I Learned a Valuable Lesson Today

So, we've started moving into our awesome new house.  We're taking it slow, since the lease on the apartment isn't up for a few months yet.  Still, my studio equipment has been some of the first stuff over.  I've been super excited, since I now I have a garage to do all my messy and hazardous stuff in.  I still haven't gotten all my jewelry stuff unpacked, but my painting supplies were pretty much just carried over from the apartment.  I've honestly been itching to paint, and it hasn't been possible for a while in the apartment due to bathroom issues (I'd been setting things in the tub to dry so the cat didn't get into it).  So, after running all my errands and doing a bit of housy stuff, I put on my paintin' clothes and got down to business.  I'll post pics of my new studio space once we're fully into the house, but in the meantime, behold the evening's work.

So, a few posts ago I posted the first panel of a diptych I've been working on.  Here's an in progress of the second panel.  I managed to get the background in at the apartment before I had to give up there, so tonight was blocking in the tower.

So, here's the two panels together.  Looks like I'll have to make adjustments on the second panel, but that's only to be expected.  I've got one, maybe two more layers to put on which is plenty to make corrections.  For those who don't paint, it's not unusual to have many layers, especially with oil.  You should have seen the first layer on the warm panel--it looked like the floor of an abattoir.  I'm not sure yet which panel should go on which side, but it does have a title: Tower of Dreams.

So, I've had this random panel lying around my apartment since the painting class I took in undergrad.  Seriously, it's been around for years.  I figured, I'm almost done with the diptych, may as well go ahead and get started on this one.  This is just the background layer--who knows how much will get covered up.  I'm thinking something vaguely jungley at this point, but we'll see where it goes.  This is a smaller panel--the diptych panels are 2' x 4', this one is 2' square.

Anyway, I'm sure by now you're wondering about the important lesson I learned today.  In art school, every beginning class covers the safety precautions one should take when working with a particular medium.  Said precautions are usually taken for about half the semester, then are pretty well forgotten, unless one is teaching someone else.

The safety lesson for painting was the importance of ventilation.  For the last few years, I've painted outside, or in the living room of the apartment, which is a pretty open space.  The garage at the house, while quite spacious is only a one car garage.

I forgot about ventilation tonight.  Since I was alone and it was dark by the time I got started, I didn't want to leave the garage door open, and I didn't even think about just cracking it.

An hour and a half, 16 oz of orange soda, a cadbury cream egg, some lifesavers, and a good teeth/mouth brushing later, my mouth still tastes like I've been eating paint and mineral spirits.  I think if I had a match I could set my breath on fire.  And, while that would be an awesome trick, it can't be healthy.

So, yeah, ventilation.  It's important.