Last week I went up Provo Canyon to do some plein air painting with Adam Dove. I had only painted with oil once or twice before and I definitely wasn't confident using it. But he gave me some excellent pointers he learned from Perry Stuart and helped me along the way. It was a really fun experience and I'm starting to understand oil painting a little bit more. Now I know why so many people like it.
Even though we had put on bug repellent there were so many flies all over the place, and they had no problem landing on us and biting us. There's nothing better than having flies land on your eye while you're trying to paint with a brush in one hand and holding your pallet in the other. This guy landed in my cadmium yellow and got stuck for a few hours. My my, how the pallet has turned.
After he finally escaped my glob of paint I thought "Wow, I can't believe he survived." Right up until he waltzed his way into my little puddle of turpentine and started washing his hands and face as flies so often do. So whether he died right where I left him on the picnic table, or if a bird swooped down to get him for an easy meal and died from fly poisoning, either way he got what was coming to him. Let that be a lesson to the rest of you flies.
