Black Flies and Other Such Nonsense

Horizon Lines (Twenty One) 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x24

Still plugging away here. I managed to get three of the four 18x24 paintings finished on Friday:
I didn't get as much done as I hoped over the weekend but I did ok. All of the underpaintings that I did last week are ready to get color and I managed to finally get the gesso on the three large panels I started last week:
Since we don't use pesticides in our home (or anywhere actually, we are all organic!) we usually have a good number of black flies buzzing around the light fixtures and windows each spring. The cats enjoy taking care of the ones that are downstairs but I am left to fend for myself in my studio and they sure have been piling up. When we cleaned out the attic before remodeling it last year, we literally shoveled out piles of dead flies that had been accumulating for years. They like the attic. Anyway, while I was working on the panels last night, four flies and a ladybug landed in the gesso. I almost felt sorry for the flies who floundered around in the gesso until they died, but then well, didn't after I had to pick them and um, all their parts out, and then repaint the area.
The ladybug walked away in a very dignified manner, which I appreciated, and is still on the side of the table today.


And in a related story (black, wings, I know, it's a stretch) this crow now lives here too. It was part of our Halloween decoration collection but one of the kids took it out of the Halloween box because the feathers were starting to come out (future PETA member) and somehow it ended up in my studio. It kept getting in the way and finally I just hung it up on one of the beams. It's three weeks later and I have finally stopped jumping every time I walk past it and see it out of the corner of my eye. Well almost, anyway. It still surprises me a bit if I am in the studio late at night. Heh. (I am not kidding.)