Catching Up

I cannot believe how many months have gone by since I posted any blogs. I have been busy and have painted quite a few new pieces. I have also been enjoying trying out under paintings beneath my pastels, and am still experimenting with the effects.

A month ago I had a rather disturbing and life shaking event occur that gave me cause to realize my mortality. It was a Saturday morning and I got up around 7:23 to put our old dog Chica outside. I walked her down the hall and into the kitchen. I usually give her treats in the morning and so I reached into a drawer and pulled out the bag of Duck strips. As I pulled them out and started to open the bag, I had an overwhelming feeling of being very nauseated, and felt terribly weak and disoriented. I realized I could not even open the bag to get the treats out and simply leaned back and slid open the sliding glass door and let Chica outside

The next thing I realized was I was lying on the kitchen floor, my head hurt and two of our kitchen chairs were lying on their sides. I thought, what on earth am I doing on the floor. I set one of the chairs upright and tried to get up and passed out again. The next thin I realized is my wife Cindy is slapping my face and saying stay awake, don't go out, stay with me. She had apparently called my daughter who was out running and told her I had passed out and then called 911.  My daughter made a beeline back home and was home before the ambulance arrived. My wife and daughter helped me into a chair and I felt very disoriented and was perpsiring profusely and shaking. When the paramedics arrived, they took my vital signs and put oxygen on me. They could apparently tell that my heart and was behaving erratically and my blood pressure was way out of wack. I was soon loaded into an ambulance and rushed to Auburn Faith hospital.

I had wonderful care and attention at the hospital and they hooked me up to monitors and did an EKG realizing that I was in a condition called atrial fibrillation, where the heart chambers get off sync and beat erratically depriving ones body of life giving oxygen. That is why I had passed out and become so disoriented. I was admitted into intensive care for a day and a half until the medication the doctors had given me brought my heart back in control, and it began beating normally once again. I was seen by a cardiologist and asked him whether anything I had been doing the day before had contributed to my situation. He said no, not at all. Your heart has performed well for 68 years and just decided it isn't going to continue to beat as it had. From now on, you will just need to take a prescription medication that will keep your heart on track. I remained there overnight for observation and tests and was released after lunch the following day to go home.  The doctor said I could resume my normal routine, but my wife was very concerned and did not want me doing much of anything until we could see the cardiologist we had been referred to.

We had planned on leaving on vacation for Pismo Beach the following day prior to this happening, and my son and his new wife Maria were planning on flying out from Lynchburg, Virginia to join us in Pismo Beach. First thing Monday morning, I called the Cardilologists office and asked if it was possible for them to squeeze me in that day. I explained our situation and they said they would see what they could do. Several hours later I received confirmation that Dr Berte could see us at 3:45 that afternoon. Once I arrived at the doctors office we were ushered into a room and his nurse Diana administered an EKG to let the doctor see how my heart was performing at that moment. When the doctor came in, he reviewed it and said we were free to go to Pismo Beach and he would see me when I got back to wear a monitor for 24 hours and also to take a stress test.   Cindy was concerned but the Doctor allied her fears and we went home to pack.

It was great to be hitting the road early in the morning and we had an uneventful and pleasant drive over Pacheco Pass and on down Highway 101 to Pismo Beach. We got there about an hour and a half after our son and his bride Maria. They had set the trailer up and then gone for a walk on the beach.  Unfortunately our trailer had leaked over the past two years and water had ruined the bedding and blankets and sleeping bags in the trailer. It was a mess to clean up and Cindy went to buy all new bedding and blankets. It was her birthday that day and we celebrated by going to dinner at the Old Port Inn on the pier in Avila Beach. We had a wonderful meal and afterwards went back to the trailer, made up fresh beds with the new linens and went to sleep for a good nights rest. Our week in Pismo was wonderful and relaxing. I started painting a scene of the lagoon in front of the sand dunes while we were there. I finished it this past week. I hope you like this one. It was started on a cool foggy morning and it was a joy to enjoy the solitude and see all of the waterfowl activity in the lagoon. 

