A few years ago I’d sold a painting of fish on old slabs of timber to a friend. Fast forward a few years and someone who’d seen it wanted something similar.

Of course, its not so simple just ordering a painting on old timber, an old shutter or door. FIRST you have to FIND it. Which means looking at every rubbish pile you walk or drive by anywhere you go. Sorting through stacks of old wood wherever you see one, searching for something suitable.

Remember, I no longer have sheds where I can store every potential piece of rubbish wood I find…

Once you locate the right piece, you have to carry it home, then prepare it – wash and clean off dirt or whatever might have accumulated on it, sand off the worse weathering and layers of old paint, cut off any rotted or jagged bits it might have, mend where needed, and generally prepare the surface for painting.

Then paint it. Last finish with varnish and some method for hanging it.

Don’t get me wrong. This is right up my alley. I love doing this stuff. I just wish I had the luxury of the multiple sheds I had in Tasmania to store my stash of future projects. Back then I could pick up anything I thought would ‘come in handy one day’, so that when I had a commission (or an idea) I could just walk around the sheds looking for the right piece…

Those were the days…

Do you detect a note of nostalgia in my voice typing? Yes, you do. ‘Cause lately I’ve been thinking about Australia more and more and miss it more and more.

sigh.

Anyway. Enjoy some fish.

Here is the finished piece, sitting on my workbench outside cause I have no space to hang it.

z