I don't have a real studio. I work on my back porch. The vinyl windows keep out the rain and dust but do little to keep out the extreme temperatures. It is too hot on summer afternoons, so in the summer months I can only paint in the mornings and at night. Some of the very cold nights in the winter are too cold, but that is not too limiting. It still gives me lots of time to paint.

I spend an awful lot of time on my back porch, probably as much as six to eight hours a day. When I get to working on newsletters and don't have the time to paint it makes me just a little crazy. Shelly told me that she thinks I do some of my best work right after I complete a newsletter.

Every year I enter the Florida State Fair and the Florida Strawberry Festival. This year I didn't. I have taken blue ribbons home from both competitions and have a drawer full of ribbons from these two venues. What I want to do this year is break into other venues, other shows. Neither of these shows is really helping me to gain exposure or to sell. This year I would like to start showing at some of the art festivals. There are plenty of those around.