Over a week ago I took my stress test and passed it with flying colors. Dr. Berte told me I have no restrictions and can do anything I want. He doesn't need to see me for six months. God is good, and I feel grateful and blessed to be alive to enjoy my family and continue to paint. Life is too short, so don't forget to do the things you really wan to and enjoy each and every day.

Getting Organized - Part II

One is always happy to make some painting sales, because it puts money in the bank for more art products. My goal has been to make sure that I have everything organized and in a place I can get to immediately when I paint in my studio. That being said, I have more work to do to continually improve the studio set up but that will come with time.

I also wanted to make sure that I had everything I needed for plein aire painting, so that when I go out, I have a good set up. Initially I had my full French Easel, with my pastels packed in plastic boxes filled with rice so that they would not break.  Although this method worked for awhile, I found it to be less than desirable over time.  The other thing was, the plastic boxes took all of the space in the French easel drawer and left very little room for stumps, wipes, some pastel pencils and charcoal.

I also decided that

I would follow Richard McKinley's suggestion and make sure that I separated all of my pastels into values in a new Dakota Art portable pastel box that I purchased. This box is well designed, and has memory foam that the pastels rest on, and memory foam on the two wood inserts that fasten over the pastels to keep them from moving when you are traveling. I purchased the smaller box that is 13" X 14" and it holds a huge amount of half stick pastels. This box sits comfortably on the drawer of my French Easel.  My current pastel count is almost 300, with available space for more. That provides me with a varied pallet of both hard and soft pastels that are with me when I am painting outdoors in some beautiful locale. I am no longer frustrated by not having the color I want to use and making do with something that really is not adequate.

The second item I purchased was an umbrella to shade both me and my work when I am outdoors painting plein aire. After reading all the reviews, I bought the Better Brella canopy, and am very pleased with its design, and vented canopy. The great thing is, it will clamp onto a square or round leg and has well engineered clamps. Someone put a great deal of thought into the design of this product. After roasting in the sun a few times, this will be super, plus it will help by providing me shade for my work so I can actually realize the appropriate color I am putting on my paper.

The third item I purchased was some Dakota Art Boards with Wallis paper already mounted on a foam core so they provide a nice sturdy surface for plein aire work. Thanks Dakota Art for providing this great product premounted, it saves me the hassle, and is light and portable. I had purchased some Courfix Boards also for plein aire work, and they too are a good product. Every artist seems to like a different surface to work on and it has a lot to do with their style, their pastel strokes on the paper, the way they have been taught to work or just personal preference.  With all these nice additions to my plein aire kit, one can see I am already to go out this week with my new tools to paint in the high sierras. Happy painting, and do get organized.

Painting Acceptance and Sales

Well this has been a wonderful two week for news of acceptance into shows and painting sales.  Two weeks ago I received my acceptance letter into the Pastels in Light show. This is a juried show that is being put on by the West Coast Pastel Society at The Gallery, 48 Natomas Street in Folsom. I will enter two paintings, one of the wine country called "Kiss of Spring on the Vineyard" and the other " Morning Sun on Monument Valley." This Wednesday I also received my acceptance email from KVIE Television for my painting, "Where Eagles Soar", that I donated as an entry into their juried Art Auction to be held September 19th.  2011. We will receive two tickets for the black tie event, and also a years membership with KVIE Television.

I made the decision a few weeks ago to have new business cards made professionally. I went down to talk to Drew Lord at Printmasters here in Auburn. He was friendly and helpful and said he could make several samples for me on the photos I provided. He said he would call me when the designs were ready then I could choose the one I liked.  Several days later I had terrific samples and chose one with a vertical format of one of my recent wine country paintings. Drew did not flinch when I asked if it was possible to have some the next day for the Artwalk. He said they would be ready at 3:30 PM, and so I was able to go by and pick them up. They were very nicely done and I was pleased would have them for the Auburn Artwalk that evening. While I was at Tsudas in Old Town Auburn I handed out several cards to interested people who liked my work.

