Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Listening to Patti LaBelle sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow inspired this quick painting on the Saatchi website. The floating angel is taken loosely from a black chalk drawing by Edgar Degas "Study for Les Malheurs"

Autrey Food

Hamburgers are not typical Autrey food but they have their place in the all-American menu. What I remember eating most as a kid and at Autrey relative's houses is fried chicken, macaroni salad, potato salad, wilted lettuce (with bacon, onions and hot bacon grease mixed with vinegar), pickled beets with onions in vinegar, macaroni with giblets, corn, potatoes, pressure cooked meats, tongue, bbq, homemade pickles, homemade preserves, creamed corn, succotash, coconut cake, pecan pie and cherry cobbler. Yum!

The Big Wave

Another Saatchi website painting.

Rolling Star Ball

Be careful when you follow the star ball. Sometimes it can lead to fame and fortune other times it can lead to trouble.

Susan not so Blue

Here's the original photo taken by E.A. Autrey of Susan with her boat.

Susan Blue

I painted a version of this on the Saatchi website. But, as happens with digital art from time to time, it disappeared before I could save it. So, I repainted the image using Corel IX in greater detail (but, perhaps, with bigger feet).

Sister Susan was blue because she couldn't take the boat she found home with her - so I made her blue.

White Daisy

An ode to the end of summer with lyrics from Gene Autrey's "Back in the Saddle Again"

I'm back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

The Dive

Another image from the Saatchi website I painted in September.

Might as well just dive right into it.

Back in the Saddle Again

Even though history was my least favorite subject in school, thanks to an elementary school teacher who unfairly "filed" my history test in the "circular file" (ie trash can) and graded me accordingly, I have become more interested in the history of bloodlines lately.

Here's a photo of 5th cousin once removed Orvon Gene Autry from Film Daily 1953 who, despite certain excesses, apparently lived a full 91 years.

What I like most about researching genetics is discovering how long the Autreys and other relatives live - despite various poor lifestyle choices

Perhaps genetics trumps bad choice with a little bit of luck thrown in.

Mono Lisa - Saatchi Art

The link to the Saatchi website in the U.K. lets anyone sign up and paint. It's fun! It's easy to then download your art (as with one of the pictures I did in August included here).

Since this blog is supposed to be about Autrey art - if any Autreys are out there painting and want to send me jpgs of their art (+ how they are related), I'd love to post that and expand the blog's coverage to include more artistic Autreys. Painting on the Saatchi website then downloading the image created is one quick way to do that.

It All Started in Europe

The English Coles (relatives who owned Plymoth Rock and settled Rhode Island) married the Gatewoods (who fought in every American war) who married the Houskeepers who married the Autreys (who also fought in every American war).

In both marriage and war, the family has been fighting each other in America since colonial times and in England, France and Germany before that.

When A Name = A Symbol

From the Webster dictionary: AUGHT means anything and zero. It is also a NAUGHT (as in nothing) misdivided as an AUGHT.

The anything goes AUGHT (which is not a "nothing") combined with the strong and long lived TREE is the perfect definition for an AUGHTREE (AUTREY).

Since other Autreys use the 0 + tree symbol as a signature, (E.A. and Hercules to name two) I have chosen to personalize the family icon with my "lea" (Lucy Ellen Autrey) initials combined, when a digital signature is appropriate, with a Yellow-faced independent bee.