Holiday

Mercury Grill, ea is 30" x 30" on paper

It occurred to me today that next week is the 4th of July. I've had more than one set of plans to celebrate that holiday, but with my workload looming like a giant hungry monster, I cancelled them all. It's now the end of that crazy busy week, and tomorrow I deliver 10 large photos and three paintings for one project, two abstracts that I did just for fun, a test strip so the client can sign off of two photos that I'll be printing for room art for a San Diego hotel, a large giclee on canvas, and the three paintings above, for Mercury Grill.

I've had a real workout, and have only been to the gym one day this week.

The Mercury Grill paintings are physically hard to do. All the scratches simulating etched lines are made by the clever use of a nail gouged into four layers of gesso. Then I rub oil paint over the whole surface, rub it in good, then start removing it, so that it stays in lines and picks up the texture of the gesso. Then comes the oil paint smeared and scrubbed, then oil pastels, then random mark making with paint markers and Prismacolor. It creates a very rich patinaed surface, but like I said, it's a workout.

I'm worn out.

Which brings me back to the holiday next week. After tomorrow's delivery, I only have one project left in the studio, and that's the triptych, which will take no time at all to complete - then what am I gonna do? Sure wish I would have kept some of those plans....last minute airfares really aren't worth it.