Frances Vettergreen, “South Calgary Spring II”, 2010; oil and wax on panel, 24.5 x 48 inches

How delightful to check my email tonight and find, amongst the usual spam, a cheerful note from The Cushy Life telling me that they have sold three paintings from the Park series.  Wow.  Maybe I shouldn’t be so excited (selling the stuff, is, after all, part of the point.   I’d make paintings anyway, but if this is really truly going to be a career move, they can’t all live in the basement) but I feel like Sally Field.  You like me, you really like me!

And, bless their hearts, Cushy Life wants more.  So Steam I: King Edward, Steam II: Elbow River, and Sky Fragments are off to the framers as soon as they’re cured enough to survive the trip.  Which means hauling them down the scary elevator, taking their pictures in the natural light of the loading dock, stacking them in the back of the Subaru, driving on eggshells across town.  Without frames the panels especially seem very vulnerable, though actually they are less so than similar sized works on canvas.   Ah, bubble wrap.

I’ll miss my babies, though.  Something of my heart goes into each one of these things and it’s hard to send them out there into the world — but I’m pretty sure I’ll get over that when the cheque arrives!  Hi ho, hi ho, to the art supply store we go…