Had a great dinner with the group last (Friday) night, but then too tired to update, so here it is now.

Began the studio day with the idea that I needed to get five new works going before lunch (remember I have 15 more works to do than I planned for). I began by dabbing japanese ink randomly on the five panels, sorta the old abstract expressionist method of getting something to work with/against. Started to get some refining done and then off to lunch. Here’s where it was left then:

The five on the right are the new ones.

After lunch we received the shipment of 16″ x 20″ panels.  These panels are basically masonite with thin plywood strips cradling around the back edge. The front surface has a matte clay coating. Each panel is shrink-wrapped.

They came in two boxes. After opening the boxes I could see why several panels in the first shipment had dinged corners—that is, maybe a sixteenth, or up to an eighth inch triangle was broken off exposing rough masonite . The panels were stacked in the boxes with no corner protection! Just some air bag packing randomly filling the box. So if you want to try these panels from Dick Blick, try to buy them at one of their stores! I don’t know how you can tell them to pack them carefully as I saw no evidence that they would know what that meant. [End of rant.]

I gave the new panels a quick coat of color as I have planned to work on these in color. I just want some “given” to work with.

Maria Elena Gonzalez has begun to hang some photos in process on the wall to the right of my workspace.

Right behind the wall where I’m hanging my stuff is the computer/printer room. Maybe I’ll get a pic and info up about that later.

So, the state of my work as of Friday is: 10, 12-inch sq works in progress, actually I think three might be “done.” And 15, 16×20 panels with a coat of color.

I don’t plan to work in the studio this Saturday and Sunday as my brother in law will be visiting.

Here’s the starfruit (grows right next to the studio!) upside down cake that Terri made to cap off another lovely dinner (must click on this pic so you can really see it!):