Model

A scientifically grounded anatomical artist must be innovative and intrepid. Katrina van Grouw’s model for the pouter pigeon in her ten- star Unfeathered Bird and the finished drawing.

Penelope

Penelope Caldwell is an artist with a striking visual style She paints larger- than- life portraits with mythological, sometimes erotic elements (not all the images on her site are “safe” for work!) In our room when we stayed with her and her husband Jim, the Old Gunkie , was this painting, towering over us. We …

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Feathered Tyrants

It is almost 30 years since Robert Bakker referred to Tyrannosaurus rex as the “roadrunner from Hell”. Some of us, like John McLaughlin, got the message right away. After all the intervening years, as the lines between “bird” and “dinosaur” have become blurrier and blurrier, the Zeitgeist is finally catching up. The first big “bird”, …

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La Loca

First there were my old friend John Davila, Catron County rancher, world traveler, jack of all trades… in the old days and today. and his then wife Becky… They were among the first friends I made in New Mexico. They are in Querencia- the- book in several places, and came up to Albuuquerque to comfort …

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New Darnes!

Jacques Bollelli has revived the nearly dead Darne company, and is planning to make a few very high grade guns. Although these are beyond my reach I am delighted to see the old design going into its third century with renewed vision and originality. Jacques writes:”As you know we are starting to reorganize the team …

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The Unfeathered Bird: or, why I was in Laramie

Carlos Martinez del Rio, “cyborg naturalist”, polymath, bibliophile, horseman, game cook, teacher, and doubtless a host of other things I don’t know about yet,  is director of the Berry Center Biodiversity Institute at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. In that position, supervising an ever- expanding net woven between science, art, and nature, he decided …

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Worst Gun Engraving…

EVER? A “Palo Alto Rigby”, sent by Jonathan who has an old London one. Makes this English- made one, which we used to groan about, look quite tasteful. At least the lions are realistic… Do remember that both of these guns cost more than my house– come to think of it, the engraved coyotes cost …

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Belated…

Mini-reviews of new books by Friends- of- Q- Blog, with apologies for now- constant tardiness. Moro Rogers first published book is a graphic novel, City in the Desert . Moro may be trained as an animator, but she has a subtle mind and a deadly sense of humor, and, as one reviewer notes, there is …

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