Sale at Blick, There Goes My Monthly Budget

Yesterday was the beginning of the "back to school" sale at the local Blick store. One of those deals where the more you buy, the more you save. In this case, 60% off on stretched canvases if you buy 10. So guess where I was yesterday afternoon. I ended up buying 10 canvases, some acrylic paints, varnish and a brush. All told I spent a little over 200 US dollars. Sometimes you have to spend big bucks to save big bucks.

Here is some irony: when I was looking for classes to take at the beginning of my retirement, I opted out of a quilting class because the list of supplies looked too expensive.

Today I am back to painting with acrylics. I had a lot of fun with the two recent pastel paintings but I don't want to let my recently-developed acrylic painting muscles atrophy. So my plan is to switch back and forth. I started to paint a hibiscus but haven't finished. It's in that awkward phase right now. I hope to finish it tomorrow. Here is a peek:

Notice my wonderful art studio (AKA kitchen) in the background. This is one of those moments when it is a good thing I am not married.

I also got around to framing the two waterfall paintings and I will be hanging them as soon as I find a good spot for them. For pastels of this size I like to frame them without mats. So I use spacers from FrameTek to keep a space between the pastel and the glass.

I'd like to hang them side by side. For now they are just propped up on my fireplace mantel.