In the ongoing virtual drawing lessons, (actually happening via email rather than Zoom or video) the horse that my student C is drawing has a name, and it isn’t Mr. Curly; the name is Buck. This reminds me of a scene in a Chronicles of Narnia movie (one of the few movies I have seen or actually remember anything) of one of the kids riding a horse. He says to the horse, “Giddy-up, Horsie.” The horse turns his head back a bit and says in a very disgusted and dignified voice, “The name is Phillip.”
Please excuse the digression.
C sent me her drawing with the eyes completed. I circled one eye in red, then wrote up the notes demonstrating the next steps. I hope you can read my writing. But perhaps you don’t care, and only came to look at the photos.
Forrest’s Dream Cabin was ready for more work, so I flipped it over in order to reach the mountainside at the top of the 30″ canvas.
After finishing the mountainside, adding more detail to the distant chapel, straightening out the roof, adding more stilts and a railing, I put in a few windows and turned the lights on inside. Suddenly, I froze and was assaulted with “Yikes, this is too hard”, and “What do I think I am doing here??”
The cure for that is to go pull weeds.
Then I moved on to an oil painting where I KNOW the subject matter*.
That’s more like it. I know what I am painting and can just start at the beginning and finish at the end. With Forrest’s Dream Cabin, I am just fumbling along, so it is slow, requiring much thought and time. Forrest is not in a hurry, is appreciative and easy to work for.
Here are two last thoughts (visual thoughts):*Mineral King, of course
We set the pieces around the room so Director Michelle could see the best way to arrange them.
Arts Visalia hung 17 oil paintings and 10 pencil drawings. A drawing sold, so I took another in. (THAT WAS A THRILL!) They also have The Cabins of Wilsonia and Mineral King Wildflowers (all signed) and a variety of notecards for sale. (I didn’t take thecitrus assortment, because there isn’t enough room in the price to donate toFarmer Bob’s Worldafter the gallery takes their bite.)
My work is in Gallery 2; Ricardo Favela’s work is in the Main Gallery.
The fancy electronic sign in the foyer.
SEE THE SHOW IN PERSON:The gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5:30. You can make an appointment to see the show (they accept appointments from 1-3), or you can just show up and go in if there aren’t other people already in the gallery. (Their limit is 10 people at one time.)
VIDEO INTERVIEW:If you want to watch the video interview of me, it should be available on the gallery’s interview page tonight. (Please don’t tell me how I did; ignorance is bliss, and this whole virtual/video situation makes me a bit squirmy.)
SEE THE SHOW ONLINE:If you want to view the show online without driving to the gallery, it should also be available on the gallery’s virtual tour page tonight. The director photographed each piece; I don’t know if prices are visible.
BUY ART:If you want to buy a piece, you may use the gallery contact page, or I can help you figure out the best way to make that happen if you don’t want to talk to a stranger. (Don’t worry – the gallery director, Michelle, is quite personable.) Pieces need to stay at the gallery for the duration of the show.
SEE ME:I will be there on Saturday, April 3 (tomorrow), and probably a few other days through the length of the show.
Last time I showed you this oil painting commission it looked like this:
In this session, I began working on the water, first measuring to be sure the horizon line is horizontal. Then I repainted the water. This erased the hint of stilts that the cabin was resting on; now it is floating.
I kept studying the photo until I discerned a hint of shadows and reflections from the cabin.
Then I started adding more detail to the snow covered trees.
This is how it looked at the end of the painting session. As I add the detail, I realize that much is hidden in shadow or behind undefined blobs on the photo.
So I turned to the Duck! looked up the name of the lake on DuckDuckGo and found many photos to study for better detail. Turns out that this version has been flipped horizontally. Forrest doesn’t need me to copy the photo exactly because he is looking for a particular feeling that the scene evokes. However, I do need help to put something in place of vague black blobs, so I will just inch along, making decisions with each indistinct item and area.
Somewhere I read that the way to wake up a body part that has gone to sleep is by shaking your head. What?? Someone please try this and let me know!
If you want to leave money both to charity and to people in your will, use your IRA for the charity, because they don’t have to pay taxes on it, but people do, just as if it is their own IRA. Just list the charity or charities as the beneficiaries. You’re welcome (because now you don’t have to pay a lawyer to tell you this.)
Three Rivers made #3 on a list of the 12 most charming small towns in California. Really?? They obviously didn’t dig very deep and learn that our air is foul, we are uneducated, unemployed, and fat. And, there is no Trader Joe’s. Here is the site: PureWow True, it is fabulous here in February and March.
