Bill Barrell’s studio is always full of pleasant surprises…… 

Paint Table, oil on canvas, 32 x 26, 2009

  … My paint table is always a mess – but only to other people. I can turn to my table and find exactly what I need. Once in awhile, I straighten it out but it doesn’t stay straightened out for long. It is usually jumbled up within days.

When my daughter Liza was young, I had to run her to school and pick her up in the afternoon. I would be working away and deeply involved in a painting when I would look up at the clock and realize that I had to dash into town and pick her up. This meant leaving everything in one wet pile. Oh, I’d think, that’s ok. I will clean it up when I get home.  But instead, I would cook dinner or go to an opening and then the next day I would realize that I had a doctor appointment in New York and that would eat up most of the day. Before I knew it those pots and brushes had stood unattended for three days! Stiff brushes GRRRRR!!!!

It happened so often that I started buying cheap Chinese bristle brushes just so I could chuck them if they got stiff.

Well….  now I have to post this blog and prepare dinner. Right after I take care of seeing a potential new tenant, attend a garden cookout  and go for a bus ride that I promised to take with my granddaughter.  I guess I will pop down to the studio and clean those brushes. Tomorrow.