Putting work together for the exhibition had been enormously difficult. I know that the gallery has a space to fill, and an expectation of income, generally based on 40% of sales, now plus GST. In order to keep the shows churning out, they have to give the artist a date and the number of paintings they need, but it could be that he/she will have to work flat-out for a year or more to produce sufficient work. During that year, there will be little feedback and absolutely no, zero, zilch income. As I work slowly I've now pretty well given up on the whole idea of doing a solo show ever again.

This painting was done after the end of that exhausting year and, looking at it again after a few years, I always did like those hanging dolls.

**There are more notes on the laughing clowns on the  Compare Clowns Page.