in general. He's a good pianist and even has written some of his own stuff. He wanted to have someone play trumpet along with one of his songs, and he chose Amazing Grace. Teacher then suggests her father can play the trumpet with him, maybe? And so, I did.
When we first started, I thought....hmmm, he seems a little stiff and halting. Oh, well, I thought, it’s his show...
After going over it once, I asked if he would mind some suggestions. He said, no, not at all. I said, how about we do this, that, and that? And he perked right up and said, yeah, that sounds good. Next, and final time we ran through it he was rejuvenated and finally let loose and really was now doing what he could do. We really got on the same channel and felt what we should be doing. It went great when it came time to do it a few minutes later. He then played a few more pieces on his own. What a great experience to hear him play! I enjoyed it, except for the awful traffic I had to face going to the school at rush hour this morning!