Almost ready
I put the final toned ground on the linen-cotton blend canvas that I recently wrote about. The canvas is dry, indeed, it was dry the same day I applied the ground, but it still needs…
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President Biden, stay out of Ukraine
My biggest fear about the incoming Biden administration is becoming all too real. The current US administration seems to be hellbent on war. Ukrainian President Zelensky, by singing decree No. 117/2021, has virtually declared war…
Commercial canvas
I spend a lot of time preparing canvases--stretching, priming, and grounding. The process works well for me but it's time-consuming. I would gladly buy commercially-prepared canvas but my experience with it has been bad. In…
Review: Killing Commendatore
I became familiar with the Japanese author Haruki Murakami during my current fiction-gorging phase. How could I have been unfamiliar with such a gifted author? It's not an excuse but I go through long periods…
Smooth is best
Rereading what I wrote about preparing a canvas, I realized that I didn't emphasize the main goal enough. Yes, it's important to protect the canvas, but the real goal is to make a great surface.…
Whiskey was the cause
Perusing Ancestry.com's records, I came across this Kentucky newspaper article from 1896. During a drunken brawl, a man, Billy Patrick, was stabbed in the head. At the time the article is written, Patrick is expected…