. . . dodged the lightning

while the storms raged, and I mean raged, I was in the basement finishing up this small painting, another, and perhaps the last, in the Blue Church Bus series. I love how it looks all crusty and textured. That old bus was a gold mine for inspiration. I don't know if I can resist not painting any more of it. Probably not. The ones I have painted are small . . . perhaps studies for some big one.



Here's the big canvas that I am reconstructing. . . there are multiple layers of gesso on it, all of which took time to dry. Then there is another layer of Venetian plaster, which is mostly dry this morning. This picture doesn't really show the texture I put in both the gesso and the plaster. I plan to work on this some more today. . . but honestly, I don't have anything specific in mind yet. I'll probably just let it tell me what it wants to be. I'll start by doing some underlayers of colors.



As I was shooting the above pictures I came across some really old pieces that have never seen the light of day. . . this is a small piece, painted on a piece of wood, probably three or four years old, when I was still pretty unsure of myself. I was channeling my inner Karen Jacobs. . . but she's the best, and I found I was just copying her style. Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but a bad imitation is an insult.



This is another piece that has languished in the pile of old stuff. It's actually a piece cut from a larger flat canvas. . . I hated the big piece, but thought there were salvageable smaller pieces in it. Since I paint flat on unstretched canvas, I am experimenting with ways to display these flat pieces for the show coming up. This one involves a 2" deep piece of styrofoam and carpet tape. It kind of works, is easy to flatten again for real stretching and framing, and very lightweight. So I did accomplish a few things in the studio yesterday, as the lightning, rain, hail, and wind darkened midday until it looked like it was 9:00 p.m. I was blissfully ignorant of the whole mess until I came up for air and saw that some of the tall plants in the garden had been flattened. The weather people tell us that the entire week will likely be stormy. That's okay, I have work to do inside.