Sherry and The Goldfinch

"Ah, Welty was never on the outside of anything," said Mrs. DeFrees, accepting her glass of sherry and petting Hobie affectionately on the sleeve, her little paper-skinned had glittering with rose-cut diamonds.  "He was always in the thick of it, bless him, laughing that laugh, never a word of complaint." page 397, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

We have been renovating our bathrooms and, oh my gosh, what a mess!  But it is starting to look so much better.  We're getting close to done.  The really dirty, really dusty stuff is done.  Now, it's just all the little finishing details.  Or the not-so-little finishing details.  One wall of our main bathroom used to have pale lemon tile halfway up it with a matching pale lemon yellow ceramic towel bar above the tile.  And then an old framed poster of an orchid above that.

Happy to say, that is all gone.  Now there is one wide open blank wall painted a beautiful shade of gray called Heron Plume.  The room is all neutrals and that wall is very blank.  So, last month, I used my Presidents Day Weekend Sale coupons and bought a 4' x 5' canvas to hang on that wall.  And I've waited for inspiration.  I re-watched the film Pollock recently and really wanted to do a Pollock inspired painting but am afraid it would be too busy in the bathroom.

So, instead, I started a new book that my book club friends have bee saying that I would enjoy, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  They were right - I love it.  And as I'm reading about the NYC museums and the paintings and the antique collectors, I came across this passage where they are having a small glass of sherry.  And so I went out, bought a bottle of sherry, dug out all my old craft paints and just started painting any old color...just getting paint on the canvas.  I will post more photos as the painting progresses but I will tell you...the Pollock is happening.