Why is it called that?

Acumen “A keen mind and a sharp wit can pierce confusion as easily as a needle passes through cloth. – Merriam-Webster.

A Block of Time A friend described the lower block as lazy. The upper block was putting in the effort to levitate, but not the other one. There’s an ink sketch in a travel sketchbook with this scene and caption.

The Blue-Eyed Leech And 25 other leeches. Did you look for the Blue-Eyed Leech? Did you? My work is done.

Bucks Mills (The Gut) The Gut was blasted through the rocks in Victorian times to create a small harbor. As a young girl, my mother vacationed at Bucks Mills near Bideford, England where she was born. In October 2025 we stayed in the Boathouse Cottage for a couple weeks and returned her ashes to the seaside. I felt undeniably of that place and never wanted to leave. This is a memory compressed expression of that ocean.

Buttes Natural land formations.

Camellia A flowering Camellia tree grows in my neighbors yard. This is a Palette.

Cardinal Point When I walk Royal Lake, my ritual is to observe the four directions of the compass. They’re called cardinal points. There’s a high point I go to. Sometimes there are cardinals there. So maybe that’s a geography pun.

Chrysalis Catepillars become butterflies.

Clara Clara was the fifth living rhinoceros to be seen in Europe in modern times. In 1738, her mother was killed by Indian hunters somewhere in Assam. She was adopted by the director of the Dutch East India Company in Bengal. She became quite tame and was brought to the Netherlands in 1740. She toured many European cities until her death in 1758 in England. She was memorialized by a number of well-known artists of the day.This piece of fallen wood along the Royal Lake trail is alive to me. I feel the spirit of a rhinoceros, and even further back, a triceratops. So, yes, Clara.

Clementine This cat lives in Seattle with my lovely niece, Caitlyn. She’s a special cat. Perfect for people with allergies who can’t bear to be without a feline in their lives.

Courtyard Another stocastic work. A rectangle of darkerness bordered by lighterness.

Decoy Viaduct? Anyway, can you see the duck a little bit? This particular type of brush stroke I call a “Tetra” as in the fish. So if you want a new painting like this from me, you say, “do one of those Tetra paintings.” And I will.

Fox and Prayer Flags I witnessed this moment in my own backyard.

From the Bridge There’s a bridge crossing Rabbits Branch on the way to Royal Lake. The creek runs North to South. In the Autumn the leaves create a fantastical mosaic on the dark water. This would make a lovely scarf for me Mum.

Golden Eggs Stocastic pattern-making. Marking time.

Hartland Near Stoke Hartland is another seaside locale in North Devon near where my mother was a kid. The southwestern part of England is wild and windy. Hartland in particular experiences some of the roughest seas, especially in Winter. Numerous seafaring vessels have met their bitter end in those waters. My mom loved that kind of place. This painting utilizes my new discovery, the palette knife, to carve out the turbulence.

The Human Condition Life is a fishbowl and the glass is always cleaner on the other side. We may have all we need, but we still look through the glass.

Islands of Dragons Probably painting #4 in this cycle. Part of the Palette series of works. I think of the Manga Drifting Dragons. A Jalepeño and a French Fry Yummy delicious.

Joshua Tree In February 2022, I made a crazy trip with my friend Stuart from Monterey CA to Santa Fe NM, with stops at Joshua Tree in CA nad the Grand Canyon in AZ. I’ve seen big canyons before. But Joshua Tree and the area around it? Just otherworldly. I got attacked by a cactus at one point. They sneak up on you.

King’s Cottage Nautical Corner In the very small village of Bucks Mills, this cottage is perched at the edge of a steep incline, above old lime kilns. There’s a small waterfall just below and slightly North of the cottage. A stream leaves the ground for couple dozen feet on it’s way over the cliff to the Atlantic Ocean below.

Kite Shop I have become indifferent to right angles. In the course of avoiding them, we arrive at this. There’s almost always a kite shop at the beach with products assembled and hanging throughout the store. Look up “Kite Laundry” if you want a know a bit of jargon.

Layer Cake Another stocastic pattern piece. The extra texture in this is from scraping sidewalk chalk into the wet paint.

Los Cuatros Cocodrilos These crocodile and zigzag shapes find their modern origins in a book called Design Motifs of Ancient Mexico by Jorge Enciso, first pulished in 1947. It is part of the collection of Dover books that has been accumulating in my library for 40+ years. The crocodile shape is from Guerrero. The zigzag shapes are similar to those on a cylindrical stamping tool found in Tula, Hidalgo.

The Orange Line Many trips to the Freer Gallery on the Metro Orange Line from Vienna to Smithsonian. My favorite gallery.

Paid Advertisement The whales akways have a hustle to get money, but don’t put in much real effort.

Prayer Flag (Lung Ta) A palette painting with scraping. Little touches of color that mean to echo the prayer flags of Tibet. One of the symbols on a prayer flag is the WInd Horse or Lung Ta.

Principle of Least Time First proposed by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1662, as a means of explaining the ordinary law of refraction of light. And there you have it.

Royal Lake I have circumnavigated this lake many hundreds of times. An elevation shift along the trail of about 50 feet and the many views offered by its letter J shape result in a remarkable variety of light and color. Birds, turtles, toads, fish, bugs, beaver, deer, a miniature horse, and yes, squirrels. It is a revelatory place.

Spirit Level Phoenix IV The phoenix is symbolic of rebirth, renewal, immortality, resurrection, and the sun. My phoenixes carry some part of that story. Whether it be multiple suns, the skeleton of a crow, or Christ outside the cave pondering the rolling away of the stone.

Six-Turtle-Bale Hundreds of turtles live in the lake waters. At the lake on any given non-Winter day they may be sunning themselves on the shoreline, logs, and rocks. The turtle I’m looking for spends it’s time on land. The Box Turtle. I asked a four-year-old if he knows why they’re called box turtles. His answer, “Because they live in a box.” Needless to say, I love turtles. I will block traffic to help a turtle to safety. They are one of the most noble and mysterious of creatures. A group of turtles? You guessed it: a bale.

St. George’s Sword He killed a dragon with it. It is the name of a type of plant that has leaves that look like swords.

Seated Gnome I am lifelong wary of things kitchy and cute. Gnomes have long inhabited that list. Until...in 2025, on the trip to North Devon to distribute me Mum’s ashes, I chanced upon a garden center near our AirBnB, and discovered a substantial Gnome Preserve. Gorgeous old things full of life and humor and gentleness. That collection of 2000+ characters is more than 40 years old. Gnomes are often represented pursuing activities such as fishing, driving tractors, riding frogs, caring for Nature’s creatures and quite often, sitting on a bench holding a bird. In the process of exploring the Preserve, I became smitten. Smitten I tell you. To the point that I will unabashedly spend time scouring garden centers hoping to find an affordable gnome. If you have a nice gnome you don’t want anymore, LMK.

Two Olives Sometimes an olive is just an olive.

Window Box Surrealism will question your answers.

A few are missing. Will update when I update.

John Gratz