More Fishing at Pyramid Lake!

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

Well I'm not sure whether I'm in my 'right mind' today (or ever!), but I'm better and although tired felt really restless to paint. I lay on the couch doing sketches yesterday, so was itching to get back into the studio today.

Here's Taylor breaking down the fishing rods at the end of the day. I love the light in these paintings.

So one thought leads to another, and as I was painting this one I remembered Taylor's split bamboo rod, which his grandfather gave him last year. Taylor laboured over this thing for hours and hours, stripping away the old varnish, cleaning and re-tying the threads in criss-crosses on it. I was skeptical at first, I'll admit - I've never seen of of these things before, but when it was finished....wow, what a stunning piece of craft it is.

His grandfather is an ex WW2 pilot, and has a reputation for diligent maintenance. He had a Volkswagon Beatle from the 60's, bought new, and logged every single drop of fuel and price for the 40-odd years he had it. He also waxed it so much he had to have it resprayed because he buffed the paint off the bodywork. I guess Taylor inherited some of that diligence, and I saw it for the first time fixing up that fishing rod. I wonder if he'll ever apply that to washing the dishes...?