Dabbling, Puttering, Inching Forward

This is a scarf, knit for a friend. The colors reminded me of her, and I couldn’t decide between 2 different yarns, so I got both. It is really a dark burgundy, but both the camera and the computer lie.

None of our three cats are allowed indoors. Oops. Is that Pippin in the living room again?

Stop puttering and get to work!

I have two 10×20″ oil painting commissions to complete and mail before Christmas. This is tricky to accomplish unless I put down the camera, put down the knitting, and plant my feet in front of the easels.

It might be tricky anyway, because the photos are less than stellar, less than clear, and full of murky indiscernible things. 

After getting the beginnings of both those oil paintings accomplished, I retreated to the studio for a bit of forward motion on the commissioned pencil drawing.

Inching forward. . . 

Five New Little Orange Paintings

5×7″ oil paintings of navel oranges on panels, sitting on a mini wooden easel have been selling well at Exeter’s Mural Gallery. One sold, the buyer requested another, and the gallery asked for 2 more. Those sold immediately, and the gallery requested more.

You can see the beginnings here on this post from earlier in November. 

I painted five more, moved them into the house to dry, and forgot about them! They were on a piece of cardboard on top of a cabinet that was above my eye level. They were certainly dry enough to scan when I remembered them.

These sell for $60 each at Exeter’s Mural Gallery. They look better in person, because in spite of a good scanner, the colors are never quite right on the computer screen. (You might have heard that here before.)

Calendars

2023, Mineral King HIKES, still available here: Calendars

To see the back of the calendar, you will need to click on the link.

Better When Scanned

 

Completed Oil Paintings, Scanned as Promised

These are the recently painted oil paintings of Mineral King and Three Rivers scenes, along with some poinsettias.

Honeymoon Cabin I, 6×18″, $165

Mineral King Alpenglow, 6×6″, $65

Mineral King Nature Trail, 6×6″, $65

Still River at Sunset, 8×10″, $135, SOLD 

Summer Hill, 8×8″, $108

Alta & Moro After a Storm, 6×18″, $165

Poinsettia 1 and Poinsettia 2, 5×7″, BOTH SOLD

Calendars

2023, Mineral King HIKES, still available here: Calendars

Gotta keep that back hidden from The Most Faithful Blog Commenter so you will need to click on the link to see it. 

Looking For Color While Two Shades Under

A friend’s dad once described himself as being “two shades under” when he wasn’t fully recovered from some bug. 

While I wasn’t fully recovered from my bug, I felt good enough to briefly toodle around the yard, enjoying some color, some sunshine, some outdoors with tiny hints of green popping forth. Although it was mostly red that I was seeking, it was the green that I found the most life-giving. 

That sounds all woowoo. What I mean is that I love seeing Three Rivers green instead of crunchy brown and dusty.

 

Then I went back inside and created my own bright spots of color. These were 2 small paintings begun last year, set aside, and forgotten. Worked just fine to set up in the dining area of the house and put in a few hours of productive labor.

Of course it must be said that these will look better when dry and scanned, and even better in person. They are each a 5×7″ panel that will be sold with a mini wooden easel for $60 (yeah, yeah, plus tax, sorry, take it up with Sacramento).

Painting Three Rivers

Did you think I forgot these paintings? Not a chance; I have a little bazaar coming on November 19 in Three Rivers and need some appropriate merchandise (besides just 2023 calendars and cards and coloring books.)

Did I think you forgot them? Not gonna let you forget—don’t worry your pretty little head about that.

One:

(Please, do not sing about this.)

It is now finished, drying, and awaiting a scan so you can see the colors more accurately. The title is Alta Peak/Moro Rock View. (Yes, I know it is brilliant and clever and original.)

Two:

Just a bunch of yellow grass couldn’t possibly take that long, could it?

Yes, it could and it is. It isn’t titled yet. Perhaps “Yellow Grass and Live Oaks” would be appropriately creative and original. . .

Three:

Mixing colors for this one has been fun. My paintings tend to be all greens, grays, and browns, or nothing but orange (poppies and oranges, over and over).

How about calling it “Three Indian Grindholes on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers at Sunset”?

Nope. It is only an 8×10″ oil painting, so there isn’t enough room on the back of the canvas to write all that.

Part of the business of art is coming up with good titles. I’ve got some thinking to do.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Laurie!

 

Making Three Improvements

Improvements

I brought home the paintings from Silver City that didn’t sell over the summer. My good friend helped me evaluate them honestly. I need the opinions of honest good friends, regular people rather than Educated Artist Type people, because regular people are my customers.

First:

Remember this?

