MICHAEL WHELAN

BEE TAXI by Michael Whelan, week 22 in his LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.

I call this new one “Bee Taxi”. At least, that’s what I saw when I turned the Gessobord I was using as my palette upside down.

HARBINGER, the last painting I used this palette for, had a lot of yellows in it. When I finished, I covered the palette with a yellow ocher gesso so I could use it again. Recently, while working on a small black wash rendering, I made marks on the board that suggested a scene to me.

I added details today and now I don’t want to cover it up with another layer of gesso. Looks like I’ll be fishing around for a new panel to use as a palette when I start my next painting.

I realize a real bee’s wings probably flap at a different angle than the blurry representation in this little piece, but that smudge allowed me to visualize the image in the first place, so I left it as I found it. If I used this sketch as a springboard into a regular painting, I would research and adjust the blur of the wings accordingly.