Now that I have the cards, I carry them with me, and when I went to the dentist on Tuesday for a teeth cleaning I handed one to my oral surgeon who had just checked my teeth, and said "Doctor Hakima, when you have time check out my new website." To my surprise, she went to her office computer and pulled my site up right away. The next thing I know, she is calling to me, asking me how much this painting or that painting is while I am still in the chair with the hygenist working on my teeth.  Then she said, "Oh, I love this one called Afternoon's glow on the Vineyard, I want this one, how much is it?" I told her the size and the price and said it was matted and framed and she said, oh great, I'll have a check for you tomorrow if you want to bring it to the office." I happily delivered the painting the next day and collected my check. I took it home and copied it, and then took it to the bank and deposited it in my art account.

Today I went by Tsudas to check on my paintings and to see if I needed to replace my business cards and immediately saw that one painting was gone. Alexandra, the owner saw me and said, "Hi Paul, I sold one of your paintings the other day and the buyer used a Mastercard for the purchase. I waited for it to clear, which it did today, so I can pay you since you are here. " I was delighted with this good news, and will have to take a new painting down to Tsudas to replace the vacancy. My art account finally has some cash flow and I can purchase more supplies and some items I have wanted for some time. It is such a good feeling to paint things I love painting and have people purchasing them because they like the finished product. Life really could not get any better.

Another Milestone

This past week I bit the bullet and took advantage of an offer through Go-Daddy to use one of their many hundreds of template styles to build my Website for the name domain I purchased last year. My son is a very good graphic designer and knows a lot about building websites however; he has been too busy to help put something together. I have had the name domain for almost a year and felt it was time to get something going that looked more professional for my art. After all, the link is available with several professional pastel society organizations and galleries, and did not look very good at all.

Building a website myself, now how hard could that be? I am not what you would call a techy or a computer geek. I have stayed active with computers since I retired and do know my way around a little. Just enough to get myself in trouble from time to time. Well Go-Daddy, show me what you've got! There are not idiot instructions for building a website, but there are enough drop dons on various pages that one can research a question and figure out how to use their product. I did run into several problems when I chose a ready made site, that one could change the printed words but changing the pictures was a lot more difficult.

I switched to a template style and color that I liked and started over. Fortunately it was fairly simple and I was able to make changes in the templates and upload photos and size them correctly to work on the various pages. My biggest challenge came when I decided to upload some of my art pictures. Getting the painting titles in and also the paintings was a huge issue and I ran into a few snags, and deleted it all deciding I would try that another day when I was fresh. The wait helped and I methodically worked out the way I wanted them to appear and managed with some setbacks to design the page the way I wanted. I would have liked to put borders around the pictures but that would take more knowledge than I have to know how to do that.

The template level that I chose only includes 5 pages for their $2.99 per month hosting charge for three years. If I was a more prosperous artist I would have elected to get a bigger package, but this is a good way to start out, and perhaps I can add to what I have started in the future. Yes, okay, I know I am cheap, but artist supplies are a more important concern right now. I also would have liked to change the name of one of the pages that says services, however the page names are locked in and not changeable  from what I can figure out. I really do not need a page by this title, I would rather have had another gallery page. The last page is a contact sheet that allows interested persons to email me. I tested this feature and was pleased to see that it does work.

Now that I am finished and have uploaded my Website, please feel free to visit and let me know what you think of my it. You can find the site at http://www.paulmharman.com

A Pastel Paper Review

I have been reading comments on Flickr of persons who are new to pastel painting and enjoying the medium very much. I have seen several very bad pieces of advice from novices who have said things like, "I just use computer paper and it works fine for me", or I just use a piece of clean cardboard." Some of these kinds of bad advice motivated me to do a short synopsis of pastel papers for people who have not tried them or cannot access them at their local art store. So below is a list of those I have tried, and my preferences and those I will not likely use again. 

