All Her Eggs

“Put all your eggs in one basket.
And watch that basket. ”
Mark Twain

Wow, I thought this one would be easy.
I was sitting in the studio
at the kitchen table
eating breakfast.

I was mid-way through the “Bird” inspired theme
for this year’s paintings
and had spent the last few days
casting around in the mind vaults
for some way to expand the series.

I like to paint fabric.
And I like combining interesting textures.
And I love to paint Pat.
But none of those things screamed bird.

I took a bite of my toast.
And picked at the eggs.
Eggs.

OK I’m in.
Within twenty minutes I had the basket
and the straw…well
I have lots of straw.
40 bales of the stuff
out in my straw bale garden
which I am trying for the first time this year.
You can tell that this painting was done in the spring.
There are no straw bales out there.
You should see them now, it’s late June
and everything is shamelessly shooting up
and the…

But back to the birds
and the eggs.
I had a new dozen from Homer,
their colors make my knees weak.
So, I had the basics
and I had the title
which is something Peter used to say…
a lot.
He’s a huge Twain fan.

Now I could dip into the other two favorites painting subjects,
fabric and Herself.
That was the easy part.

What I didn’t count on
was how long it took me to render it all.
I was listening to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.
For the second time.
Mostly because I had named the ever tapping cardinal muse…
Wolsey.
Listening,
and listening.

It’s a long book.
I was well into it’s sequel,
Bring up the Bodies,
before the last highlights
on the last piece of straw
were finished.

That’s why
I only paint
what I love.