Flying Objects 2.0: Plummet

This the the maquette for Plummet- my concept for Flying Objects 2.0 that was turned in last Saturday. That's ol TailWing in triplicate diving toward his certain impact with the pavement while trying to catch 8 eggs all on the same trajectory. Or maybe the eggs can float and our TailWings are trying gather them up and float away before impact- that one sounds pretty unlikely. I'm fairly certain the concept leans more toward the prior. Anyway, standing beneath it would be pretty keen at full size. I hope we all get the chance.
Meanwhile...
On the trip back from the ranch I got out the camera and asked E to shoot as I drove. She took nearly 300 picts, and I culled that down to around 70, and from there pulled 15 that I'm going to paint in oil. They have a great sense of separation from a vast and ideal western landscape. The foreground is filled with signs, roads, wires, machinery- the apparatus of industrialized living that defines the mode of the images, and the landscape rolls away from it while being cut through by it. Next time we head up E is going to drive the last leg in and first leg out- there are endless miles of "parked" yellow coal cars on the RR tracks that begin midway down from Helena and go out beyond Great Falls toward Canada. Having them wind through as an element of the landscape is what I am really excited about, but I have to get my painting chops back. So I'll start with what we got this time.
I started the first one today, after spending last Friday getting the MDF board (better than canvas), cutting it to 3 sizes, then sanding & priming them. Today I pulled out my old undergrad paining supplies that I have been hauling around unused for 20 years (yikes!) and sorted them a bit- then went to the art store and dropped $50 on the odds and ends of paint, thinner, liquin, two brushes, a pallet knife. Then I came home and drilled a big thumb hole through a little board to use as a pallet, softened the edges with sandpaper, grabbed the laptop and covered it in saran wrap and dialed up the picture I wanted to start with, put on a book on CD, and knocked out #1 in the series. Painting is instantly gratifying, and if you do a nice job there is no worry losing it while pulling a mold, which is just the first concern in the insane amount of the additional time/expense that a good sculpture demands if you want to keep it. It is a nice change of pace for a bit, to be able to knock out a complete work or two per day. And it allows me to get away from the monotony of pulling molds for a bit, in case I do get the Flying Object commission- because I will be working with molds for a few months straight if I get it.
I'll post an image of the painting when I'm more sure that it is done- it still needs a cow and some irrigation wheels added that I chickened out on...