Visitors: Day 7, Nov. 7, 2009

More visitors today, all welcome. First I went for a long walk north of the Barn, delighting in the scenery, the foliage, the rocks, and the human artifacts. Then, after returning, and working a bit,  John Donahoe and his grayhound (whose name I keep forgetting) showed up for more advice about painting his screen door and to show me his Hubble telescope galaxy photos. He had a loupe and had printed them on a 13 x 19″ paper and they are phenomenal, even more so under the magnifying glass. While we were looking at the galaxies, John saw the studio’s other visitor, who peered out around the corner of a storage space.

This Critter was perhaps the source of various sounds I’ve noted emanating from the far back of studio:

The photo is dreadful, but the mouse was without fear of people or flash photos, until she caught a smell of the dog, who was peacefully sleeping at our feet. That sent her scuttling.

An even more welcome visitor, a bit later, was Richard Stephens, this time without flute or oils, but with a package that had come to the post office, although addressed to the Goldwell House. I fear that the internet vendors send their packages as they deem most beneficial, regardless of address. So Richard had to act as postal carrier (luckily his wife works at the Post Office). And why was this insignificant bit of package so important?

Because I’m useless without my coffee. We brought our Peet’s beans and our coffee grinder, but forgot our filter. And we couldn’t find filters for the house coffee maker. Moreover, I’ve gotten finicky about paper filters — they often taste like, well, paper. So I ordered (oh extravagance!) a new gold filter from an Amazon vendor (cost me $6.95 plus shipping) and although I told Amazon the Goldwell House address, it went to the PO.  I hope Richard realizes that he may have saved a great world painting, just by his courteous delivery system.

And did I do any painting (after my long desert walk, my viewing of the mouse, my joy at the coffee filter, and some chatting up of a car full of tourists?) Well, some…

The little masonite boards got further work, although I didn’t start a third one.

Amargosa Desert Panel 7, 12 x 16, oil on board, 2009

Amargosa Desert Panel 2, 12 x 16″, oil on board, 2009

I will put these boards aside and work on others in the coming days, and then come back to them for final work.  On the linen panels, I managed to get paint all over Panel #3, the scene of the desert as it starts to swing south, into the Funeral Mountains just beyond Ash Meadows. And I reworked Panels 2 (third working) and 1 (second working). I opened the second bottle of Liquin and ordered more from Dick Blick. I just hope it comes via UPS and not the USPS. I’ll have to start paying Richard hourly rates and benefits of a postal carrier.

I think I can now, as Jef Gunn would put it,  start painting” on Panel 2. Panel 1 needs more underpainting and panel 3 has just barely gotten some smears. I will be trying to start a new panel each day (although that might be too ambitious), reworking the older ones as I start new ones. That may help me sort out issues that arise before they become crises. Hopefully, the panels will be ready for me to “start painting” (ie they will have 3 days of painting on them) by the end of next week. Then I can begin working color and detail and shape and re-shape. And re-color. And re-form.

My cussing of linen is getting more refined. There are a lot of ways to go wrong with the stuff and saving it after you’ve mucked it up is much more difficult that just wiping it down. Ah life. Ah painting.

Reported from Beatty, Nevada, where Jer reports that Oregon and Penn State both lost their football games today. Ta-ta. But Northwestern beat Iowa!