There was no way that I could
bear looking at the quartz clock that I had bought for a few dollars, so I set
about modifying its appearance. In place of the horrid plastic case I mounted
the mechanism on a brass and mahogany stand of my own making. All went well
until the hollow shaft that turns the minute hand broke within the shaft that
turn the hour hand. To make a repair I had to turn and bore a brass insert no
larger than the head of a match – hence my grandfather’s clock making tools and
his critical eye looking down on me from the next world!
The picture is of the modified clock
on the shelf in my studio with the plastic case of its predecessor shown as an insert.
Why, you may ask, do I need to
tell the time while painting? The answer being that I work from the model for
no more than one and a half hours and in that time I attempt three paintings.
The clock tells me when enough is enough. To paint more would be to achieve
less.
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