I will go ahead an number the different papers to keep them separated. They are not in any particular order: 

1. Ampersand pastel board - museum series panel - I bought several of these for plein aire work. They have a sanded surface hand applied with Kaolin clay ground textured with fine marble dust granules. My pastel mentor uses these a lot and likes them. I used one for a plein aire painting last month and found the surface to be quite fine. I did not like it nearly as much as the Colourfix Board, but it is okay. I will probably not buy any more, I prefer the Colourfix or the Rtistx boards.

2. Canson MI-Tientes - assorted colors a 98 lb paper that has a smooth side and a rough side. It is my least favorite, the smooth side, which I prefer does not take a lot of pastel, but is okay for quick in the field sketches. The rough side is difficult to cover the pattern in the paper unless of course you like to paint fast and loose, and use very soft pastels. Then it will probably be fine.

3. There are two types of Art Spectrum Colourfix pastel paper.

(a.) Art Spectrum, Colourfix sanded paper - Comes in 20 different colors. I like the texture, but the paper is not very heavy. It does take pastel quite well. It will more likely curl if it gets damp because of the light weight.

(b). Art Spectrum, Colourfix Plein Aire Painting Board -  I purchased some     12" X 16" boards and really liked the surface. The Boards come in a selection of 17 colors including white. The cost was around $8.60 per board.  It does come in larger sizes for example 14" X 18" boards. It takes pastel well, is heavy enough to use without a backing board and will drop in a frame if you want to. I painted my "Water, Life Blood of the Range" painting with this board. This one is first rate.

4. Sennelier "La Carte" pastel paper. This is an excellent paper and the tooth is made from a vegetable substance and takes pastel really well. I have used it a lot and really like it. The only warning I have is be extremely careful to never get it damp or try a water color wash on it, it will destroy the paper surface completely. This is an excellent paper for studio work, and for plein aire if there is no chance of rain! 

5. Pastel Mat pastel paper - I found this to be a very smooth surface almost like a velour. It does not hold a lot of pastel and so I was disappointed with it and frustrated because I could not blend on this surface and get the effect without the tooth filling completely. It is not a paper I am likely to buy again. In fairness to those who love this surface I am glad you like it. 

6. Richardson sanded pastel paper - I have just purchased three large sheets of 18 X 24 in three different colors, I believe there are seven choices of color. It has a more course surface than Colourfix paper, and the paper is a little heavier. I am painting a pastel with it now and while it takes multiple layers of pastel well, it is more difficult to do fine detail because of the coarse surface. For those of you who are not into detail, you will love it. 

7. RTISTX 280- I purchased several of their boards which are heavy enough to use for plein aire work. I really liked the sanded surface which comes in Taupe or white. It is tough, heavier than the Colourfix Board , takes a lot of pastel, and will take water color washes, Turpenoid washes, oils, acrylic or charcoal. Do not use alcohol or acetone with this board, it will dissolve the tooth. The largest size it comes in is the 18" X 24" which I used for my Bald Eagle pastel.  It is acid, lead and Barium free and 100% archival quality. The man who designed it is a roofer and a pastel artist who was not happy with the products on the market and decided to design his own. He is trying to get it marked with some of the larger suppliers. His product is a little pricey but very good quality and you can find RTISTX in a web search. 

8. Wallis paper - I just received my order of several 8 pad books of this paper in 9" x 12" and 12" X 16" sizes after buying some larger 18" X 24" and 24" x 36" sheets of this linen based paper. It is strong, a rag based paper, heavier and will take water or turps washes if that is what you like to do before starting your drawing. This is a professional archival surface and comes in museum or professional grades. It is available in Belgian Mist or White.  I am planning on using it for my next painting and it is already to go on my easel. I like the feel, and it seems to have a really good tooth. Many pastel artists I have spoken to with the Pastel Society of the West Coast  love this paper the most of all they have tried. I have a similar response based on its texture. It does take a lot of pastel and one can blend on this paper. A word of caution though, if you blend with your fingers, it will take layers of skin off before you know it. 

