My feet after a late night of painting.

In case anyone was wondering why I had to switch from oil to egg tempera, I thought this candid image probably says it all. A friend shot this, having found me sleeping after one of many all-night painting sessions. (Believe it or not I had showered before passing out.) I was never one of those painters that could walk into the studio with a white lab coat and emerge without a mark on me. Even a few years of painting like this can take a serious toll on your health, and of course, this matters a lot more if you’re pregnant (I’m due in mid June). I still love oil painting but –for the sake of my health and my family– when I return to it, I’ll have make sure of a few things:

1. proper ventilation and lighting (not always easy in northern climates and on a painter’s budget, but essential no matter how tortured an artist you are);
2. plants and air cleaners in the studio;
3. Nox-Out pellets for absorbing toxic chemicals;
4. wearing barrier creams and gloves (when possible), and masks during varnishing;
5. a special blood test: a build up of lead can be leached from the bones during pregnancy, and it’s possible to determine the levels. If necessary the blood can be cleaned; chelation therapy is a fairly expensive procedure but something to think about if you have been exposed to large amounts of lead.

Soothing tired feet in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland.

I love the memory this second photo evokes. The same friend had just found me on the lawn of my boarding house, having passed out from fumes after another night of painting in my tiny downtown studio preparing for an upcoming show. I was working very long hours, and the fumes had been flying in the heat. He did me the great favour of taking me on a short day trip to a nearby cove to get some fresh sea air and revive my spirits. On the way back, he took it upon himself to buy a fan to help improve the ventilation. A good friend, and not a bad photographer. Thanks, Greg!

I just wanted to say a special thank you to everyone for their comments. That kind of positive energy from some very talented people has been very motivating to me, especially when most days the only way I can meet the combined needs of my work, health and family is by being slightly sleep deprived. I wanted to especially thank Avaris, because her link (and blog) led me to theanimalrescuesite.com. I used to visit the affiliated hunger site to place my little click each day, but as life got busy I somehow forgot, so I’m grateful for the reminder. The animal rescue site is new to me. They also now have a downloadable and colourful toolbar for Internet Explorer, but as I am using Firefox on the Mac, I have created a set of bookmarks on my own toolbar: it will be my daily gentle reminder. There is also something to be said for the energy, sense of well-being and expansion that comes from giving. It is stepping outside of the “scarcity mentality,” or as my grandmother always said, “What you give, you get back seven-fold.” The nice thing about this site is that even if you are a starving artist (and they say the average working artist in Canada lives 25 percent below the poverty line), you can make a contribution. If you have barely a moment to spare, let it be for a mouse click. The more people that click on those buttons, the better the chances of ending world hunger, combatting breast cancer, promoting literacy, saving the rainforests, or providing health services for children around the world. Not bad for a day’s work, wouldn’t you say?

Mother’s Milk, Ink on Paper; © Jennifer Pohl

This word for this Illustration Friday is tranquility. A breast fed baby is a tranquil baby, and the feel-good hormones help to chase the postpartum blues away.

Much of my recent work has involved hundreds of layers of paint and it’s been a while since I’ve done a line drawing, so I took this as a challenge. I set the timer for an hour while I was inking (right before the baby’s bath time, for extra motivation). I remember hearing how Matisse might do a thousand versions of the same line drawing to end up with just one that he was happy with. I’m not sure if that’s an exaggeration, but I’d like to do a few more of this image and experiment with the line weight, as well as colour washes for the shirt and romper. This is the first work I’ve posted that hasn’t already been sold, and I’ll be sending it off to the gallery soon. If anyone is interested, inquiries can be sent to the Christina Parker Gallery.