All it can be

My teacher, mentor and friend, Elmer Ruff, says a frame cannot make a painting better, but the right framing can make it all that it can be. Kind of like a jewel in a setting, I guess. Anyway, my primary work today was getting this painting ready for my client to pick up at Final Friday at the Pendleton this week. If you want to see this multi-media home portrait without the frame, check the previous post.

My client looked at this a few weeks ago and liked it, so I just had to finish it off today.

I did do quite a bit of painting this morning: preliminary acrylic sketches of two more home portraits. I'm working on two Hyde Park houses right now. I'll post these sketches later this week.

Got the cold press board for one of those paintings and need to gesso it real good before getting started on the first layer. Laid down a good background for another 16 x 20 inch painting today and dropped my oil painting of the pansies off at the studio so it will be ready to varnish once it's dry.

"Finding your keys after thinking you'd lost them for good" is the often-overlooked joy I focused on today from Neil Pasricha's "Book of Awesome." Yes, that is a great feeling! As was my relief when I dropped my camera on the pavement Friday afternoon and found it's still working fine. Hooray. Not so, my Epson color printer. It's been a workhorse and a great asset to my business, so I gave it a decent burial and a fond farewell as I await the replacement. Boy, I didn't realize how much I rely on my digital camera, computer, and color printer to produce my paintings. These are certainly 3 things that are in my "Book of Awesome" and for which I am most grateful!