Dragging it Out

This commissioned oil painting is highly detailed, in spite of the fact that it is a landscape. People who see it want to know where it is, where I was when I got my photos, what are they seeing. 

It is impossible to put in every single grove, building, road, dirt road, and random tree. I enlarge the photo on my laptop to an astronomical size in order to see what the tiny spots are, decide the main landmarks that would be helpful to the viewer, try to get them in the right place, and then use my tiniest paintbrushes to indicate them.

Can you see the added detail?

Every time I work on this painting, I have to change things that I thought were right. 

I am not worried. There is still time to finish and to finish well, believably, and with confidence that this will be my best work.

But maybe I should put more hours into this custom oil painting and stop making stepping stones.

She Loves Flowers, Chapter Two

After obsessing over the wildflowers on the hillside behind my house, I headed to the painting workshop to paint some of my own wildflowers.

But wait! There are other flowers in bloom in the yard, and they also deserve attention. I picked some Lemon Geranium to put in a vase near my work station, because it keeps mosquitos away. (in theory)

Wait! I can’t work on that piece today. It doesn’t have the tight deadline that the Redbud Festival is pressurizing me with. IT IS TOMORROW, 10-5 at the Three Rivers Memorial Building and SUNDAY, 10-4.

Get to work, Central California artist! Chopchop.

I love this view of Franklin Creek, at the upper crossing, below the dam.

Mineral King Wildflowers, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $165 (plus that pesky California sales tax).

Then I finished this 6×6″ poppy. 

I have more finished little paintings for the Redbud Festival but you might have to go to the show to see them.

Maybe I’ll show you those other flowers in the yard on Monday’s post. Or maybe I will tell you that I sold everything at the Redbud Festival. Or maybe nothing will have sold and I will invite you to a bonfire.

JUST KIDDING!

Mired in Detail

After spending a good chunk of an afternoon drawing with my paintbrush, perfecting the detail on the 50th Anniversary Floral Bouquet oil painting, I had a real hankering to return to the commissioned oil painting of my favorite subject. “Slamming out” some quick small paintings for the Redbud Festival just wasn’t lighting my candle.

This painting was calling my name.

I began texturing the distant hills. 

Then I built a few roads.

If this wasn’t a commissioned piece, it would go in my dining room. I can paint another for myself, but there is enough other (PAYING) work that it is not a priority. 

So, I will enjoy the process of being mired in detail for someone else’s happiness. Snow, GREEN, poppies, CITRUS. . . the very best that Tulare County has to offer. (But remember, we have bad air, high unemployment, diabetes, teen pregnancies, high welfare, no Trader Joe’s or Whole Paycheck grocery stores, and a severe lack of education. Just sayin’ in case you were thinking of bringing some big city values to our little piece of California’s flyover country.)

What Matters on a Commissioned Oil Painting

This wisdom about perfecting a painting is from Betty Edwards, most known for her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She also wrote a helpful book about color, helpfully titled Color.

  1. Do any of the lightest lights seem to pop out rather than staying anchored?
  2. Do any of the darkest darks seem to carve holes?
  3. Does any area that is not the main event seem to fight for attention?

Turn it upside down to evaluate for these next questions:

  1. Does it seem heavy on one side or the other, or on the top or bottom?
  2. Does anything seem out of place, either too bright or too dull?

I evaluated the anniversary bouquet painting using these questions. It went from looking like this:

to looking like this:

Then I incorporated the very apt suggestion from reader (and friend and former drawing student) Nikki to make the edges of the carnations more fringed. Here is better fringiness on the left side:

And the not yet fringed right side for your comparison:

Then I fixed the hanging ribbon, the patchy-looking background, the repaired coaster, a dab here and a touch there, and finally added in a little something on the bottom left quarter.

Now it will dry, I will continue to mull it over, study it, and eventually, I hope to find the courage to sign it and call it FINISHED. (Mr. and Mrs. Customer are no help in this finalizing and nitpicking because they have been thrilled with the painting at every stage!) 

P.S. It looks better in person; there are weird shiny spots because so many parts are wet.

 

 

Painting Fast, Day Two

Because the Redbud Festival is coming this weekend, I have to git ‘er dun quickly. Day One of painting fast was quite productive. Day Two was also quite productive.

I need small paintings to sell at the Redbud Festival (Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8), and Mineral King is always popular. These are supposed to be for the Silver City Store, but if they sell at the Redbud Festival, I will simply paint them again. They need to be dry in time to scan, varnish and display by Friday evening when we set up the show.

Quick, start another one to finish tomorrow!

This one isn’t Mineral King, but if it doesn’t sell at the Redbud Festival, it can go to Kaweah Arts.

HEY! Maybe I should just take my work out of Kaweah Arts for the show. I could, but it makes more sense to beef up my inventory, and then I’ll have more to take to Kaweah Arts after the Redbud Festival (10-5 on Saturday, 10-4 on Sunday.)

There are so many decisions to be made when figuring out the business of art. It feels like guesswork, but there is intuition, based on experience. I definitely have not missed doing those shows. But the Redbud Festival is so close to home, so very easy to get to, at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. See you there?

Painting Fast

Redbud Festival is a long-time event in Three Rivers that I remember from childhood. I have participated many times, but was just fine missing the past two years of festivals, bazaars, and arts/crafts fairs. 

I recently learned that the Redbud Festival will be happening again this year, Mother’s Day Weekend (May 7-8) at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. 

A friend who makes felted purses can only work on Saturday; I have plans for Saturday (the drawing workshop at Arts Visalia). So, we will share a booth, which she will run on Saturday and I will run on Sunday.

Oops. I hadn’t planned on this. Most of my work these days is commissions, or it is specifically for a gallery. 

