2009 will bring big life changes

"Living behind a Glass House," 18" x 24", oil on 2" cradled gessobord

Guess what? A bug got up my butt and I actually forced myself to get back to my easel yesterday. We have closed our restaurant and inn for a bit (we have a contract, but it may take awhile for the sale to go through) and I have officially resigned from that part of my life.

So, the first week after the holidays was rather surreal for me. My girls are gone now. The oldest is in Sweden/Bosnia with her fiance. It's his home(s) and he hasn't been there in years. My youngest is starting her last year at University of IL at Chicago. That's not so far away, but she doesn't get home much. As I said in a previous post, my dog passed away this fall, and now my employees (which I used to complain about) are gone. Be careful what you wish for.

The web work I've been doing for a company out of South Dakota has cut my hours way back. Crap. Sorry about the pity party. I'll snap out of it. So, anyway, I did sell a painting the other day and it made me realize that I can't depend on other people for my livelihood. So, it's back to the easel.

I do love still lifes and for some reason had gotten away from them. This still life is from a photo I took a few months ago. I love the challenge of glass and reflections.

The main lesson here is to not look at the glass as a glass, but as an abstract and to paint it as I SEE it, bit by bit. All of a sudden it becomes real. I paint most of my paintings over red cad medium. This one I painted rather quickly (for oils) and left a bit of the red peeking through.