That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 31, 2020

“Wow, it really is fun watching paint dry.”

“Hey, who’s the painter here?”

This painter should know better than to look at the painter while being painted.

I seriously hope there’s no wardrobe malfunction here.

Poser: “I thought I’d look a little more like Bradley Cooper than that.” Painter: “Sorry. You signed up for the Slight Touch Up package, not the Fantasy package.”

where men got their porn before dirty magazines…

No matter how long you stare at it, she won’t take her clothes off!

[SHERLOCK HOLMES] “Watson, what do you deduce from your observations of this painting?” [WATSON] “Well, Holmes, I deduce that this is a painting of someone who has commissioned a painting of himself observing himself being painted by an artist who is painting the subject while viewing the scene in a mirror, wot!” [SHERLOCK HOLMES] “Watson, you insufferable idiot, the paint brushes have no paint on them.”

“Uhm… What am I painting? You want to see it?? No you don’t – It’s not finished! Yeah-yeah that’s it…”

Those crazy Melcher boys. I can never remember which one is Steve and which one is Gari.

Magnum, PI’s Higgins at his retirement home gig.

And here is how you paint-by-the-numbers, Sir!!!

Speed painting competition.

Keep scrolling, this is none of your business.

Can I help you, sir? I am working with MY client.

Portrait of Sir Whitlecastle as a Young Man – er, Portrait of Sir Whitlecastle as a Youthful – er, Portrait of Sir Whitlecastle as a Not-That-Old – er, Portrait of Sir Whitlecastle as a . . . . Look, I will be paid for this, right? We can title it later.

No, you idiot! I asked for a soupçon of gray!

Sports art, a little less exciting than the actual game.

It was another three years before Charles discovered that mirrors created a much faster and more accurate infinite regression.

Painting has always been a rich man’s hobby. Fortunately, Giles was rich enough to hire a good painter to do all the work for him.

The start of abstract art – not watching what you are painting.

Gari Melchers was famous as an OCD painter. He always painted while impeccably attired and was meticulous in his work. He never got a drop of paint on his expensive clothes, his hands, or anywhere else – including the canvas!

He just pretended he was painting, then used an app to photoshop the subject and make it look like an oil painting.

Sharp guy, Gari.

It was called portraiture by mirrors technique.

Still life with guacamole.

Pornography with a low frame rate.

“I’m only watching this for the commercials.”

“What commercials?”

“Oh, right. Could you hand me the advertising section of the newspaper, please?”

“..but you can keep yo’ HAT on…”

Not much action, is there?

The painting that caused Steve to drop the “s” from his last name lest someone realize he was related to this Gari hack of a painter. (Steve also shaved his ’stache for the same reason.)

In the Studio or Gari Melchers and Hugo Reisinger: 

https://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?id=344623 

has info and links that point to info about this painting.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/melchers_gari.html 

https://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?ID=1731 

https://history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/Stimson1.htm 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149528038/julius-garibaldi-melchers 

http://gratzgallery.com/inventory/index.php?page=out&id=322 

http://www.askart.com/artist/Gari_Melchers/23145/Gari_Melchers.aspx 

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100148616 

https://collections.lacma.org/node/165657 

https://www.garimelchers.org/gari-melchers/ 

all have info, or links that point to more info, about this artist (again, the askart.com can be read in full for free on Fridays), perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. So far, 4 works by him have been used here. 

https://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/2020/01/29?comments=visible 

has the prior (my comment there used the same artist info URLs).

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2374 (January 30, 2020) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

Actually, the Superb Owl is the MOST over-hyped few hours of television imaginable!

Sir Reisinger was determined to learn how to paint and devoted himself to carefully watching each stroke.

Well, that’s kinda snide. does the painting come with more adverts per square inch than paint?

Portrait of the Artist Painting a Subject’s Hat.

But you do not know what is on the painting, may have been a touch down!

“That’s odd! Why do I always look left handed in my mirror-aided self portraits? And why does your coat breast pocket appear on the right when it’s clearly on the left? The damned mirror must be out of whack.”