. . . encountered disaster, deer

Curiosity got the better of me yesterday, and I stripped off a piece of blue tape to see what the piece I had been working on looked like . . . and as I stripped it off, small pieces of paint came off with the tape. At first I thought it would be a simple little touch up, but as I pulled on the bits that were left hanging, great sheets of paint started coming off the surface.



It was at first disconcerting, then kind of fascinating, in a decidedly awful way. . . it was kind of like peeling off skin after a bad sunburn. . . it's creepy but you can't stop. I don't know how smart it is to show this on an art blog. I decided I would. I'm just glad I discovered it before I went any further with the painting. Of course I would never try to sell anything like this.


I don't know what happened, but I suspect moisture had something to do with these results; either moisture from not letting the plaster coat dry sufficiently, or moisture in the air here since it appears that Kansas has moved to the tropics and it's humid beyond relief. Or maybe a combination of the two. I have never ever had this happen before. It's really weird because it seems like all of the acrylic layers bonded together and then just pulled off. The first layer I put on this painting was a bright yellow; then some red layers, letting some of the yellow show through. All paints I used were artist grade. . . the most popular artist paints, I think. It all came off, back down to the plaster layer, with a few spots of some yellow. I had just read on WetCanvas about a guy who purposely makes "skins" of acrylic paint to use in his paintings and collages, and it sounded interesting. I have a lifetime supply of red skins now. . . and then this "disaster" brings to mind the whole issue of longevity in art, etc., topics for another day.



Yesterday evening we had visitors, including this very weird-acting little deer. That's Steve, my husband (the Future Farmer of America alum who wanted to be a vet when he was a kid) with his buddy, 4-year-old Stella, our neighbor. The deer is obviously not frightened of them. Off to the right of this picture is another's neighbor's yard. Those neighbors have a Rhodesian ridgeback dog that's about 3/4 the size of the deer in this picture. I hear Nala bark at me when she's in the house and I'm in the garden. But Nala didn't even notice this little thing as it ran right past her. Then the deer seemed almost to be taunting Nala, or wanting to play with her. Finally a golf course tractor came by and that scared the deer who ran a short distance. That emboldened Nala, who ran after her.



This picture was shot immediately before the deer charged at Nala, who was on the opposite side of the trampoline. Nala took off like a shot, but then came right back at the deer, who finally bounded out of the area. Janet, Nala's owner, and I took a lot of pictures of the whole episode, and the little kids were just amazed and delighted. So much for the excitement at my house. . . oh, except for the monsoon that struck about 10:00 p.m.


UPDATE ON PAINTING: It's doomed, jinxed, cursed. I put the painting on the back porch to work on getting the last little bits off; propped it up against the railing; went out to weed the garden; heard a golf ball come whizzing through the trees; sure enough, the ball hit the painting, knocked it over. Never before has a golf ball been hit onto the deck. Of course, another way to look at it is that it could have saved me. . . had I been sitting in my usual spot, the ball would have hit me. Oh, and this was just before a fox ran right past me in the yard. . . a fox with not one hair on its tail. This is definitely the Twilight Zone.