There are other papers out there, I have not yet tried. I would be interested in hearing from any other pastel artists who like other papers and why. Keep painting and share your tips to help other artists improve their art.

A Fogggy Day on Lion Creek

Cindy and I were out for a ride on this particular foggy day just exploring the area between Ojai and Santa Paula . We had just climbed over some hills shortly after leaving Ojai and were descending down the hill on the old Ojai to Santa Paula road when I saw a lovely oak covered swale that might be a good painting.  I stopped the car to have a look and took a few pictures. I took a few different shots and noted the colors and the light and overcast sky with the fog creeping over the distant hills.  I got back in the car and we continued down the road and drove over this lovely gorge, but could not stop because there was no safe place to pull over. I drove a little further and found a place wide enough to turn around and went back across the bridge and did a u-turn into a turnout just a short distance above the bridge and parked the car.

Our navigation unit in the car indicated the gorge was Lion Creek. Lion Creek flows through a gorge that it has cut in the sandstone rock of the beautiful valley that it cuts through. Like many streams in southern California, it likely drys up in the summer, but during the rainy season it flows fast and furious carrying runoff all the way to the sea. Where the bridge crosses over the little gorge that Lion Creek has cut it is probably 20 feet deep. 

I walked down the hill to the bridge and looked at the gorge from the bridge and was amazed at the rocks and trees, and color I saw.  There were so many shades of green, ochre colored and rust red stained rocks, dark green water and some water worn granite boulders.  I decided to climb down into the gorge and see what it looked like from below. My painter senses were on high awareness, and my eyes were filled with this beautiful scene I was seeing for the first time. My ears tuned into the sound of the water rushing through the rocks, tumbling and twisting over and around obstacles it had gradually worn down over many centuries of time. I could hear birds tweeting and talking to one another in the trees. I stood on a rocky sandstone outcrop above the stream and drank in the beauty of this place. The fog creeping over the distant hills, the stillness of the place, different songs of the many birds and the sound of rushing water. The oak trees and vines that dangled down the walls had fresh green leaves, broken here and there by dappled sun. Contrasting colors everywhere, and even emerald green grass on a sloping hill the stream had cut through. This scene spoke to me and cried out to be painted.  

I made mental notes of the colors, the lighting, and took several pictures with my Canon camera so that I would have some good reference photos to use when I got back home. My easel was in the car, but there wasn't time nor a safe place to set up and paint right there. 

A week and a half later I had cleared time to begin the painting of Lion Creek. I chose a  20" X 16" RTISTX board for the painting. I also decided that I would block in some basic undercolor areas using some of my Nupastels. I did a rough sketch of the scene on the board and then carefully laid down the undercolorss of blue where the mountains would go, green for some of the tree areas, brown for the ground under the trees and maroon for some of the rock undercolor. Once these colors were in place I brushed them with Turpenoid and allowed the colors to run a little. This was a new effort for me, I had wanted to try this technique on one of my pastels after watching a Richard McKinley DVD. I was very pleased with the result and it took about ten minutes for the Turpenoid to dry. I had a nice even color distribution over the areas and then began to apply the sky, clouds and some of the mountain detail with both Rembrandt and Winsor Newton pastels. Things moved along well in the early stages and I began working on the tree trunks and also the rocks lining the streambed.

The painting seemed extremely busy and detailed and as time went by and I moved further along I got to a point where I just seemed to block. This may surprise you since I am so much of a detail person in most of my paintings. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to complete this painting and get it to look right and capture the wonderful scene I had viewed. My reference photos were good, but I was having difficulty getting the rocks to look realistic. They had such unusual roundness on some of them, they looked like someone had dumped a truck load of cement and smoothed it in humps and swirls, and then covered parts of it with vegetation. The bank on the one side was cut more sheer, and the vines trailed over it, so there was a lot going on there. I was also concerned that there was so much green from so much vegetation, I didn't want it to all blur into one color. I decided after getting to a certain point to just stop, and take a break from this painting, and start another completely different scene. I started another wine country painting, since I had been doing a series of them. I would periodically stop and just stare at my Lion Creek work and wonder if I would ever have the confidence to continue with it.

