" Ah, But I May As Well Try And Paint In The Wind"...

Actual palette adjustment...

It was a rough day of painting yesterday. The wind ripped a paper, loaded with oil paint, right off the palette and flapped color all over me, the easel, my photo bag and computer bag. It actually blew a fellow artist, Mary Monk's almost completed pastel right off the easel when she, momentarily, turned her back.

The bayou ate it...

But, for me, the worse was when the wind blew the palette paper upside down in my passenger side seat. It could have been any color, ANY color except... burnt sienna.

I could just hear it now, "Well Ben, it's come to this, eh? Don't feel bad, it happens to all of us, eventually! Losing control of your bowels is a tough way to go... so, to speak.

Ha, ha, ha... but, American ingenuity is still alive and well. At least, in this American.

Once I got the loose paper and the palette into the car, I had to find a way, if I was gonna salvage the day, to attach back the loaded paper onto the palette. I basically had three small pieces of tape that was too worn out to be of any use and I had nothing else in the car that would tie or clip the paper back to the board, except...

Dental floss...

I highlighted the floss in Photoshop to illustrate my solution.

Is that ingenious, or what? The painting turned out pretty nice in spite of it all, but I will definitely check the weather report next time I go out to paint at the Big Branch National Preserve. And, I will probably sing my version of that Donovan tune...

In the gusty hours and minutes of uncertainty,

I want to be, in the warmth of a studio that's all mine!

But, to fling paint all around me,

And to take a stand with brush in hand,

Ah, but I may as well try and paint in the wind!

Ah, no way to try and paint in the wind!

Copyright 2015/ Ben Bensen III