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This is the story about the first painting to be sold off of this website.  It’s a two-parter.  Not in the sense of your only being able to read the first half now and a sequel next week.  Rather, there is some background about the title and other information about the painting itself.

BACKGROUND

We love our backyard fire pit, which has been the site of many a pleasant evening with friends sipping wine, roasting marshmallows, and solving every one of the world’s problems in scintillating conversation.  I can be, however, overkill in my enthusiasm for it, as evidenced by January 2016, when my brother-in-law and I enjoyed a “snow fire” during a blizzard.  It was GREAT. 

It WAS great, that is, until the heat from the fire melted the snow accumulating on our clothes.  When the temperature is in the low 20s, sitting and letting your clothes get soggy is not even remotely wise.  Don’t believe me?  Put a wet wool sock in your freezer for 10 minutes and then use it as a scarf.  Still and all, we had a lot of fun and it makes for a happy memory.

THE PAINTING ITSELF

Richmond has mild winters.  Snow is rare but it is not unheard of, which means when it does happen the following does as well:

• Weather forecasters begin announcing pending snow one week before the event with gradually increasing hysteria, which means that
• Grocery stores run low on milk, bread and baby food, and completely out of beer and potato chips, and
• Schools close, usually until the following month, while
• Everybody drives like a complete jerk, except me.  (Which is what everybody else thinks too, especially the dolts who don’t understand that four-wheel drive is not particularly useful for stopping).  Finally
• 90 percent of the citizens LOVE it, while the rest grumble like pre-conversion Scrooges contemplating a Salvation Army kettle ringer

Joy regarding snow events in Richmond is especially felt by my painting friend Courtney, whose excitement about capturing a snowfall in a painting is on par with that of a Jack Russell terrier when a meatball hits the floor.  Just a couple of weeks ago, she painted a beautiful one of the Fan neighborhood before the snow stopped falling.  And through the magic of social media we were with her every minute of the process. 

So I took up the gauntlet and worked on a snow painting of my own.  Snow is a challenge, of course, being just plain white.  But it is lot of fun to paint.  And what better subject than our fire pit?  After last year, though, the idea of a snow fire is a non-starter for me.

Which is why the painting is called “No Fire Today.”