My son found this old, rusted pistol lying out in the desert one day a few years ago. Last year I found this old oil lamp in an antique store as I searched for glass subjects other than "coke bottles" :-) . Then a few weeks ago, as I was packing things up, I came across the forgotten pistol, and knew I had to paint it! I shot the reference photo with my 4"x5" camera so I could really manipulate the depth of field and control exactly what I wanted in and out of focus. Fun stuff! I began the painting at the Bayou City Art Festival in Houston, in October '06, continued the next weekend in Galveston, and then finished it up two weekends later in Carefree, Az. (north of Scottsdale). As always, I enjoyed portraying the 'bokeh' (discs of out-of-focus light), and the texture and refraction of the glass. Rust is always fun! And for the wood pattern on this one, I added a bit of a red glaze to richen it up a bit.