Category: Oil Paintings

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.

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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.)

commission oil painting oil paintings

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

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.
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.
I detailed the mountains and put a second layer on my favorite scene.
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.

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Attending to Other Jobs

When I began these paintings, navels were still hanging on trees, and the blossoms began. Orange blossoms are my favorite scent. Suddenly, orange blossom season was almost over, and I hadn’t touched these 2 small paintings.

They are now available at the Mural Gallery in Exeter. 6×6″, $60; 4×6″, $50 (PLUS TAX, OF COURSE!) The Mural Gallery doesn’t have a website; it is at the park with Exeter’s first mural, next door to the Wildflower Cafe.

Speaking of Exeter’s first mural, here is the beginnings of a similar painting, another painting of my favorite subject.

This one will be fun. It is a commission, and I know I can do it because I painted the same scene a few years ago as a 16×20″. Or maybe 18×24″. I’ve slept since then (and painted many similar scenes).

P.S. The paintings are NOT scratch ‘n’ sniff.

citrus painting commission oil painting orange grove painting orange oil painting orange painting

Productive Painting Day

Look at all these canvases! It is time to figure out what to paint of Mineral King in order to have inventory to sell at Silver City Mountain Resort, more commonly known as the Silver City Store, informally called by locals, “The Store”.

First I randomly chose a variety of sizes. Seven canvases seemed like a good number to begin with, 6×6″ up to 6×18″, including 8×8″, 8×10″ and 10×10″.

Then I sorted through my photos and chose subjects that were familiar and added a few more scenes that I haven’t tried before. Some will need to be cropped or stretched or somehow manipulated to fit the chosen canvas shapes.

I put a little bit of another base coat to help me remember which scene goes on which canvas.

But, there are other jobs to be attended to while these seven dry.

Mañana.

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Those Flowers Smell Like Oil Paint

Those flowers smell like oil paint because that is what they are made out of.

This is a fun project, unlike anything I have ever painted before. I have painted individual flowers on 6×6″ canvases, but never a 16×20″ bouquet, with all its tangled and overlapping pieces. I am also just making up the background, intending to adjust the darks and lights to best show off the flowers. (A 50th wedding anniversary bouquet, commissioned as a painting so it will last forever.)

Background first.

Find where the ribbons might be draping. Since there is red on the brush, work on the carnations.

Keep working on the carnations, fill in more greenery, dab a few more baby’s breath, add the white ribbons hanging from the white roses.

Better.

Now I can see that the bouquet is slightly weighted toward the left side.

I took out a leaf on the lower left, but I don’t think that was enough.

This is better. I erased more of the lower left leaves, added another leaf to the upper right (smallish, beneath the top rose and to the right), fixed some other weird leaves, and added a bit more curly willow to the upper right.

Everything will need another layer or two or even three.

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Building a Bouquet With Oil Paint

Yesterday you were left with this cliff hanger:

Beginning the detail on the roses required some intense study, because my brain says, “White rose”, but my eyes say, “There are shadows which allow you to discern the individual petals—what colors are those shadows?” (Do your eyes talk to you?)

The main bouquet photo is on my laptop, so I am able to enlarge it hugely and study the photo.

The shadows are appearing to have a yellow base in this rose.

How about this one?

Grayer than the other but still with cream undertones, so this also will have some yellow.

Time to start drawing with my paint brush.

The roses got difficult (everything is difficult – get used to it, Central California Artist), so I started experimenting with the carnations.

It was fun to jump around – a few carnations, a little more around the roses to make them pop out, some leaves, a touch of baby’s breath.

After waiting a couple of days for the white to be drier (white dries the slowest of all the paint colors), I could see that the upper rose was too large. Using a dark background color, I trimmed the upper rose to a better size.

You probably can’t even tell the difference. I can and it looks better. I don’t have to match the photo exactly (good thing—that just isn’t possible) but I do have to make this be the most believably beautiful bouquet ever.

bouquet painting commission oil painting floral painting rose painting

Fifty Years

Mr. and Mrs. Customer had their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Mr. Customer sent Mrs. Customer a bouquet of 50 red carnations with 2 white roses. Mrs. Customer wanted it to last forever, so they asked me to paint it for them.

They emailed me photos, and then I experimented with various methods of cropping.

I realized that the color in the photos wasn’t telling the whole story so I asked if I could go photograph the flowers in person. I took along some paint samples in order to match the right reds, my camera for a few close-ups (although the roses were drooping), and my computer so they could see the ways I had cropped. I also asked questions to learn what parts were important to them: the background realistic like their home interior or just whatever shows off the flowers? the vase? the coaster the vase is sitting on? as many flowers as I can cram into the painting?

This is going to be complicated and slow, because I will be working from multiple photos. I don’t want it to look like just any bouquet of flowers—it needs to be as special as these people. So, it will take time and thought, enormous detail, and a willingness to make adjustments that enhance the painting rather than slavishly copying a photo.

Enough jibber-jabber.

Start upside down. Make some blobs, get them to roughly correspond to the arrangement in the photos because a professional flower arranger knew what she was doing (and I don’t).