Cold sweat and refreshing

Bright dawns the day after the storm; awoke back in spirits and calm of soul. On consideration, this was a historic day for my painting and so a milestone is lifted over the date; another gallery has accepted my work and more - offered me the open invitation to submit work as it is created. So, as I painted this afternoon, the picture was no longer destined for an uncertain destination or the pile in the corned, but a trip to the framer and on to a day out at the gallery. Its a big wow for me really and hopefully a 'line in the sand day' as well. Gallery in question is a new one in Leith run by painter Ritchie Collins - I found it by chance when a friend who lives down there took me one sunny afternoon for a walk and a bit of coffee and art looking. Next Saturday is the opening of the show for the start of the Leith Festival and then the Friday after I will be painting in the gallery for the afternoon. So glad I did the Adam House charity show earlier this year, so I hope the intense stage-fright can be bodyswerved on this occasion. I ended up enjoying myself last time but spent the first ten minutes of putting brush to board discovering the meaning of cold sweat - pretty hard time holding the brush steady too (and not a drink in me, not for many a year now).
So, manifold reasons for celebration today; impending travel to south coast, including day trip to Isle of Wight, new gallery inclusion and impending public painting - guess that all helped lighten my Sunday blues of yesterday.
Had a good spell in the studio after that; Stu was rediscovering our LP collection in the living room so a cool and wonderfully rounded sound accompanied my efforts and Twig the kitten managed not to get fixated by the spinning disc and cause catastrophic damage. Remembered my lovely checkerboard sky from an earlier painting, having been posting up the 'archive' section of my website at 6am this morning, so I incorporated that in cerulean blue to echo the tiled floor at the base of the picture. Great when something unexpected works like that; continuing to have good vibes about this pic. as it came unannounced into my head on day and was a dream to draw out after only a few composition sketches. It is always the really effortless starts that seem to work out best in the end; the one on this post is in the Leith show and I love her for the simplicity and the fact that I think the drawing works really well. Again, it was a very 'bish, bash, bosh' drawing, just jumping from head to sketch book to board.
We are kebabing it tonight - lovely skewers of chicken, sweet pepper and onion, which Stu marinaded in some herb oil he created this afternoon. The herb box is just going demented, so to use up some of its copious foligage, he picked a big leafy bowl of spearmint, pineapple mint, fennel tops, vietnamese coriander, parsley, sage, and thyme (not quite Simon and Garfunkel but sung it anyway) and added some garlic and chilli from the kitchen. After picking of all the leaves, it is all about blanching and refreshing; dipping the leaves briefly in boiling water seals and softens them, keeping the all important chlorophyll so the oil ends up a vibrant green and not a murky mud. Refreshing in chilled water after blanching stops the process short of cooking and thus losing valuable vitamins and flavour. The herbs are then blitzed in a blender with the garlic, chilli and a little salt, and oil; the finished herby oil we put in one of those squeezy bottles for marinading (the kebabs were way tasty), sticking in mayonaisse for pittas and wraps, sqizzing on pasta, rice salads. You get the drift - all round kitchen good guy from the garden. So far we stop short at livestock, but I can dream... and there are always those goats for cheesey pieces of tasty goodness. Must away to my bed, for the five thirty alarm awaits to beckon me away to places south and briny...