Thursday, September 09, 2010

Larry Adlerstein, Professional Artist

Yes, I sold a painting for $50—back when that was worth 70 or 80 dollars.

She was a neighbor from upstairs who sat with her red-stockinged legs on my kitchen table. I had just learned foreshortening at the Portland School of Art, and the answer is, “No.”

Also, I was reviewed by Edgar Allen Bean, art critic for the Maine Times. It was a group show at the Portland art building, a slightly converted scrap metal warehouse.

The former “Louis Mack Scrap Metal Warehouse” also housed my real day job, Portland Pottery Supply. Both businesses were housed in a 25,000 square foot brick building heated by one coal stove. Pretty perfumed Brenda almost single-handedly kept the clay from freezing in the Maine winter. Almost.

Edgar spent about 15 words on yours truly but the word that has stuck in my memory 20 or 30 years later is his description of my oil painting as “thick.”