How Fast Time Passes When You're Having Fun!

Taking advantage of technology to merge old photos by E.A. Autrey, by me, and by Amber (as posted to her Instagram account and easily downloaded,) with a recent quilted place mat, to show the passage of time (from 1952 to 2015)

My Idea of Heaven

Doing artwork with twin grandsons!
Top to Bottom
1.  Cole Taylor's self portrait
2.  Wilson Taylor's graffiti on my ink and watercolor painting of the kitchen nook window and wall
3.  Wilson's portrait of me.  He wanted to make sure he got all my neck wrinkles in!
4.  Cole's original shark painting - soon to be made into a new T Shirt for him.
5.  My attempt to capture Wilson, wearing the roadrunner applique T shirt I made.  Close but no cigar.
6.  The real Wilson, wearing a different T shirt.

New Fabulous Taylor Twin Art

Top two ink & crayon pieces by Cole Taylor (age 5), bottom pen & ink & watercolor portrait of his 95 year old great grandma Autrey by Wilson Taylor (age 5).

Moving the Twins to Marin County

I wish!  But, if they can't move physically, at least they can be moved digitally.  Here, Wilson and Cole Taylor, in Seattle, July 2013, amazingly show up at North Beach, December 2011.  Added benefits:  a cool fractal from Apophysis, and some great effects from Alien Skin's Exposure 5.

Airplanes!

More fun with Alien Skin software, including this Technicolor overlay on photo composites from Seattle (top) and Solana Beach (bottom)

Historical Family and Travel Picture Postcards

Various recent Strathmore 4x6 watercolor postcards painted at the request of (and for) sister Susan:

Top to Bottom Left to Right:
The Autrey Sisters
Jean Anne, around 1945 in Delong, Indiana
Laura Jo on bicycle in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1949
Elsa sitting on the stone wall in the front yard of the El Sueno house in Santa Barbara, in the early 1960s
Little Lucy at the beach in Santa Barbara, 1953
Susan in Paradise, 1955

Misc Photo Pictures
Trees in PoliPoli State Park on Maui in December 2012
Cousin Earl on pig in Macy, Indiana in the 1920s
Santa Ynez September 2012

The Taylors in Seattle at the beach in December 2013
Matt playing soccer with son Cole
Amber and Wilson on the beach
Trees and view
Amber and Cole near the brick building

Creating Great Art With Grandsons Cole and Wilson Taylor

Art projects done this past weekend in Seattle with twins Cole and Wilson, age 4 years and 5 months
Top to Bottom:
First:  Wilson's original drawing of his stuffed bunny.  After making a few pictures, he folded them up and put them in his backpack.  "I can take them out and look at them later and they will make me happy,"  Wilson explained.  And, at the farmer's market, he did just that!
Second:  A pencil drawing I did of the stuffed bunny for Cole to color.  This version was rejected when the colored pencil made a slight hole in the paper.  Another, completed version, stayed in Seattle.
Third:  A picture Cole drew of himself with his Grandma Lucy.
Fourth:  A sketch I drew of Cole
Fifth:  A sketch I drew of Cole's blue eye
Sixth:  A sketch I drew of Wilson eating his cereal.  He might look like this in another 6 years.

Better Bears

Juggling bears, bears who play games, bears bearing balloons - these are all better bears than the ones in Miley Cyrus's cringe-worthy X rated dance at the 2013 MTV-VMAs.  The last image of the bear with balloons and the capital letter B is from the fabulous book The Taylor Twins in Alphabet World available on Blurb here:  http://www.blurb.com/b/2981021-the-taylor-twins-in-alphabet-world

Tooth Fairy Pillows

My imperfect sewing technique shows, but at least these tooth fairy pillows (based on a concept imagined by Amber Taylor) are original!   The two pillows above feature original art by twins Wilson Taylor (pillow on the left) and Cole Taylor (pillow on the right) printed on 100% cotton fabric.  The paintings were done when the twins were 3 years old.  The pillow backs feature a little snap pocket to hold a tooth and a financial reward from the tooth fairy in exchange for said tooth.  The pillow backs feature two different tooth fairy stencils painted on fabric and snaps by yours truly.

