Pond of Reflection

Pond of Reflection
Oil on panel, 10x8

Today's post is a post of a different kind.  I worked on this second workshop piece in a room with 6 other artists. The fumes from the turps and other solvents grew stronger as the day wore on.  I don't use solvents at all, using only safflower oil as needed for brush cleaning.  I found myself holding my breath, going to one of the open windows for air, even outside a time or two to really breathe.  Towards the end, I felt bad enough that I thought I may pass out.  I struggled to finish this, holding my jacket over my nose, to breathe.  It is the first time I have been enclosed with solvents since last July.  Again, I felt the vice around my chest, squeezing.  I didn't realize just how bad it was until I was in the car, away from it at last.  My throat burned, my lungs burned, even my nostrils burned.  Once in bed, I did not rise for 12 hours, another symptom of the damage done - and 6 hours longer than I normally sleep.  I should have left when I first started having trouble breathing, but instead - I am so stubborn as to finish what I start at whatever cost.  I will not do it again.  I simply must be careful about what I breathe.  I am feeling better tonight, still exhausted, and the vice loosens.  The moral of this story is "do not inhale the solvents and turps - and if someone else uses them, run in the other direction." Life is a gift, not a guarantee.  This is the 129th painting in 129 days.