The portrait and the mouse

For the portrait Toad is painting of me, I had to dig out an old kimono that I used, in the warmer climes of southern Britain, to use as a dressing-gown. It has lived in my old student trunk for quite a few years because it's rarely warm enough to wear it in the frozen north 🤣. Seriously though, living on the Boggy Brae requires roughs and scruffs most of the time.

The trunk's lock got smashed on its very first trip up to Dundee from Lancashire, sent up in advance as one did in those days. One of the student hall of residence sub-wardens helped me get it to a mender in Dundee and, 40+ years on the trunk and its replacement locking hasp live on in good health.

The photo shoot got a bit tedious so I started messing about. The Lastolite that Toadlet was commissioned to hold seems to have deteriorated and bits of its metallic side flew off and filled the air with specks of dust. They won't appear in the portrait.

Toad is doing the painting in the den 'studio'. This morning he thought his painting mediums had exploded out of the cling film cover. One had disappeared altogether. The one on the left (the white blob) is made of linseed oil and chalk. the other, which had been to the right of that but was all gone, was made of linseed oil and fused silica (it's called oleogel).

Then he noticed the well chewed squidgy ball...

...and that some of the paint had been eaten off the canvas. The mice must be hungry! The paint that was eaten was oleogel with ultramarine blue paint. Portrait progress below.

The mouse traps will be baited with peanut butter. Only if they turn their noses up at that will we resort to posh, artistic bait. Toad has just said he's glad the rest of oleogel was in a tin. "They might have chewed through a tube". (Try saying that fast).