Fraternal Twin Art by Cole and Wilson Taylor

Recent artworks by twins Cole and Wilson Taylor and me (Grandma Lucy to my two 4-year old grandsons).
From top to bottom:
1.  Mountain by Wilson and Bobo Fett by Cole:  Using new birthday present watercolors.  Unlike identical twins, who seem to paint in the same style, or together (see more on famous twin painters below), Wilson and Cole have distinct painting styles.
2.  Lion by Wilson and Rhino by Cole:  More watercolors and mixed media.  The objective was to paint in and around pencil drawings I did of a lion and a rhino but the original sketches were pretty much obliterated with paint.
3.  The Big W (untitled) by Wilson:  Grandma Lucy added the W to Wilson's mixed media painting using fingerpaints and pen & ink
4.  Alien Thomas by Lucy:  With help from Cole, and named by Cole and Wilson, using mixed media and fingerpaints.

I'm always struck by how different Cole and Wilson's painting styles are.  Wilson likes to fill the page with color (often preferring black) and Cole likes to leave spaces between his dots of color.  I was curious how fraternal twin art differs from identical twin art and found the following of interest:


Brazilian identical twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo
http://diattaart.wordpress.com/tag/identical-twins/

American identical twins Doug and Mike Starn
http://www.starnstudio.com/

See also Wikipedia Twins in Art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_twins#Twins_in_art

Twin Photos - Film vs Digital

No matter what they are shot with (SLR camera with B/W film or digital camera with color converted to B/W in Photoshop), twins Cole and Wilson Taylor always look great!  Photo above shot by Susan in San Anselmo, March 2013 with her old film camera.  Photo below shot by me in color in Seattle, February 2013 with my Nikon digital camera.

Seattle Art

Art created in Seattle on my latest visit to see twin grandsons Cole and Wilson Taylor.

From top to bottom:

Face, mixed media painting by Wilson Taylor, age 3 1/2
Color Gradation, finger painting by Cole Taylor, age 3 1/2
Farmer's Market, pencil sketch by Lucy Autrey Wilson (age withheld)
Cow, finger painting  and ink by Lucy Autrey Wilson

The Taylor Twins in Silverpoint

Cole and Wilson Taylor, age 3, in Silverpoint on Gesso Sottile (rabbit skin glue & marble dust) on 9x12 cradled board.

The Letter S

The rooster took Cole to the Sand at the Surf's edge near a Sepia-colored S and left him there.  Very Soon a Seahorse came to See him.  "You can Skip to V from here," the odd little fish said.  Your brother is visiting T and U so you don't have to go there too in order to finish the alphabet.

The Letter R

Cole followed one of the queen bees, and arrived in the land of the Red-colored R, where he caught a ride on a Rooster strutting by.  In the distance, he heard the katydid's song, which sounded like "Kate-she-did," and knew he was on the Right Road.

The Letter Q

Laughing, Wilson and Cole pointed up into the sky near a Quiet-blue-colored Q.  The small dots they had seen flying towards them in N, O and P were finally clear enough to identify.  "It's a bunch of king bees!" Cole exclaimed.  "No, those are Queen bees." Wilson corrected his brother.   "If we follow them, I wonder if they will lead us home?"  Cole Questioned.

The Letter P

The bench moved further, taking the twins to the land of the Purple-colored P.  There the two boys were joined by a Pair of Pelicans.  Unlike the frog and owl, these birds were more Preoccupied with each other than in what Cole and Wilson were looking at.

The Letter O

The landscape changed as the twins' bench moved nearer to an Orange-colored O.  Cole and Wilson kept their eyes Open and continued to look Out.  Soon an Owl flew down to join them.  "Hoooo do you see?" the bird asked.  But like the frog before him, the owl didn't wait for an answer before he, too, exited.

The Letter N

Relieved to have come to the right Next place, Wilson and Cole ended up together in a Nice patch of ice plant.  They decided to rest near a Navy-blue colored N.  Looking up the boys spotted something in the sky just as a Narrow-mouthed frog jumped into Wilson's lap.  "What are you two looking at?" the amphibian asked but left before he got an answer.

The Letter M

Cole and Wilson Met again on a tree-lined road near some Morning glories.  They were stopped by a Monkey balancing on a Melon-colored M.  "Mind you don't miss N," the monkey hollered.  "I guess we have to go through the whole alphabet in the right order before we can leave," Cole said to his brother.  "I think you are right," Wilson agreed.  Rather than travel past the Mammal down the Middle of the road, the twins took off in two different directions, not sure where they were going next.