Grilled Cheese Halloween Party

We had a little Halloween/movie nite party at the boathouse.

Instead of the usual pizza, I went to Trader Joes and got stuff for grilled cheese.

I do make excellent grilled cheese and it was very well-received.

I got some nice organic whole wheat grainy bread, 4 kinds of cheeses, and fresh corn tortillas for the quesadilla-minded.

Aimee brought tomato soup.

It was a nice time.

Because we project movies against the wall where the life jacket racks are stored, we moved them outside and everyone thought we were open for paddling.

My Stop & Stare candid:

The New Easel Bummer

Oh Jerrys Artarama, you should know better!

You can do better!

My easel arrived.

UPS, signature required, so of course the UPS guy just left a big 90lb box in my lobby without even ringing my bell, much less asking for a signature.

That's not Jerry's fault tho.

What IS Jerry's fault is not packing this thing properly.

Also, none of the lumber parts are labeled like they are in the instruction video.

Thank goodness I took pictures before opening everything.

I started following the assembly video, in which the parts were nicely labeled.

After I assembled the base, I discovered extremely damaged hardware, and I cannot proceed any further.

WTF, did this get run over by a fork lift?

I am NOT HAPPY.

I went thru everything and inventoried it the best I could.  It seems (??) this is the only problem part.

So I called Jerrys and they asked for an email with pictures, which I sent. They said they have to contact the warehouse and they'll be in touch with me in the next day.

I just want them to send over replacement hardware!

So now I have $650 worth of useless easel bits 

taking up an enormous amount of floor space.

Also, I got rid of the (broken and too-large) table next to my easel and everything is in absolute chaos and disarray and it's really stressing me out.

I'm completely on hold til Jerrys sorts this out because even though I got 2 new utility carts to replace the table, I can't position anything or even use my studio with the old easel.

This fucking sucks, because it's due to a lack of quality control.

I expect more, especially for something this nice and expensive!

***ALSO if you get your birthday gift from Sephora CHECK IT because mine was half stolen, I'm sure by a store employee.

47 & The Giant Pigeon

Today I am 47.

I took the day off to paint the giant pigeon on the High Line, and since it gets so crowded up there, I was positioned and ready to go right a sunrise, 7:23am.

The pigeon took around 4 hours to complete.

8x10 oil

I LOVE the pigeon!

He's hand-painted and lives up at 30th and 10th, but not permanently.

***********

DRUSILLA sent me the best card ever, here i am painting on a snailchicken!!

It's amazing

Painting by Drusilla Kehl

************

My aunt sent me a very unexpected and generous check for my birthday.

I sat with it for a moment, processing.

And then I told myself in a very stern voice that I am not allowed to pay the vet bill with it.

All I ever do is take care of things.

And if there isn't something immediate to take care of, I stash anything extra away because I know something will come up that needs taking care of, which always does happen.

I do small stuff for myself here and there but it's been a long time since I did something just for myself of any significance.

So, I sat there looking at the check and said "You can do anything with this.  You don't have to save it, you don't have to take care of stuff with it. What do you want?"

I replied, "..... I dunno."

And that's not a good thing.

It's not good to be at a place in life where you have forgotten how to want anything and have no idea what you do want.

I mentioned this to Kedrin and she completely understood. She got it.

(This is also something I told Daya in the summer.... we went over her numbers and I told her to take x amount of money and do whatever she wants with it.

Both of us are unbalanced with money in this way; we're not over-spenders, we have anxiety spending too much, particularly on ourselves. She probably learned this from me, unfortunately. She's more of a tight-wad than I am, actually.)

So I said to myself, "Just think about it."

The next morning I realized there is something I really do want and need, although it's more of a want.

It's been so long I actually have forgotten that I need/want a new studio easel.

Part of the reason I haven't been doing much studio work is that my workspace is uncomfortable.

I feel claustrophobic and squeezed in too tight.  My easel is 15 years old, was a cheapie when I got it, doesn't stay upright anymore without constant adjustment, is wobbly, and has had replacement parts, and it's just time for something new and nice.

So I ordered a new easel from Jerrys with a crank system, and it should arrive tomorrow! How exciting!

The Shush Lady

The Shush Lady is a sculpture called Water's Soul... but at the boathouse we call her the Shush Lady.

She didn't photograph well outdoors.

8x10 oil

Here she is under my easel lamp.

I have been planning to paint her since last week, and have thinking a lot about how to approach it.

I arrived in Newport NJ later than I wanted, but I did need the later morning because I had a hotline shift last night and didn't get home until almost 12:30am.

Unfortunately it was 12pm by the time I was set up ready to begin painting, which is the worst time for light.  That mid-day overhead light is not my favorite. And of course it moves.

Anyhow since she is a white statue and i wanted to get that glow, I laid out a 5-value string, sketched her out, did the sky and the background, and then did the statue.

It was 4 hours and 15 mins...... and I'm not happy with her and need to do it again.  Earlier, before the light moves around the statue.

I used too many values.  While I don't think my darkest value is wrong, I also think I could go a little lighter. And maybe start the block in with only 2 values and keep it to 4 total.

But the big problem is making corrections, which is impossible because the light and shadow shapes changed every time i looked at her.

The final layer is different tints of white, which was my intention from the start.

Also I did the sky first- which was a darker value than the entire statue- but maybe I'll change that too next time.

I did have to constantly remind myself that this is an extremely difficult painting to do plein air, and because of that I'm not going to be too self-critical.  But I still want to give it a second attempt.

Set up, 12 pm, good light on the statue

4:15pm, the light is not so nice anymore

I was really tired afterwards and decided to rest and have some dinner before heading back to the city.

I need to ponder the Shush Lady more, there is a lot to think about.

But I did learn a lot today so overall it was a very successful day.

Rat Pumpkin

Every year we have a pumpkin carving party at the boathouse.
I had egg tempera class but I skipped it to go.

I made a rat pumpkin.

Isis really doesn't like getting her antibiotics... but at least I know I can pill her.

I didn't think I could and it's a relief that I can.... even though it's nowhere as easy as the nightly Pebble-Pill.

A Great New Thing I learned Plein Airing!

Today I went painting with Janae in Green-Wood Cemetery.

We stood on top of the catacombs.

Lately I feel like I have been in too much of a routine, too comfortable.

That's not good.

So I mixed things up and put some colors on my palette I don't normally use.

Three are very old tubes and I didn't check them before I went out and the caps were stuck.

I got 2 of them open.

The third was really stuck!

Damn!

Hot water always fixes this, but I didn't have any of that.

So the only thing I could think to do was stick the cap end of the tube in my armpit and get everything else set up.

And you know what? IT WORKED!

If you are outdoors with a stuck oil paint cap, stick it in your armpit for a few minutes.

*******

This is an experimental painting and for what I got out of it and my intentions for the foliage in the back, I am happy with it.

8x10 oil

2 different lightings on the painting...

I think the first one might be better.

The catacombs were open so we went inside.  It would be a cool place to paint.

Matching dinner stuff

The Last Friday Sunset

 This is it until next year... I'm so sad the season is done!