Updates

It has been more than a month since I've posted here.  Most of my life has been centered on health issues.  I had a biopsy on a suspicious spot in my abdomen that happily turned out to be benign, so the plan here is to forget about cancer as much as possible until my next checkup in June.  My hair is growing in and looks sort of radically stylish, and I think the nerve damage in my feet from chemo is improving, little by little. 

With the scary health concerns on the back burner for now, I've been doing more of what I enjoy, reading, getting outside, and playing around in the studio. This little eight by eight in inch oil was actually based on an online demonstration. The idea of the demo was that its easy to use large brushes on small paintings.  I went out and got myself a no. 18 bright brush (similar to a flat but with shorter bristles) and gave it a go.  To tell the truth the big brush was only for the background; the details on the orange were done with smaller brights, sized 10 and 12.  Still, it was a way I don't usually work, and following the steps on the online demo was interesting.

Other than these things, I'm looking forward to getting my cataracts fixed this month.  Little by little it is getting harder to see in low light and drive a night, to say nothing of reading subtitles on foreign films.  And when we go on our Caribbean cruise in April I want to see as well as possible.