Category: General

This is French for “on site” and means you paint outside while viewing your subject in person. I tried it a few times but couldn’t get my colors mixed fast enough. (and no one talked about all the bugs that prefer a non-moving target)I ended up with a morning view and an afternoon view. Both sold, so someone liked my efforts!This past weekend up in the Land of No Electricity I did my own version of plein air painting – paint outside, but work from photos. This is because I have certain things that need to get painted, I’d rather be up the hill when it is hot, and there is better light outside than inside. Plein air, sort of.

Painting and talking is harder than walking and chewing gum. When my studio was public, it was almost impossible to carry on a conversation while I had a pencil in my hand. Necessity dictated that I learn the skill, because if I spent the day visiting with customers and didn’t draw, there would be nothing to sell! When I started teaching drawing lessons, it was really hard to complete a sentence with a pencil in my hand. (No, I wasn’t having a conversation with the pencil – I should have typed “while holding a pencil in my hand”!) It took practice. Now I find it delightful to have visitors to my studio, especially if they have lots to talk about. It is like talk radio minus the commercials and with people I know and love! (thanks for coming by this week, Gina and Ashley!) This was a prolific week, but I will only tease you with one painting at a time! I know I showed this to you earlier, but now it gets a “real” photo because it is really finished except for a bit more drying time.

 

Tunnel Log, oil on wrapped canvas, 12″x16″, $200

I never tire of these poppies!

 

 

 

These are all Crescent Meadow and its surrounding areas. There is so much to see there, so many interesting sites and sights. I painted these 4 (of which you have seen 3 in previous postings) to be hung as a grouping.  They are each 8×10″ and on that thicker canvas. The fence is right next to Tharp’s Log where Hale Tharp spent his summers near Crescent Meadow. I have seen the meadow in all seasons and find it most inviting in the summer as you see it here. 

There is a bit of tension inside my head as the Inner Slob battles daily with the Inner Workaholic. This week the latter got the upper hand. It is almost 8 p.m. and I am just now ending my workday. I could cheerfully work on into the night, but I will fall over from hunger and it is too dark to mix colors properly anyway.  Have a look:I love this view of Tunnel Log because of the sunlight and have painted it smaller in the past. The floral is a Gentian, a flower that appears in August up in Mineral King. We are several generations away from the real color here: my photo of the flower, my painting from that photo, this photo of the painting, and who knows what is happening on your ‘puter screen! But oh my goodness, the flower in real life just knocks my socks off with its intense blue violet.  You can see my great table-top easels, and I am so very grateful that they didn’t sell back when I tried on eBay because I had a Clutter Attack (another topic for another day).  Yesterday I had these paintings just resting on the easels; a big gust of wind came through the workshop and the vertical one blew onto my head. I might have reddish hair for a few days as a result. Today I secured them a bit better and wore a hat. These are Sequoia Gigantea (not to be confused with Sequoia Sempervirens, or  something like that which refers to the Coastal Redwoods). Growing up, we just referred to them as “the Big Trees”.  Big trees deserve big canvases so these are 18″ x 24″, which is HUGE to me!!

It is June and I’m painting with the doors open and the swamp cooler turned off! Here are the final versions of the new paintings, complete with signatures: Never mind. You only get to see one, because I might not have anything to post tomorrow! 

Funny how my perspective changes so drastically in one month’s time. While on the wall, it seemed if I didn’t do at least 10 feet a day that I was just barely crawling. That meant that I felt as if I wasn’t making headway on any given day. The problem was the comparison of what needed to be finished to what actual got finished in a day.  Now I am almost completing a painting a day, which feels very fast, but in reality I’m only covering a few square inches! Go figure. . .

 

These were all drying on the woodstove last Saturday and now are waiting to be signed.

 

 Four of these were waiting for final details and a signature – all done now! The bridge was just a bare outline until this afternoon.

 

 

 This one now has lots of detailing in the tree and on the ground as of this afternoon. When it dries, I’ll have another go at it. 

Finally back in the studio to paint! The business of art prevents the execution of art at times, but it is all necessary (and no, I don’t have people for that). Today I finished 2 poppy paintings. These will be for a special show on Yokohl Valley sometime in the summer at Arts Visalia. What I want to know is why these paintings took hours and hours and hours. . .

  

 . . . while this painting got this far in only 2 hours! (not finished, no worries)

 

I spent some time in the Land of No Electricity and sort of forgot about Real Life for a few days! So, I’m back to “uhhh, picture, look”. This is an oil painting I finished last week. Enjoy!