Pool Bowl No. 16

10 x 10 oil on hardboard panel

The entirety of last week was spent working on a commissioned Pool Bowl painting for Elliot Fouts owner of Elliot Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California. Two of my online colleagues, Christopher Stott, and Vic Vicini are represented there. I've been fortunate to receive a number of requests for commissions in the last few weeks, and will begin my most recent commission today. Something completely different, for a long time friend, as a gift for his brother.

Mason Murer Fine Art, here in Atlanta, has proven that they are definitely a more conducive space for my work. I got a call this weekend from Mark that two more of my paintings had sold. To add a cherry on top of that good news, about twenty minutes after the call from Mark, I received a call from Cathy at Dean Day Gallery in Houston, calling to tell me that she had just sold one of my paintings. This is a trend that I hope will continue.

In a previous post I mentioned that I was considering the idea of doing a "big" painting. I received a number of "go for it" responses about that plan, so I'm going to give it a try. I think this recent burst of sales has given me the financial breathing room to spend some serious time on a larger painting. Unfortunately commercially produced cradled panels aren't available in a size I need to do this painting. I could use canvas, but I've become addicted to working on a hard surface, so I'll need to build one. Before I started to paint full-time I used to spend my time building furiture, and remodeling our house.

The bed, pictured above, was the last piece of furniture I built before I began my new career as an artist. I also put in the floors, created the wainscoting, and the beamed ceiling. I have to admit, I still mourn the loss of time to build furniture, and re-model the house. Building the surface for this new painting will be a good excuse to head back out into the shop, and create a little sawdust. I'll keep you all posted on how this new project goes.