Ben's Impressions of Spring

I cannot believe that once again it's been almost a month since I've blogged! It seems an apology is in order for almost every post in 2010 due to my lack of writing discipline. You'd think there isn't much happening in our lives. On the contrary we've all been as busy as the carpenter bees currently eating all of the front wooden windows of our house.

Along with painting almost every day Ben has attended school this spring much more regularly than ever before. This is such great realization for us because school is such a positive experience for him and it means our son is most likely the healthiest he's ever been. If we weren't sure about that already, the fact that the nurses are constantly throwing out his "incessantly shrinking" clothes could've alerted us.

Jessie just finished a month of weekends filled with dance competitions which was good for me. For Joan? Not so much. Most of those weekends I got to keep Ben and spent time watching baseball rather than doing something more "husbandly" like mowing the lawn because...well...Ben likes baseball. Of course Joan will tell you that Ben likes watching anything Daddy's watching. Ben and I know better.

The last weekend of April I was in Savannah, GA for my first art festival of the year which you will hear more about later this week. Suffice it to say that I was thrilled with the outcome! It was great seeing some dear friends for the first time in almost five months plus sales were very good despite spring showers attempting to ruin the festivities. I immediately returned home to begin training for my new temporary job: completing follow-up surveys for the 2010 US Census (again more about that in the coming days).

This afternoon Jessie, Joan, and I spent a little while collectively looking at some of Ben's latest paintings. At the request and suggestion of several folks who regularly observe his work we've decided to allow some of Ben's paintings to stand on their own, meaning yours truly will only sign and date them for him. Strangely enough when we do this, the three of us almost one hundred percent agree that the his works fall into three categories: (1) needs more work, (2) time for Bennie to add something, or (3) "oh my gosh, do you see the same thing I'm seeing?" Two of his latest went immediately into #3 today and they are now for sale and described below.

Title: "In the Wilderness" (pictured at the top)

Description: Acrylic paint on 11" x 14" canvas panel (standard frame size). We would encourage you to click on the image for a larger view - the focal point seems to be in the lower right hand corner. That is all the hint we will give. I am genuinely interested in your thoughts so be sure to comment below!

Price: $45 - includes shipping (this is a largest panel Ben has completed!). Prints will be available once the original is sold.



Title: "Learning to Walk"

Description: Acrylic on 6" x 8" canvas panel. The footprint shapes were quite obvious including the "flip-flop" (as Jessie called it). Obviously the phrases "In His Steps" and "Footprints in the Sand" came to mind but we all felt those to be too hokey. I wanted to call it "Learning to Crawl" (as a nod to the rock band The Pretenders) but for some reason Jessie gets Ben's vote.

Price: $25 (includes shipping)

As always the first person to e-mail at benwaddell@bellsouth.net gets the initial opportunity to purchase the painting(s). If you are interested in prints then e-mail me as well.