Category: Oil Paintings

Sunrise Over the Kaweah River

Remember this messy beginning?

After finishing the new little paintings to sell in local galleries and gift shops, I returned to this 16×20” painting, which felt like a mural after those 6×6” canvases.

There was another painting session between the photo above and the next one. I didn’t take any photos because sometimes I just forget. Other times I say to myself, “Self”, I say, “No one cares”.

Sky first (because I paint back to front). These are colors I haven’t mixed before.

The improvements might be hard to locate, but not so hard if you remember that method of painting back to front. It means I paint the things farthest away first, and keep moving closer, rather than jumping around all over the canvas.

Holy guacamole, there are so many rocks in the lower left quadrant.

Nope, not going to paint all the rocks that show in the photo. I widened the river too, because I am the boss of the painting and the photo is not the boss of me.

Now it needs the edges painted, and a signature, but before either of those, I will mull this over for awhile. So often I think a painting or drawing is finished until I view it on my computer screen.

Weird, but not uncommon.

Because Business Picked Up …

… it is time to produce more paintings. These are the standard small ones that sell steadily to visitors to Three Rivers and Exeter, where my three main selling locations are, Kaweah Arts, Stem & Stone, and the Mural Gallery and Gift Shop. (Because that lemon sold so quickly at the Mural Gallery, I have another one drying for them.)

They are all oil paint on wrapped canvas, which means the edges are painted and framing is optional. I just didn’t want to type that every time.

Poppies up the North Fork, 6×12”, $145 (Kaweah Arts)

Sequoia Gigantea XVIII, 6×18”, $190 (Kaweah Arts)

Alta Peak, Moro Rock, 6×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)

Kaweah Country, 6×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)

P.S. If you don’t live in town and would like to buy any of these new paintings (the ones that haven’t sold already), I can retrieve them from their stores and send them to you.

TODAY IS THE SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BLOG!

Business Picks up in April—Sold

In the 30+ years I’ve been earning a living with art, I’ve seen that business usually picks up in April. This year is no exception.

The Best View, 10×20” (I added a wind machine for the customer, but didn’t rephotograph it)

When paintings sell to people passing through town, I replace those with similar paintings. Lots of sequoia trees (AKA “redwoods” or “big trees”), oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and poppies. I’d rather paint repetitious subjects than go job hunting.

Working at the Mural Gallery

The Mural Gallery and Gift Shop in Exeter has been selling my work for many years. It used to only be for artists who had painted murals in Exeter. Eventually we were all old, moved away, didn’t produce smaller pieces, or dead. (Of that list, I am only sort of old—thanks for asking.)

Now it is a gallery, but more of a gift shop, for local artists. In order to have them take less of a bite out of an artist’s sales, artists can work one shift a month. Today is my April shift.

In case you are wondering what I have there, here are photos taken from my March shift, worked last Friday.

All the Mineral King paintings will move to the Silver City Store/Resort in time for Memorial Day weekend.

Yes, they sell my cards.

While there, I did a bit a display rearranging, after I took these photos. You can see that the place has more of the feel of a gift shop than a gallery. I’ve always done better in gift shop settings than galleries, so this is fine with me. The folks running the place are very in tune with what people want, enthusiastic, organized, and a pleasure to work with.

Meanwhile, I brought four new small citrus paintings. They are waiting for bar code pricing stickers in front of these two fabulous original paintings by the fabulous Heidi Steinman.

11-4 today, 121 South E Street, Exeter

Begun, Finished, Improved

Begun

These oil paintings have their first layer down.

Finished

These paintings are dry, scanned, and delivered to their stores. (And in the category of Wishful Thinking, perhaps they are sold.)

Improved

These paintings have some minor items added to make them a smidge better.

Per my customer’s request, this now has a wind machine.

I studied this awhile and added a few more poppies hanging over the road on the bottom right of the painting.

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Working Through the List on the Commissioned Oil Painting

And writing the longest blog title ever.

Does this look finished to you? It’s not. When I was driving home a few evenings ago, I really studied the way the ridges change color as they recede into the distance.

So, I messed with them again. The differences are subtle, and now that I see it on my screen, I think it might even want a bit more adjusting. (The painting that never gets finished. . .)

Now there are oranges on the trees.

The blossoms popped out on the trees, and there are a few added in the border embellishment.

Now the smudgepot has been refined, the ground is lighter, the fallen oranges are a bit more visible, and there are two more smudgepots in the far distance, too small to see in this photo.

All that remains is a wind machine.

Maybe.

This is representative of Tulare County’s best features, according to me. The weird part is that I compiled the original pencil drawing using photos taken in Lemon Cove and Pauma Valley (in Sandy Eggo County.) I’m not showing you the pencil drawing again in case you are going to tell me all the ways I didn’t match it exactly.

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Layering, Layering, Layering, Layering Some More.

The sky was bugging me, not just because of the uneven brush strokes. It seemed to be the wrong color.

So, I repainted it. Yeppers, better.

Those hills don’t look far enough away.

So, I lightened them and made them duller in color. (a little shiny-wet here)

Then I redid the dirt and the trees.

Prolly doesn’t make much difference from your point of view.

Now I have a list of 12 more things to fix, repair, repaint, relayer, re-detail. My patient customer said she’d like it in April, but didn’t specify a date.

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Painting Lots of Orange Things

When you look at my painting subjects, you might guess that orange is my favorite color. You’d be wrong. However, orange things are among my favorite things (not raindrops on roses).

The poppy painting is on the easel for consideration and contemplation. How can I make it better? Does it need to be made better? I have an idea for the first question, and the answer to the second question is “Maybe”.

The lemon isn’t orange. Well, duh. The Mural Gallery just sold a little lemon painting so I am painting a new one.

The larger commissioned painting is getting close to completion; the poppy painting is new, and the lemon needs an orange to go with it for the Mural Gallery.

The orange painting is going quickly; the poppy painting is a little more difficult.

It’s from a photo I took up the North Fork of the Kaweah River a handful of years ago. I am not trying to copy every poppy exactly; ain’t nobody got time for that. Besides, nobody cares.

I think this is going to be a good one. My goal is to get it to Kaweah Arts in time for the studio tour on the weekend. It is a county wide studio tour. I’m not participating but am supporting Kaweah Arts in their efforts to draw many people in.