**  FRAME NOT INCLUDED  **

I've been really tied up getting ready for the Fred Oldfield Show coming up this weekend. I painted this before all the chaos started with packing up and framing paintings, preparing gicleés and purchasing new equipment for my booth. All that behind me now, I'm finally back in my studio where I can finally relax and get back to doing what I do.

This little painting is about depth and light atmosphere. I'm starting to realize what authenticity means - to me anyway. I like to experiment and study new areas in painting but sometimes when I do, it just feels wrong. Like it's phony. Fake. When I just start putting in colors or strokes for the sake of - what if I did this, or that (usually because someone else did it and it looked interesting) ... But you dont know if you dont try, right?

What I am finding, for now anyway, is that depth and atmosphere are home for me. Yes, my paintings are a little dark in that they lack bright cheerfulness. I like to think of it as old worldly and a little moody maybe. But it's what I see when I paint - for the most part. So it's what I paint and that makes it authentic - for me.

This little painting is authentic. It's my little jar and actual, real cherries before they died in my studio. There was a reddish background that I integrated the foreground with. Was it hazy in my studio? No. But I prefer a simplified background to a drapey one. And I want depth. I also want it to be quiet. I think this painting accomplished that even with the dominant use of red which is commonly know to arouse anger and appetite I'm told.

Anyway, this is what I saw and frankly, how I paint. Thanks for taking the time to read my blurb! :)