Birdhouse Inferno
March 17th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in

This was a bad day – I had run out of white, so had to use this ancient dry spackle-like “underpainting white” that I had for some reason, which stank to high heaven and dried way too quickly. I started with the sky and worked downwards, and you can see the deterioration of my calm as things steadily got worse (easel broke, etc etc etc.) And I have wanted to paint these birdhouses for months, because the colours in the grasses and stones around them are breathtaking – but when my ire is up, I forget that the colours actually only constitute a small fraction of space in an ocean of grey. I wanted to show them as I saw / felt them, so I did… this may go on the “disasters” page soon