A Bumper Made for a Painting

When I upgraded to a "stationwagon on steroids" (a Subaru Forester) a few months back from a tiny city runaround (a Matiz Daewoo), I had a whole list of reasons. These included safety (small cars seem to be invisible to aggressive road users in large SUVs and fast cars, not to mention South African taxis) and being able to drive on dirt roads to great locations for plein-air painting. But I've found another reason why it was a great buy.

The back bumper makes the most perfect shelf for putting a painting on when I want to photograph it. The vehicle being white makes it an ideal background, and its rear end being quite vertical, means the painting stands up nice and straight, at a level that's easy to photograph. Somehow I don't see it ending up as a unique sales point in the manufacturer's brochure though....

For the technical know-how and so on about cars, you'll need to click over to Cars.About.com or SUVs.About.com. Maybe I should ask them to think about rating vehicles in terms of their usefulness for painters: are there big windows for seeing the view; is there enough space if you want to sit and sketch; is there anywhere to put your sketching supplies?