And More Orange Groves

Remember this painting?

A friend saw it and wondered if I could draw a similar scene in pencil, this time adding in two little girls. Because I love to draw, love to draw and paint orange groves, and really like my friend, I said yes.

Ahem. There isn’t a photo of the two little girls from the back, walking together holding hands, because one doesn’t even walk yet. 

My friend sent me photos of the girls as they look now. Then I went to The Duck (search engine DuckDuckGo) to see if I could find helpful photos. 

From those photos, I did this little sketch.

Good thing my friend knows that I know how to draw. He was very taken with the sketch, so I think this idea will work, IF I CAN DRAW TWO LITTLE GIRLS THAT I CANNOT SEE!

No pressure or any undue stress.

Just shut up and pick up your pencils, Central California Artist.

Coming Home to Orange Groves

I grew up in an orange grove.

That sounds weird. Until I was about 11 years old, we lived in a house in an orange grove, not under a tree with the jackrabbits. After that, we moved to a house in an olive grove. Although picturesque, olive trees are not as appealing to me as oranges trees. That opinion has to do with the scent of orange blossoms, along with the ready availability of food. (Don’t try to eat an olive directly from the tree. You’re welcome.) 

A year or two (probably three—you know how time flies) ago, I developed a strong desire to paint orange groves with foothills and mountains in the background. This isn’t my best selling subject (that would currently be Sawtooth and before that Farewell Gap or the Honeymoon Cabin), but it sells steadily. 

We saw this painting in progress a week or two ago:

Here are a few more stages of development:

It is lacking oranges on the right side, a wind machine, and maybe some blossoms. They might be too small at this scale. I was very careful to get the mountains accurate, so if you know the middle fork of the Kaweah, you will recognize Alta Peak and Castle Rocks.

Why do I love this subject so much? 

Prolly need some counseling.

Definitely need some counseling, but it prolly doesn’t have anything to do with this particular obsession.

“Prolly.” I love this non-word.

This, That, and Something Else

  1. I started some new poppy paintings. These are 4×6″ and will be for sale at Kaweah Arts this spring, unless they sell here first.
  2. I found a new web designer, RIGHT HERE IN THREE RIVERS! (No photo for that thrilling piece of news).
  3. Kaweah Arts sold a large painting for me.
  4. I started a new orange painting, this one 6×12″; it will be available through the Mural Gallery in Exeter, unless it sells here first.Of course, I will have to work once in awhile if I expect to finish these paintings. There are many distractions in addition to an immature and unprofessional attitude about loafing since I had great sales in December, and so far, so good in January.

Just give me a pair of minutes; I will look for my work-face (maybe).

P.S. Don’t be scared of these beginnings because I really do know how to paint, and everything starts out ugly.

Another Version of Sawtooth

Two years ago I had a great idea for an art project for Tulare County. I  asked important people with good connections how to pursue the idea, followed instructions to get put on an agenda for a quarterly meeting, wrote a letter as advised, put together a Powerpoint presentation, and then everything was cancelled due to The Plague.

An arts organization in Visalia has recently put out the word that there might be an upcoming project, based on the idea that I never got to present. A friend overheard and notified me, and now I am working on my submissions for the unnamed project, unnamed because it isn’t real yet and there hasn’t been a “Call To Artists”.

It calls for art that is horizontal in a 2:1 ratio. 

OF COURSE I thought of the current most popular subject matter that I paint, which is Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint.

Trouble with that is the verticality of the subject matter. Will this work horizontally? The best way to find out is to try it. 

Not wanting to spend a ton of time on a piece that might look wrong, I just did a quick messy first pass over the canvas of a 6×12 to get an idea whether or not it would be worth the effort.

If Sawtooth is big enough to matter, then the stream won’t fit. Black Wolf Falls barely fits. I am definitely fudging reality here. Does it matter? Does this work?

Maybe, maybe not.

Insert my regular cliché here; you know the one.

Back to Sawtooth

Remember all those oil paintings of Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint? Sunnypoint was a Forest Service campground in Mineral King closed in the 1970s (or was it the 1960s? I wasn’t there then.)

The view that has been so popular is a bit made up. When you are standing where I have stood to take so many photos, year after year, of the same scene, your eyes tell you that the barest tip of Sawtooth shows. When you leave the exact spot, you remember it as a place where Sawtooth, Black Wolf Falls, the stream, and wildflowers are all coexisting in beautiful harmony.

It is my job to gather up all those pieces of reality and combine them into a believable fantasy for you. This beautiful fantasy, which matches up with peoples’ memories, has brought me back to the easel once again.

After a week of messing around, taking walks, editing 2 books, and staying away from the painting workshop, I finally went back to work.

The work that remains after this dries:

  1. Add the wildflowers
  2. Fix whatever is wrong that I have noticed during the drying process
  3. Sign
  4. Let dry again
  5. Scan
  6. Varnish
  7. DELIVER!

