Taking Inventory

These last few days have been more about business and less about painting.  I will be shipping a couple of pieces to my gallery in Atlanta.  My other gallery is in Kennebunkport, Maine but I am lucky that the owner spends half the year here in Florida.  He'll be coming by this week to pick up a dozen or so small pieces.  Framing is not one of my favorite activities but a necessity.  What I do like is to put all the paintings out and look at them as a unit.  I can immediately tell which ones are my strongest and which ones shouldn't be let out of the house.  Every piece has to be photographed by my husband and printed out on a consignment sheet.  Fortunately, he's good at that.  When I get the images, I will share them on the blog.  I'm hoping for a good summer but with the economy in the condition it's in and now the volcano in Iceland, I'm not taking any bets.

Hazards of a Still Life Painter

Painting can present all kinds of hazards for the painter.  Plein-air painters have to endure the outdoor elements.  All oil painters have to be aware of the metals contained in their paints.  But the still-life painter has it's own set of problems.  For example, flowers wilt before the painting is finished.  Fruit becomes moldy and shrivels looking nothing like it did in its original, fresh form.  Well I am adding one more to the list.  Before I left for the M Gallery workshop with Sadie Valeri, I began a large still life containing objects and foods from yesteryear.  I should have waited till I got back but I couldn't wait.  I decided the jug of milk could be put in the refrigerator and the jar of preserves would last with no problem.  The item that became the "hazard" was the mozzarella cheese.  After wrapping it up in white cheese cloth with interesting folds and positioning it just right, I got right down to business.  Upon leaving Sunday, I decided it would be okay to leave it out because it was still package in a clear plastic wrapper.  I didn't want to disturb the folds that I had arranged so carefully and the weather was still a little chilly in the studio.  After arriving back, I began working again.  I noticed the cheese had a small swell on the side but everything was in its proper place.  Today when I entered the studio, the most gosh awful smell greeted me like a thousand rotten eggs.  The wrapper had broken from the pressure of the rotting cheese and my beautiful still life set-up looked like a white paint-ball had exploded all over it.  Everything needed to be removed and cleaned.  I opened the windows immediately.  I'm only hoping I can arrange everything back to its original position after buying a new package of cheese.  The picture shows how far I got before the explosion.