I remember why I stopped painting with oils...ONE sore throat.

I have about three large older oil paintings 4x3ft that I have never been totally happy with, and one was on pears on a plate.

As I was working on the small pear painting I was thinking about this large oil and wondering if I should pull it out and have a good look at it. Really, the only reason it is still around is because it is an oil and I have been using Acrylic for the last six or more years. You can paint over acrylic with oil but not the other way around. Amazingly my oil paints are still fine, and I found some lovely linseed oil and some fine old oil brushes so off I went.
I have a sore throat and feel weird after painting all day with swirling fumes. But I think this painting is going very well so I am more than happy.
I had a large base under the plate holding the pears and it never worked. I wanted an unbalanced look and that is exactly what I got, but not the way I wanted. I have redone the pears and added more colour and movement to them, and put a large white circle shape under the plate.
The painting had to go out in the garage as the smell was so over powering. My studio is part of the house, and really is not suitable for oils.
My old studio was away from the house and I could turn the place into a paint factory and it did not worry the man about the house.....