There is more to the story of multiple iterations of the Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint paintings. Mañana. . .

Last Oil Commission of the Year

On December 31, it was cold and gray outside. This meant it would take awhile to get heat up near the easels in the painting workshop, so I chose to paint inside the house. 

The lady from Spain who bought a poppy and requested an orange and a pomegranate to match extended her stay here. (Clearly, she is liking our subject matter.) This meant there was enough time for me to paint a pomegranate. It made me wish I could get the orange painting back in order to touch it up, assign an inventory number, and scan it. (I painted the orange in a day while sitting at the Courthouse Gallery.)

It has a few days to dry before it is ready to be scanned and delivered. 

It is very pleasant to paint in the house – I sit at the dining table instead of standing at the easels. The room is warm, Trail Guy is hanging around, Pippin is in the living room (under strict rules), there are tunes. Yes, I can have tunes in the painting workshop but I generally listen to podcasts instead. Maybe I’ll get my hard-nosed work face in place a little later in the new year. But for now, this is my preference. 

Thank you, Señora España, for choosing the art of this Central California artist!

Day Six on Indoor Murals

Mr. and Mrs. Customer sent a photo of the mural to their son who said, “Dad, be careful you don’t trip on those rocks!”

This time I started at the bottom of the stairs, adding texture to the boulders, along with more lichen.

Then it was time for the flowers to start blooming. Mr. Customer said, “This is a magical place, and all the flowers bloom at the same time.” That gave me the freedom to put in every foothill wildflower that came to mind.

I finished the carnival of colors, and moved to the other side of the stairs. The sequoia mural that I painted 10 years ago is on the right-hand wall leading down.

My instructions for this wall are simply a manzanita shrub.

Mrs. Customer requested blooms on the manzanita. Mr. and Mrs. Customer have asked many times for me to be sure to sign and date every one of these mini murals. 

I told them to live with it all for a few days. This gives them a chance to ponder any ways to make it fit their vision better. They have great suggestions and have been right every time.

Next time, I will put blooms on the manzanita, maybe add some more leaves above and behind the bannister, fulfill any correction or addition requests, and sign everything.

Day Five on Indoor Murals

On Day Five I finished the trumpet vine. 

Next I went downstairs to begin the third mural: boulders with lichen, grass, and wildflowers, along the staircase.

Before I started, I went outside to look at boulders in order to mix the right shades of gray.

Look upstairs!

Lichen will be a challenge. I might need to buy some smaller brushes. Look at how I wish it would turn out:

Hmmm, as with many of my projects, this feels a little bit too hard. This is how it looked when I started getting stupid at the end of 6 hours of painting.

 

Day Four on Indoor Murals

I forgot my good brushes at home. I thought about calling Trail Guy to bring them to me, and I thought about going back home to get them. Since I was the one who messed up, I didn’t want to mess up TG’s day; I also knew that if I drove back home, I’d find a reason to not go back to work. It is hard to leave home any day; on cold wet days it is even harder to leave, so leaving twice in one day was a bit much for this lazy Central California artist.

Since I wasn’t getting into tight detail yet, I decided to just use inferior brushes. No need to wear out the good ones on base layers.

The Customers and I decided that the leaves and blossoms were too small, and that the trunk would need to be wider and also to cross around the corner to the left.

I poured 3 greens onto the paint bucket lid that doubles as a palette. The greens have been mixed from the primary colors, and are very useful to have ready to go, so I always have several on hand.

Mr. and Mrs. Customer and I discussed my not having found good photos of the trunks of trumpet vine. They went to work on locating some photos, and then Mr. Customer taped them to the door.

I finished the leaves and poured out some reds, oranges, and yellows, along with a bit of white. The photos helped, although I don’t copy what I see. The specifics rarely fit exactly, paintbrushes are NOT pencils, and inferior paintbrushes are definitely not able to do the kind of details that I love. So, I pushed through some base coating to locate clumps of flowers.

On the next painting day, I WILL remember my good brushes and will detail this into shape. Just seeing the photos here on the screen gives me ideas of how to make this better.

Day Three on Indoor Murals

The goal for Day Three was to finish the wisteria and begin trumpet vine over the doorway.

The right side needs to be finished.

Then I moved back to the beginning because it takes awhile to learn how to paint a new subject, and by the time I get to the end, I have more knowledge and then have to revisit the earlier portions to make some additions and corrections.

It was a dark day, so the wisteria was too hard to photograph in full.

Next, the doorway into the room will have trumpet vine. I didn’t have the right colors, so I used whatever was on the palette to begin drawing.

This gave the Customers and I a chance to see if I am on the right track in meeting their vision. Mr. Customer has a good eye (well, I think both of his eyes are fine, but you know what I mean) and explained how far around the left edge he wants the trunk to go and how thick he would like it. Mrs. Customer would like the flowers to be life-sized, so now I know what to do when I return for Day Four.