Ups and Downs and In Betweens

   Here is what I have been working on today. And I'm a little bit excited about it! And I would never have painted it had I not smashed the glass in one of my frames. I was quite annoyed with myself for doing that--always clumsy! I suddenly had a useless frame. Until I thought that the only thing I could use it for would be to frame an oil painting. So I got out a big sheet of drawing board, painted it yellow and then decided to paint this. I know my people still aren't very good, but I'll get there.

   And here's another story of something rather annoying happening only there hasn't been any good come out of it yet! A few weeks ago I bought two big sheets of good quality pastel ply board from America, the only place it could get it from. One is for a commission and the other I planned to cut up and use in small pieces. And so I got Dad to cut it up for me, because he's good at that kind of thing. I marked all the lines, gave it to him, and asked whether he needed me to come down to the workshop and tell him what to do. No, he said, he didn't think so.

    So he trotted off to work with it, and I trotted off to my painting, and a few hours later I trotted back into the house to find Dad had cut up the board perfectly into the right size pieces. Only, there was something terribly wrong! My lovely rough pastel surface was all smooth! He had gone and SANDED the surface smooth!! He said he thought he was helping me by getting rid of all the pastel marks I had made when marking out the pieces to cut. I almost cried. Men are very helpful, but sometimes they go a little too far in thinking they know it all... But 'that's life.'

   I'm sure I'll still find some use for the board but it's not really good for pastel anymore. I wonder if I can buy a coating and coat it myself. I think I've heard of something you paint on board or paper to make it rough for pastel...