Visitors to my main blog - www.wightpaint.blogspot.com - will be excited and tickled to the very soles of their boots by the news that my e-book on Oil Painting for the Total Beginner is at last finished and available for download or on disc. You can find a little more information on the Forum pages here, too - under For Sale, Wanted Etc. For a mere £8 for the pdf download, £10 for the CD including p & p, you can have all the benefits of my 40 years of experience in 11 chapters over 54 pages. Something there for the experienced painter too - if only the opportunity to disagree with me. But if you do, I shall have to shoot you - I mean, if you do I shall welcome your opinions, and perhaps revise future editions in the light of them. It's just unfortunate that my major publishing venture, for which I'm sure the public is straining at the leash, has been accompanied by a toothache so cruelly persistent that it drove even me, Phobic of the Year for 20 years in succession, to the dentist. Fully expecting the pliers to be wielded with but the briefest nod to any alternative treatment, I was both relieved and concerned (what if they don't work?) to be prescribed Amoxicillin capsules in industrial quantities and strength, to cure an infection at the root of the treacherous molar. Awash, therefore, with painkillers and antibiotics, and with cotton wool soaked in oil of cloves, I am hardly aware of what I am saying and can therefore be forgiven what might otherwise be characterized as blatant product promotion. Indeed, there are perhaps those who - while having not the least desire to paint in oils - might put in an order out of solidarity and sympathy, thinking of me writhing on my bed of pain. To those people I say: hallo, you saints in temporal vesture. And don't hold back, or stint. To those who do wish to benefit from my decades of experience and yet cavil, meanly, at the price, be advised that I recommend several ways by which you can save significant sums on your oil paint outlay; tell you how to mix greens, the painter's bane; and advise on everything from selection of supports, to brushes, to knives and .... can this be true? It surely is! ..... more. Frankly, I'm surprised you've not already zipped over to www.wightpaint.blogspot.com and emailed me asking how you may most speedily be parted from your wages, pension, savings, alimony, or lottery win. And you wouldn't have wanted me to do all that work for nothing .... would you? Anyway, the thing's done at last: and, teeth permitting, I hope to be getting back to some actual painting, and posting on the Gallery, now. I hope I won't be overwhelmed with orders ..... can I cope?? [email protected] [email protected] www.wightpaint.blogspot.com www.isleofwightlandscapes.net