And when I sell my first million dollar painting, I swear that the first staff I hire will be a laundress!  In any case, I know just how this woman feels- seems like one never gets to the end of folding...

   The last bridge paintings were wee little- here's the other end of the scale, over four feet in width.  Big brushes, piles of paint to push, and a entirely different set of muscles to do it; my shoulder attests to that.

Here's the piece after the last ( I think) glaze coat.  Still haven't decided exactly how to mount them for display.  

  One more glaze layer on these 'lil guys and then mounting and framing to prep them to go to work.  The group measures about 3" x 8" inches; they're destined for a "small works" show in Hampton at the Charles Taylor Art Center where the size must not exceed 6" x 6".  The medium is oil, the substrate, copper.  I like using copper for the small pieces, but it is particularly easy to muck up if one does not proceed S L O W L Y. 

It took a long time before I could paint Ben without interposing myself, and if you can't paint without interposing yourself, one might as well forget portraiture.  I'm pretty happy with the way his "senior portrait" turned out.  It'll be heading to the Portlock Galleries in SoNo for a  TAA member show in a week or so, just need to put a coat of retouch varnish on it and he'll be ready to face the world.