I met someone who is convinced that Elvis didn’t die and is now in the Witness Protection Program as Pastor Bob Joyce (or Robert E. Joyce, as in “rejoice”) of Benton Arkansas. That guy was born in 1953; Elvis was born in 1935. He sings like Elvis, but so do lots of impersonators. It made for some fun conversation (and DuckDuckGo searching).
One of my drawing students has been painting with watercolors on used tea bags. Yes, you read that correctly. Her inspiration comes from Ruby Silvious. This sounds too bizarre to believe until you see it. I grabbed this image from My Modern Met
When pictures are hung in a group in a gallery, it is called “salon style”; when 4 are grouped together, it is called a “four-pack”.
If you live in Tulare County, have a power outage and the restart kills your 33-year-old refrigerator on which you have a DNR, call Frank’s Appliance first. (Whirlpool goes the distance.)
There are 2 kinds of naked ladies bulbs: one is called Lycoris and works where the winters are cold; the other is Amaryllis Belladonna and pops up in August after all hope for a decent looking yard has expired in that dismal month. (This learning was triggered by a gardening blog and is not relevant to March but I learned it in March, so there.)
Amaryllis Belladonna, always a nice surprise in my yard in August, because the deer don’t eat these.
Last week we saw the beginnings of C’s new horse drawing.
The eyes are the best place to start when drawing a living being. The eyes on Mr. Curly were too dark to see on the photo, so I used the computer to lighten and enlarge. (If you can’t see a thing, it’s almost impossible to draw the thing. Duh. You are welcome.)
Eye on the left after enlarging and lightening:
Eye on the right, after lightening and enlarging:
My demonstrations and notes, scanned a little darker than accurate in order for C to be able to read my handwriting, which makes the drawing parts a little too dark. There are many drawbacks to this virtual stuff, but C is a very committed drawing student and an excellent communicator.
I wonder how many of you will unsubscribe to my blog because this type of post is making your eyes cross.
Tomorrow I will be delivering paintings and drawings to Arts Visalia for my upcoming show, Still Here.
The show will be visible online, or you can make an appointment to see it during gallery hours, Wednesday – Saturday, noon – 5:00. The gallery director will interview me on Wednesday, but I don’t know how soon the interview will be visible. (More will be revealed. . .) The gallery’s website address is here, and here too; I don’t know when my work will be visible. (More will be revealed. . .)
Questions, questions, more questions, because inquiring minds need to know.
Why does one’s back only itch in the places that are impossible to reach?
Are all contractors not hungry? It is a rare contractor who returns phone calls or shows up when promised. What is the problem here??
Why do some people object to referring to a disease by the location of its origin? German measles, Hong Kong flu, Spanish flu, Lyme disease, Valley Fever, Hanta virus, but somehow China virus is offensive. Confusion abounds here.
Why won’t Trader Joe’s put a store in Visalia? Are our demographics really that much different here than in Bakersfield or Fresno? Have they ever added up the number of people from Tulare County who drive to Fresno’s TJ’s?
Why is it that a paintbrush will not release any more paint on the canvas but then takes 15 minutes to wash clean?
If “one year’s weeds make seven years seeds” (or is it “one year’s seeds make seven years weeds”?), then WHY AM I STILL WEEDING THE EXACT SAME STUFF IN YEAR #22??
Do my cats appreciate their safe location every night?
The title of this commissioned oil painting is Forrest’s Dream Cabin, so it is imperative that I move it from nightmare to dream status. Here is the next painting session of step by step improvement.
Sky first, painted upside-down for easier reach.
2. The colors on my palette look so dull.
3. Water next. I could reach this part right-side up.
4. Mountain and foreground branches
5. I want to start drawing with my paintbrush on the cabin detail, but I think the water and background mountain will need more layers first.
The colors are so much duller on screen than in real life. Forrest said, “it’s like a ghostly cabin is emerging out of the scene, nice!”
P.S.This is not a houseboat; it is a cabin on stilts in a lake in Northern Italy.
In the ongoing virtual drawing lessons, (actually happening via email rather than Zoom or video) the horse that my student C is drawing has a name, and it isn’t Mr. Curly; the name is Buck. This reminds me of a scene in a Chronicles of Narnia movie (one of the few movies I have seen or actually remember anything) of one of the kids riding a horse. He says to the horse, “Giddy-up, Horsie.” The horse turns his head back a bit and says in a very disgusted and dignified voice, “The name is Phillip.”
*Mineral King, of course
Architectural details still missing, but background looking good.
