Somebody took one of my paintings!

Actually I’ve placed five.

The first two went at the same time. And who took those first two paintings?

Art connoisseurs? Dealers? Wealthy people?

Nope.

My mom and my sister. I gave each of them a painting for a Christmas present. I was very touched that they actually requested a painting as a gift. The support I’ve received in my family has been very inspirational.

Then my dad had a neighbor notice their new painting and say really nice things about it. Dad said that he was sure that I would give him a painting as well, and he asked for two! One for his office, one for the lobby of his office.

How about that?

The fifth went to a dear friend, Guillermo Zelaya. Guillermo works for a bank, and I actually called him and asked if he would hang a painting in his office. He was delighted! We had a great lunch together that day. So this whole thing about placing paintings hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be.

I think I expected family and friends to mock and laugh at me when I first started painting. No one has. Everyone has seemed very sincere when they’ve made a fuss over my latest painting. So I’m happy that those two paintings have found homes. That’s what I want. I want my paintings to wind up somewhere where they’ll be loved.

I also need to get rid of them so that they don’t pile up and take over my house. I guess they’re kind of like puppies in that sense.

So I’m going to be a little bit assertive about finding places to hang my artwork. This will be a little challenging for me, because being timid is one of my most annoying faults.

Oh, and here's my lasted painting:

I’m going through changes

My set up for painting has been cumbersome up till now. I’ve been using a ceramic tile covered in wax paper for a palette. I’ve been laying out a big piece of board on the kitchen table where I arrange all my tools.

Now I’ve gone out and purchased an actual, Plexiglas, artist’s palette. It’s made a change immediately. I like using the palette, but I will admit that I have lifted my palette vertically a couple of times and stained my shirt with paint.

I bought a folding table at the Desert Industries thrift shop. I can organize my paints, supplies and tools in a more compact manner. The result so far has been that I have achieved a new concentration on my work.

One of the reasons that I’m so happy with my changes is that I understand that it’s important that I avoid getting too deeply entrenched in bad habits.

I don’t even want bad habits in my style of painting. No ruts.

That’s one of the reasons that I’m taking different kinds of instruction, and trying to fix paintings after I have finish and when I’m not satisfied with the final result.

Below is one if the paintings I fixed.

I loved it after I finished it. Great story: I called my good friend Memo after I finished this one, and I asked him if he would like to have it. He said he would love to have it, and so I took it to him and had a lovely lunch with him.

That’s what my painting is all about. That’s why I’m doing this. I want to see what new directions painting will bring to my life.