Taking a break and not forcing the painting was a good idea. One day while we were at lunch with some friends on the patio of Appleby's in Auburn, I had a break through.  I was looking at the trees bordering the patio. I noticed the shadows on the branches, and the many shades of green I could see in the leaves from the sunlight.  Just seeing the trees and the way the light played on them helped me to realize how I could continue the Lion Creek painting.   



A Foggy Day on Lion Creek



When we got home, I set my easel up outside on our back deck and brought my pastel box out and put it on a table. We have many trees that border our deck, and based on the light I saw on them, I knew I could separate the trees and their color values so that they could stand individually, and not all merge into one green mass.  It was a beautiful day, comfortable temperatures and I was charged to dig into the painting. With the new found confidence I was able to complete the canopy of trees by separating the values of different trees. I was also able to work on the shading and colors in the rocks with better light. Being outside in good light was a much better alternative than my poorly lit studio environment. The light helped me to chose a sunlit color for the grass in the meado that bordered the stream so it enhanced the feeling of depth in the painting. Natural light is so important to help one get a good true color value balance.

The last piece I worked on was the water in the stream. Little light filtered through the tree canopy to play on the water. It was deep in shadow, and so I chose to keep it the dark green I had viewed on site, and just put some light blue sky highlights in the ripples and in the froth it kicked up going through sections with rocks under the surface. I was pleased when I got to the point where I could stand back and know that I had captured the little Lion Creek Gorge I enjoyed so much on that visit. I hope you enjoy too.

  

Another Milestone

I believe that the most difficult hurdle to overcome for a new artist is the challenge of breaking into the local art community and being accepted as an artist in one's own right. I addressed that challenge by joining my local arts group, Placer Arts and began attending functions. I also had a very supportive mentor /teacher Reif Erickson, who was pleased that I was following through with my art and going beyond the weekly classes and trying to create my own style. Besides being an excellent teacher and a wonderful pastel artist himself, he has become a good friend and encourager.  He shares his suppliers, and has given me the names of places where I can reduce my costs to purchase art supplies. Becoming known locally in our own city or town, and having a venue to show paintings where friends, neighbors and others will see them is not easy because there are limited venues to show paintings publicly. There is no guidebook that tells one how to overcome all of the obstacles that one faces, but what I knew it would take was persistence.

I began checking with the local Old Town Gallery in old town Auburn. It is a beautiful gallery and member artists volunteer time to man the store, and pay rent for space to hang their art. This beautiful gallery is independent of the Placer Arts Group. Being new at this and working on a tight budget, paying a monthly rental was not something I could afford. I did decide to also join the Roseville Arts group at the Blue Line Gallery and paid my membership fee so that I would have access to enter gallery shows. I began exploring other venues as well like the Auburn Faith Hospital that has an Art Can Heal program, and they invite local artists to hang paintings in a hallway and rotate the art every month or so. I have not received any response as to how long that list is yet, but I suspect it has quite a waiting list I checked with several local restaurants that had artwork hanging on their walls, and was told that it is all managed by the Placer Arts Association. They schedule art programs and include art from local high schools, and select the artists that will participate in the monthly art walk program that starts in May and runs through September. I am scheduled to be in the August Art Walk.

Find in a venue to show paintings though takes a lot more work. Tsuda Market, a landmark  that had been operated in Old Town Auburn by the Tsuda family for over 80 years finally closed last year. This little grocery store had provided many local Japanese and American food products to local families in town. Once it closed however; the building had to be brought into compliance with earthquake safety building codes before a new business could occupy the premises. After many months of renovation a new Cafe also called Tsuda occupied the site and became very popular with its excellent sandwiches, salads and bakery products. When we were eating lunch there one day, I asked the owner if I could have an opportunity to display some of my paintings on the walls there. Very modern bright colored acrylic paintings occupied 2/3 of the available space already. Alexandra took my card and said, as a matter of fact, I am planning on clearing the area behind the coffee bar and moving some things around, and using that as a rotating space for artists. I'll have a look at your art and we can talk again.  One thing led to another and their were very many events on their calendar, and another meeting just did not happen. I just figured that the owner thought that my art would be too conservative compared to the really modern paintings already in the eating area.

