F. Vettergreen, "Red Apple" 2011; oil and wax on canvas, 6 x 6 inches

Well, after five entertaining days of squeezing drops into our toddler’s squinched-shut little eyes, and washing our hands practically to the point of removing the skin, we are over the contagious part of pinkeye and back to our regularly scheduled chaos.  Yesterday the boy went to day care, and darling hubby and I packed both SUVs with all the basement paintings that would fit.   -25.4 (the point four seems important, somehow) and snowing.  Sideways.  A grand time was had by all.

So now my studio is packed full of paintings and broken down shelving units.  The job is only half done — we’ll still have to rent a truck for the big ones, but I think we’ll wait for better weather — but in the meantime I’m going to have to spend precious painting time creating some order.  Not sure I can put the shelves back together by myself but I am going to try, before I break my neck tripping over them.

Today, though, I had coffee and conversation with the thoughtful and talented Verna Vogel, finished the bad apple painting from last week, and had all kinds of fun messing up Steam III.  The steam series has taken off in all sorts of interesting directions.  More on that later.  The apple, well, I ate it yesterday.  So the painted apple didn’t change (much) but I spent a fun hour messing with the background.  I’m kind of liking it now.  I wouldn’t have thought that 6×6 would seem so much smaller than the 8×8 squares I was using for Park studies, but it sure does.  Which doesn’t seem to make the painting go any faster!

And guess what:  twenty+ years later, the paintings I made with my home-brewed wax medium still smell of beeswax.  Wonderful.