I redid it like this:

Immediately someone said, “I want that!” However, I know her pretty well, and she is a talker and a dreamer. It ain’t a sale until money exchanges hands, and no money exchanged hands. So, I added a flag.

I’m certain that was the missing element.

Second:

Why didn’t this sweet little 6×6″ of aspens along the Nature Trail sell?

Because it didn’t have wildflowers!! (After this photo, I repaired the big red blob and changed my signature back to white).

Three:

Why do I still have this little painting of alpenglow on Vandever?

Because it wants brighter colors and more detail, of course.

The business of art requires honesty, realistic looks at sales and what customers want.

P.S. They’ll look better when scanned, and even better in real life.

 

Painting As If I Have a Deadline

After finishing three more 5×7″ oranges on easels, they sold within days. The director of the Mural Gallery asked for more, so I set up an assembly line to get the first layer on the panels.

That was sloppy business. I prefer to work with exact, tight, precision, so I moved back into this 8×10″ painting of a typical Three Rivers scene, and got serious about making it as accurate as possible.

Then I got a call from a man for whom I had done an odd job this summer. He has a deer, which has faded from the sun, and wondered if I could freshen it up. He was able to provide a photo of it when it was new, which will help me get this done right. I said yes, and then we had to figure out how in the world I would charge him for this odd job. He told me what he paid for it initially, we figured out how much he was willing to spend, I told him how many hours that would cover, and then we made a plan. I will paint one side only, keeping track of my hours, and if there is enough time and money left in the budget, I’ll paint the backside. If not, I’ll just paint the backside plain brown, no detail. 

The cats aren’t a fan of this guest in their safe room. I expect they will adjust soon.

A Short Painting Session, 3 Photos of 2 Paintings

I was able to slip another hour or two of painting into my other responsibilities.

Using the leftover blue and gray sky colors, I mixed a bit more Distant Mountain Blues and Grays in order to detail the mountains on two paintings. Both of these paintings feature Moro Rock and Alta Peak, standard landmarks seen from many places in Three Rivers.

The colors look a bit off in this photo, so I carried it outside. Then the colors looked very wrong. Nope, this is not being painted for Disneyland’s Small World (and please do NOT start singing.)

This view of Alta Peak and Moro Rock is from Kaweah Lake in early winter. In this scene, the lake is low (and behind the viewer) and there is some snow in the mountains because winter hasn’t begun in earnest.

It appears that winter has begun in earnest early this year!

My colored pencil artist friend from Kansas, Carrie Lewis, requested a guest post for her blog on last Saturday, so I wrote of my experiment using colored pencils in Mineral King, A Plein-Air Experiment.

2 Photos of 4 Paintings in Progress

November is my busiest month, workwise. Commissions, selling the 2023 calendar, the Holiday Bazaar, supplying the places that sell my work, planning for some (maybe) murals, working with an author as we close in on a 5-year project* together (he is writing, I’m editing)  . . . 

So, I paint when I can fit it in, mostly in 1-3 hour sessions. 

It is necessary to be efficient in these sessions, so I do things like mix up some sky colors and then do just the skies on all four paintings of Three Rivers scenery.


But then I couldn’t stop listening to a certain song, so I kept hitting repeat and painted some mountains. It was a logical next step because I was able to mix those sky colors into Distant Mountain Blue (but not too distant).

I’d like to put a lot more detail into these mountains, and probably want to put as much detail as possible in the entire  picture. But for now, it is time to stop playing the song over and over and over. . . .

*The project began when the writer asked me for some illustrations in September 2017.  Here are three posts about those illustrations. One, Two, Three.

Whatcha doing, Central California Artist?

Messy beginnings

All my paintings begin this way. It no longer causes me distress, that continual uncertainty about my skills. With approximately 1300 paintings (not counting murals) completed since 2006 and most of those sold, I am learning to just flow with the mess. 

Planning

With the Holiday Bazaar happening soon (Saturday, November 19, Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 9-4), I needed to take inventory and plan. I counted up the number of available paintings by subject, tallied them by size, and came up with a plan. 

Three Rivers subjects are in the shortest supply. 8×10 and similar sizes are the most likely to sell at a one day bazaar here in town. So, two 8×10″s, one 8×8″, and a 6×18″. (Priced at $125, $100, and $165)

Chop chop and hubba hubba

I went quickly through my photos, going on “gut instinct” rather than evaluating to the same degree that I evaluated sizes and subjects, and without hesitating, assigned inventory numbers and titles, wired the backs for hanging, and started painting.

Cover that canvas

Take a break for drying

These will turn out just fine. Most paintings do. If not, I will just add more layers or turn them into Sequoia tree oil paintings. It’s just the business of art.