Art Finds A Home

The recent purchasers of this painting, "Sunflowers and Sky," sent me an image of its installation in their home. I think it looks great, like they had the nook made specifically for the piece. In fact, they had a couple of nooks built into their home specifically for art. They then painted the background to go with the painting. It is a honor to have the work so prominently placed.

This was my second shellac painting. It was an interesting process of having to start thinking about color and composition. Besides learning about primary and secondary colors in elementary school, I don't know much about color. Luckily, at the same time I was beginning the piece I heard (or read) about Vincent Van Gogh writing in a letter describing his color theory and how much he loved yellow and orange and that whenever painting it, he liked to paint blue next to it. I figured, if it is good enough for Vincent . . .

In sending the work to the Phoenix area, I also got an education in shipping shellac paintings to deserts in the heat of the summer. The first time I sent it, I wrapped it in tissue paper and, although FedEx did crush the box a bit, the bigger problem was that it arrived in Phoenix on a Friday but it didn't get delivered until Monday, leaving it the weekend to bake the tissue paper into the shellac.

After repairing it I repacked it with an added layer of plywood that I used to attach to the back so that it would float in the box without touching anything. Unfortunately, FedEx was again unable to deliver it on the Friday and they crushed the box, slightly but significantly, baking some cardboard into the painting. Luckily, the buyers gave me a third chance and this time I added wooden laths on the front and sides, inside a second box.

I submitted a damage claim to FedEx for the second crushing and they reimbursed me enough to pay for the multiple shipping costs, so at least it only cost me time. Now I know, crate all work going to deserts in the summer.