One December evening in the living room of my birthhouse, I photographed a solid-sitting Cyclomen Plant on a black table in front of our family's chimney's fireplace. Then a few Winters later I painted it purposefully with my recent new Williamsburg, VA oil paints. As hard as the fireplace's fire and plant were to paint, the bricks actually were the most time-consuming. To get their architecturally-correct proportions first and to keep their solid paint layers from dripping all over the place I had to do two things. First before even starting the painting I drew a drawing in color pencil just of the brick. Then along with the photograph I positioned the painting on the floor of my studio a little like Pollock over his floored canvases. Unlike Pollock,though, I didn't want drips, I wanted controlled lined-with-mortar bricks. So I knelt to the sides of my floored canvas when painting the beauiful bricks and mortar surrounding a lively, roaring fire for the passionate plant of reddish-pink petals and various-green leaves on navy blue pot holder to "contemplate" and the viewer too the passage of a cold winter night's time in  NW Washington, DC!