One hot morning I decided to tackle the newly cleaned bear, an odd job. Not literally—figuratively speaking. It’s probably never a good idea to tackle a bear.

The bear arrived essentially just three colors: black, white, and faded black.

Using my mural paints, I mixed up a color as close to black as possible. I also used dark sepia and burn umber to mix a variety of browns for the bark, bare wood, knots, and muzzle.

After rotating it all the way around, I decided the WELCOME needed a new coat of paint. So I mixed another almost black color. For fun, this time I used a very dark green and a red with an unpronounceable and unspellable name. Previously I used phthalo blue with dark sepia. (I know you were just dying of curiosity about this.)

The bear had the rest of a hot day to dry. The next day I loaded him in the car and drove him home to his people. Front seat with a seat belt? Reclining on the back seat? Secured between the front passenger seat and the back seat?

Bet you are dying of curiosity about that too…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JC! I’M STILL OLDER THAN YOU.