In the meantime, I was contacted by a local Chiropractic Doctor, Heather Perry through Placer Arts forward of her email. She asked me if I would be interested in hanging some of my paintings in her offices that had been recently remodeled. She said an artist that knew me had referred me and I replied I would definitely be interested, and would come by to look at the offices. I went by and met Dr Perry and could see that this would be a nice place to hang paintings. Her practice offered a number of healing services and my friend Jeanie said she had sold three paintings when hers had been on display there over a three month period. Dr Perry has scheduled me to hang my paintings there in April.

Last week I dropped by Tsuda's early in the morning to buy some bakery products to take home to have with coffee. After purchasing them I saw Alexandra meeting with a supplier and just waived as I walked by. She called out to me and said, "Paul wait!" I turned around and walked back and she said, "That wall over there by the coffee bar is all yours to decorate with your paintings whenever you are ready." I said, thank you, that would be great. Needless to say, I was quite taken aback by this sudden turn of events and bubbling with enthusiasm when I got back home to tell my wife.

I went back the next day and measured the wall space and Alexandra said that I had to use existing nails in the old brick, or use existing holes. Since it was a historical building and the wall was brick, I needed to make sure to be very careful even using what was there. We can even hang things from the support beam if necessary she said. It looked like it would be a significant challenge and I went home and grabbed some paper, and began figuring out an arrangement and also deciding what paintings to hang there. I also gathered what I thought would be the necessary tools to take with me. Since the weekend is a very busy time with lots of tourist traffic, I decided to wait until Monday to hang my paintings.

Monday morning, I loaded up my car with my tools and paintings and set off for Tsuda's. I was excited and also a little concerned, not knowing what obstacles would confront me once I began. My luck was good for a parking space was available right in front of the Cafe. I carried in my paintings and tools, and asked one of the food staff if Alexandra was in today. She said, yes she is, but she just left on an errand. I told her I was going to hang my paintings on the wall above the coffee bar. She said, "Oh yes, Alexandra said you would be in, let me take some of the things down and get them out of the way."

There was only one lonely old large headed nail in the uneven brick wall, and it was off center. and midway up the wall. I decided to hang the larger painting I had brought on that nail, once I checked it to make sure it was secure. Then I began searching the wall for existing holes that I could put proper hooks in to hang my paintings. None looked very promising, so I had to get creative. The nails I had with the hooks were slim, so I could gently tap them into cracks in the mortar and eventually managed to get all of the paintings hung.  I had to shorten some wires and extend others to at least balance the paintings as best I could. As I was cleaning up and packing up my things to leave Alexandra came back in the Cafe and said, "Oh wow, that looks great Paul!"

I stopped in again yesterday to drop off some cards and Alexandra said, "Well I have to tell you, your paintings are a big hit. Everyone likes them, and every time someone asks about the one on the top right, I tell them it is sold already. I want that one! My brother wants the one with the old Chevy truck." That is great news, I said thank you for giving me the opportunity to hang them in your cafe.

I am so delighted to have this kind of visibility in a busy cafe in our old town section. It is a major tourist haunt, and very busy on weekends. Locals frequent the area during the week. It is also just across the street from the art gallery. I told Alexandra I would pay her a commission on any painting I sell and replace them as vacancies provide that opportunity.  She said that is fine, that is what she does with the other artist. That is more reasonable than the forty percent that galleries charge, and I don't have to pay monthly rental on the space. This means I will have money from sales to buy more supplies to continue painting. Now that is a real milestone.