Daily Painting Practice - self portrait day 28

This past fourth of July weekend we went on a mini vacation with my son and daughter-in-law to the wine country of Eastern Missouri. The landscape there is just beautiful. Since I was the designated driver, I hung outside the tasting rooms of the vineyards a lot and took photos or painted. Here's one scene I couldn't pass up. The bee hives caught my eye so I parked my self safely to the side ( or so I thought) and started painting.
These were very active hives and I was fine until.... You see that car approaching just over my shoulder? Bees don't like cars. Specifically the exhaust trail which lead them straight to me. Just after the car went by, out came a rather upset little bee who either was an art critic or was just angry because the car interrupted her fly way. Anyway, two seconds after this photo was taken Ms. Bee came after me and stung me right on the tip of my nose! Ouch!
I did the ritual get me out of here dance. High stepping and swinging my arms like a crazy person, trying to swat the darn thing away. I frantically threw everything into my backpack and jumped in the car. Luckily for me, my always be prepared for any situation/wife had her pair of tweezers and got the stinger out. She also happened to have baking soda ( don't ask) which takes the pain of the sting away.

This is as far as I got with the painting. You can still see the grass stuck in the paint.

Artist's Hands
Self portrait No.28
8"x10"
oil on canvas board

I received some great news just prior to the weekend. I have a new gallery representing my work. I am so happy to say that the( desChamps Gallery) in Lambertville , New Jersey is now showing my paintings. This is exciting because I grew up in N.J. and lived in Hunterdon County for a while as well.