Smell of Oil Paint in the Morning
This is Part 2 of BMI (My Brilliant Idea - in case you skipped Part 1).
The Curator and other luminaries assured me there had never been such an exhibition in Queensland and was quite exciting. I puffed out my chest and never doubted for a minute I could pull it off. Ah such faith! After all, I had been painting for five years, had two solo exhibitions and thankfully many collectors around the world. If you are consumed with curiosity please go here for the gory details http://www.mariegreen.id.au/about
Discipline and work ethic is a must when making such a commitment. My passion got me up with the birds everyday and I would paint or sketch or think every minute there was light. Of which we have a lot in the tropical paradise here. Oil paints, unlike any other medium, are transparent so layers of transparency can be created. But for that I need God's light.
Blessed was I to have the indispensable multi-talented companion for this endeavour. A totally honest and almost always right critic, a lover who didn't notice all the households chores that went undone, a chef who invented yummy dishes in the Thai style we both love. Basically he was and is My Everything. OK, enough with the mushies!
Works started to multiply on the drying walls of my studio. I live on a hill in almost a glass house and enjoy an almost hermit life style. But I had that great joy of sharing the works in progress with fellow artists on (dare I say it) Facebook who provided the encouragement and laughs over those years.
Finally all the works were finished and checked and rechecked so I had to move onto the design and script for the exhibition catalog. Then came the fun of finding a printer in my own country, rather than sourcing in China et al. We nearly drove each other crazy but I doff my hat to them as they did a wonderful job and delivered promptly. Sadly, in my haste I didn't have any sane person proof read my copy before I had the first printing.
My Curator, Jo Duke at http://gragm.qld.gov.au/ requested very kindly to have her proof reader take on that job and list the corrections before the next run. No charge. Invitations and publicity were the domain of the gallery and again no charge. I could grow to like this. This suited me so well as almost every one of my non-exhibition paintings had been sold (praise the Lord) and my savings were used for gallery quality stretched linen on timber cradles; plus of course professional oil paints, mediums, brushes brushes and more brushes. By now my ear marked funds were getting very low. And still had frames to buy. Quote was $3,000.00 I had allowed $2,000.00 for Best Master framer outside of the capital city to do my works. Always very fair pricing for me, so I took my dilemma to my by now dearly loved Curator. She found an extra $1,000.00 grant money for me so the last handling was in progress.
See how well stage two has gone? Deceptive though. But that's for later.
As an aside - The burnt sienna under painting( which is more correctly called 'underpants' ) on Part 1's banner is shown on this banner as the finished painting - Monday Washday (sold).
Part 1
https://www.minds.com/media/825057224557772800