Here are the promised scans of the two most recent custom art jobs, now both completed.
Here is Sawtooth.
Here is Yosemite Falls, as interpreted by the Central California artist, working from multiple reference photos in the “comfort” of her swamp-cooled painting workshop.
In case you might have forgotten, I use pencils, oil paint, and murals, to make art that you can understand of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.
Sales pitch over – let’s get on with it.
A friend sent me this photo of Sawtooth because her mother said she’d like a painting of the signature peak of Mineral King. The photo is a little plain, so we decided that some wispy clouds in the sky and brighter aspens will jazz it up.
Here is the rough beginning of the painting.
I added some green blobs, then moved it into the drying area with Yosemite Falls. I could have kept going, but it was time to head up the hill. And sometimes I just quit in the middle of the day because I am the boss of my business and can do anything I want. (Fall down laughing . . . sometimes the business is the boss of me.)
OH NO! Yosemite Falls is sideways!
This is because the Yosemite friend first sent me a horizontal photo, so I wired the canvas that direction. After she changed her mind, I decided to wait until the painting is entirely dry to change the orientation of the wire. Being the boss of my business, I can do things in any order I want. Sometimes I just get rebellious and live on the edge like that.
P.S. I have good friends who like my art and prove it by hiring me, and I consider it a great honor, although sometimes I wish I could just give it all away. But then how would I pay for this overpriced laptop and all the hidden internet costs? And gas? Oh, food too. . . what about taxes? and YARN???
“Commission” is fancy talk for custom art.
A friend requested an 8×10″ oil painting from a photo she took in Yosemite.
I haven’t been to Yosemite very often and don’t really know it but somehow I knew to ask if this was Yosemite Falls, and doesn’t it have 2 parts? The oak tree in the foreground was obstructing the shapes of the cliffs, and I also needed to know if the barely visible cabin in the lower right mattered.
After a bit of back-and-forth, I went to the World Wide Web, found many photos that showed the dual nature of these famous falls, and proceeded to make up my own version.
Since when have I become such a rogue painter??
Here are the steps (without showing you the photo from the WWW because I do not have permission.) I began the painting in the studio (the reasons are boring), where oil painting does not belong, but I was very very careful. I worked from my friend’s photo on the laptop. You can see that I chose to keep and enhance the little structure, because I am into cabins (hence “Cabin Art”).
The next painting session was in the painting workshop, where it is not a tragedy to drop and spill things. The natural light is better there than in the artificial light of the studio, so it was a much better place to finish the painting.
The last photo was taken with the phone instead of the camera. Neither one is adequate, but will have to suffice until the painting is dry and can be scanned.
These Mineral King oil paintings are now ready to be displayed and sold.
Paintings always look better in person (and I almost always tell you that). I was studying the paintings on the studio wall, and decided that this one, painted en plein air (fancy talk for on location), just wasn’t good enough.
I brightened and lightened it; now it is for sale at the Mural Gallery in Exeter.
Always learning, striving to. . .
From 2012:
Since everything looks measurably better in person, I am wondering if the differences are just due to camera variations. I don’t know where the original painting from 2012 is, nor can I find the photo that I used, so this is a mystery to be lived with. Not everything has an answer (Uncle Google may be omnipresent but he is not omniscient.)
This is custom art, Gentle Blog Reader. Custom art works like this:
P.S. My business manager made me put that in the blog. She is mean like that.
I thought the commissioned oil painting of a Giant Sequoia was finished. I photographed it, fixed the photo on Photoshop Junior (because there is no way to hold the camera perfectly aligned with the painting), and even varnished it.
Then I decided to compare it to the one that my customer saw and liked, painted back in 2012.
The darks are darker in this one, and it just looks better.
Back to the easel with my newest Big Tree oil painting, since I can do better, because. . .
. . . and one that was, but then I changed my mind. I’ll tell you about that another day.
Doesn’t that sound careless? It is meant to convey a sense of methodically completing oil paintings, standing in front of the easels without mercy, focusing relentlessly on the job at hand in order to have time in Mineral King, or to work on some pencil drawings, or maybe just park my tookus and read.
Here are some in progress photos:
These are now completed, signed, with painted edges, all drying in the workshop.
These weren’t hard because they had base coats, with all the shapes and darks and lights blocked in. All I had to do was mix the right colors, find obedient brushes, and systematically make them the best they could become without getting caught up in unnecessary extraneous details (as I define “unnecessary detail”, not as the folks who tell me to stop drawing with my paintbrushes). Pencils require tight details; oils require great color; both require great contrast.
Now I have 3 more to paint: a commission (although it is still in the conversation stage I feel fairly confident that it will become a real job), something for a friend in trade for some iris rhizomes to share, and one more small Mineral King painting, because I ran out of daylight on my marathon painting day.
Stunningly mild summer weather made it a pleasure to paint this large classic Mineral King scene. Normally it is uncomfortable to paint in the summer with the swamp cooler roaring and blowing things around while doing its best to help me focus on work.
For some reason I found it easier to work from the bottom up, from front to back, the opposite of my usual path across a canvas.
Because it was so nice out, the big doors were open, and some vacationers across the street came up the driveway to see what I was doing. Wow, what a fun visit with this family from Ventura! Questions, so much interest and curiosity, lots of questions. Young Landon wanted to know the “very hardest thing in art – how do you draw a nose?” I said, “You don’t draw it, you shade it, because it doesn’t have any hard edges”. By then we were all in the studio, Landon, parents Christine and Lawrence, and granddad John. I “drew” Landon’s nose for him. (It might have been awful because I wasn’t wearing my cheater glasses, but he thought it was fantastic.) We all had an enjoyable visit, and I sent them to Mineral King for the next day’s excursion, because it is the best part of Sequoia front country.
When one works in solitude day in and day out, it is a thrill to meet people who are both interested and interesting. If you are reading this, thank you for coming up my driveway, Ventura family!
P.S. They didn’t make it to Mineral King but will aim for that in a return visit this fall. We had further conversation and learned that we have many important things in common, which might explain our immediate comfort with one another.
Because of the short summer season at the Silver City Resort, I need to get the new 18×36″ classic Mineral King painting done quickly. These other paintings can wait a week or two, because I have a big ‘un to git dun.
There were some fabulous days weatherwise, and I knew it was a golden opportunity to paint in comfort.
Hey Tucker! Look at the painting, will you?
Thanks, Buddy. I appreciate your opinion and that you took a break with me.
Remaining to be detailed: the 2 large trees, the stream, willows on the right, and rocks. Then I can return to painting the commissioned big tree and other Mineral King paintings. Oh, and finishing the big old country house pencil drawing too. There is also a potential 18×24″ commissioned oil painting, along with FIVE Christmas ornaments in the works. None of those have close deadlines, but it is good to always be ready for the next job that appears.