my friend kevin invited me back to california for a painting excursion in september 2013. when i was living in San Francisco, i was not a painter but an IT professional hoping to find time to complete my Antrhopology degree. i have twelve credits—so close and yet so far, but that’s for another story.

anyway, fast forward to 2013. when kevin offered to pay for my roundtrip tickets, i could not turn down an opportunity to see California as a painter. alas, i could not make this trip without giving him some of my paintings. afterall, he paid for my flight! he enjoyed the paintings i gave him, and in return, he let me choose from his collection. i picked this one which he did in an en plein air workshop. that moment was the second time i have ever handled (may i say, fondled?) another artist’s painting. there is something special about beholding a work of another artist. i felt like helen keller, the famous blind and mute lady, reading the surface of the subject with her fingers and feeling the spirit of the subject. i think helen keller would smell her subject too. i love the smell of oil paint.