Blue Mice Okay. Blue Butter Creme, No, No.

CHOCOLATE MICE

All last week I skirted around the mice. I was sorry I had used a pale blue water soluble pencil to do the draw in. I don't know what I was thinking, except there's a lot of blue highlights in those mice. When I started to apply the acrylic, the color was picked up (duh, water base on water soluble). So I turned away for a bit to think it over. I decided to spray the canvas with fixative and hope the paint would not bead up when applied. I sprayed thoroughly, but lightly from a distance. All was good--even though you can still see the blue drawing lines beneath the butter creme swirls on the cherry muffins. It's going to take a few coats of paint for coverage

Jump-in jitters put to rest, I'm liking what's going on. I may or may not keep the signs, but I like how they define the edge of the canvas and will make the (wall) space beneath the canvas the tray. I have a long way to go. The paint should be thick in some places, thin in others. The brush strokes as aways must follow the forms, but in this picture also create dimension. I'll also be needing a mahl stick, a palm rest used for detail work. This subject is more difficult to paint than Closet, where pattern upon pattern was the thing.

ENOUGH SHOP


Camera in hand, Honey and I hit the road and went to lunch at what is becoming a favorite diner. Modern is right across the street from Cass Lake next to a party store with huge hot pink signs in the window touting low liquor and cigarette prices. You have to pass two lakes to get there--bigger Orchard Lake (top right) and smaller Pine Lake (bottom right. (There's nothing dry here, Michigan is lake country--everybody has sinus problems).

The place is decorated lake cottage style: drop ceiling painted black, peg board tile bar top rimmed in chrome, chartruse on one aluminum paneled wall, bright orange on another, you get the picture- fifties. But the art on the walls is sophisticated, art deco posters and the fruit portraits by Giuseppe Arcimbolo which always fascinate me. And the food is wonderful. Gourmet. Honey and I figure the talented chef, who could work in any upscale eatery, just chose the simple life by selecting this out-of-the-way location.

Two of the photos I took have painting/drawing potential. I like the colors in one and the cone caps on the liquor bottles in the other--rhythmic.