These events need large colorful pieces in order to attract attention, but they also need smaller inexpensive pieces for people to actually buy. It might not be like that in a city, but a small unincorporated town in a relatively (for California) low population rural county is a whole different animal.

QUICK–Stop on the commissions that don’t have a solid deadline and figure out what might sell at the Redbud Festival! After an inventory and survey session, I gathered some small canvases, selected a few photos that might have good appeal for the weekend crowd of browsers, pulled those seven Mineral King paintings off the drying walls, and hit the ground running.

First, finish the almost finished poppy painting that I had set aside in order to paint the carnation and rose bouquet.

Next, do something fun: 6×6″ iris, my favorite flower which happens to be in bloom right now. I was able to mix the colors accurately by looking at the real thing instead of relying on photos.

I love flowers (not just the wild kind). These little 3″ square canvases are a size I haven’t tried before, so I ordered some mini easels to sell with them, paid extra for quicker shipping, and painted 2 different sunflowers.

Still had a little time left in the day, so I “went” to Mineral King.

Revving up the Mineral King Painting Factory

I prefer short pithy titles, but The Google likes the long ones. Who cares? Me. Just wanted you to know why my titles are longer than they used to be. 

It is time to start producing paintings to sell at the Silver City Store, AKA Silver City Mountain Resort. 

I randomly chose various sizes from my canvas storage shelf, wired the backs, went through my photos and chose scenes that I either hadn’t painted before, or ones that were a new take on an old subject. Of course, almost everything I paint in Mineral King is a repeat because I know what sells and that is what I need to be painting. I came here to earn a living, so SHOW ME THE MONEY. 

Such a sell-out. But if I wasn’t, then I’d need a job, and I’d rather do some repetitious painting (and push to improve each time) than be a waitress.

I drew this bridge at Cold Springs Campground in pencil, a snow scene, but have only painted it once before (that I remember).

I have never painted the mini falls along the Nature Trail (the mess on the right is going to be those little falls, AKA “Iron Falls”).

I’ve never painted Franklin Creek about a half mile or so below Franklin Lake but always appreciate this view with the water, wildflowers, and the light. (That’s the lower painting, 6×18″, still quite a mess).

I have painted the Honeymoon Cabin many times, but I don’t think I have done it from this distance.

I’ve painted the trail several times, but from a different location each time. This might be a new vantage point.

Sawtooth. Yawn. The trail will help. There will be wildflowers.

These seven paintings are very very loose and messy right now. Some days I don’t feel like drawing with a paintbrush. My style of oil painting works best with several layers, so the drawing layer will eventually appear.

Oh, Those Red Carnations

The carnations were last seen at this stage. The coaster, vase with stems, bows, vase-base, roses, and even the curly willow weren’t up to the level that Mr. and Mrs. Fifty Years deserve.

What’s a Central California artist to do?

Well, just keep licking the canvas, of course. (Don’t get your knickers in a twist–it is only a figure of speech.)

When an item is complicated with subtle angles that matter, I turn it upside down and copy exactly what I see. Okay, not EXACTLY, but as close as I am able on the angles and proportions that matter. The coaster beneath the vase is a real bugger-bear, to quote my friend Ft. Worth Jim. (who pronounces his name “Jee-im” as if it has 2 syllables). 

(Hi Gnat!)

Where was I?

The upside down coaster, while looking at the upside down photo on the laptop screen.

There are many details to it, details that can be ignored because it is not the reason for the painting.

The roses are Very Important to the painting. Carnations have their own happy prettiness, but roses are pure elegance.

Can I be finished now?

Nope. Here is some self-talk: Study the photo of the painting, evaluate the things that matter, speculate on what could be better, touch up those little items, strengthen the contrast, soften the irrelevant parts, and don’t sign it until you have taken it to the nth degree.

Yes, I know, the painting has come a very long distance from its humble beginning of red blobs, seen here. But the fat lady has not sung. (Someone bring her another cookie, please.)

 

Variety in the Working Life of a Central California Artist

There you go, Search Engines. Hope you like that ridiculously long title.

I had a day of great variety, all of it interesting, all of it productive

  1. This book, Adventures in Boy Scouting, will soon be available as an ebook through Bookbaby. It took a lot of learning, and a lot of proofreading. The print version is available at the Three Rivers Mercantile, Three Rivers Historical Museum, and BookBaby.com. 
  2. After enjoying the nice fire in the house (in the wood stove—no need to be concerned) while proofreading (we had a few cold days), I moved to the painting workshop to do a bit of polishing on the Fiftieth Bouquet oil painting. “Polishing” here means making some small corrections. The roses, red bow, vase, coaster and background are not finished.
  3. I detailed the mountains and put a second layer on my favorite scene.

  4. Then I left the painting workshop and moved into the studio to finish a drawing. After scanning it, I sent it to the customer to get her approval before spray-fixing it and then adding color.

It was a good day of working on projects that are all presold. While it is fun to just paint and draw what I want, it is more satisfying to paint and draw for other people, particularly when they choose subjects that float my boat.

In case you have forgotten because I haven’t shouted this at you for awhile:

Using pencils, oil paint, and murals, I make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

 

A Special Commission

If you have followed this blog for awhile, you may have noticed that I have a slight touch of a Cat Disorder. Nothing crazy. Trail Guy brings sensibility into my life, so we only have 3 cats. (We’ve had as many as 8, but that was short lived.)

Some dear friends who live far away have an unusually personable cat named Zelda. They sent a few photos, and I put all jobs aside to work on this one.

Everything else had to wait.

 

ONE MORE THING:

BOOK SIGNING SUNDAY, APRIL 24, THREE RIVERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, NOON-4 PM. I will be joining Bob Kellogg as he signs his book “Adventures in Boy Scouting: Tales by the Old Scoutmaster”.