What's on the Easel?

After getting some good feedback from my husband and a painter friend, I decided to remove the nook, necktie and the necklace hanging from the nail. I loved all the wordplay, but it was just too busy back there with all the nesting ninjas, and was very dark and heavy in that corner, so I thought I'd see if it would be better if I simplified it. I did like this arrangement better, but it needed something in the upper right corner, against the wall. On my walk this afternoon, I stopped in at the Goodwill store and was thrilled to find some Nancy Drew books! I bought three, since I didn't know which cover would look the best. I think I've landed on this one. I like the way her flashlight beam is pointing up into the plant, bringing your eye around. I may tweak it a bit more, but I think it's getting close. I want to rearrange the ninjas so that the one on the notebook is the one that has nunchucks tucked in his belt. I'm going to replace that plastic orange with a real...

Well, after finishing "M", I took a nice long break from painting and mainly did jigsaw puzzles while we were snowed in, then I stretched a canvas for "N" and for my new copy at the National Gallery (read about that here ). I've been thinking about and collecting the N objects for weeks, and have set them all on the table. Today I started to seriously look at them and arrange them into a possible composition. I have collected Necco wafers, nutmeg, a Neanthe Bella palm (there aren't many plants that start with N! I wanted Narcissus, but the garden center said they wouldn't be selling them until April. They helped me find this pretty little Neanthe Bella palm, also known as a parlor palm), an Alice Neel book, Ninja nesting dolls, a napkin, a Nacre (mother-of-pearl) necklace, a notebook, a nine ball, a navel orange (I'm using a plastic orange as a stand-in but I will buy a real navel orange when I'm ready to start the painting), a necktie, and a nav...