Oil Interlude

“Interlude” is a musical term that means in interruption with a lude. 

Wait, what?

Nothing. Just messing around with words. After finishing the oak tree mural, I had days of appointments, administrative work, errands, and other things that interfered with painting, However, I did get in a few days of painting Mineral King scenes, and here are the results.

Started this one back in early January, a 10×10″.
I felt confident and hardly looked at the photo while finishing.
Is it finished? When it is dry, I’ll see if there is a believable way to add some wildflowers.
This is 6×18″, a fun format and size to paint. It forces me to distill a scene to its essence.
It will need wildflowers. The title is “Mineral King Wildflowers”, so duh.
Oak Grove Bridge # 29. Probably a higher number, but I was a little sloppy in my earlier record keeping.
Three almost finished.
These three next.

In the interest of offering these paintings for sale, the following advertisement is for your convenience/to ignore – your choice.

I sell 6×18″ for $150 plus tax which brings it to about $160; the square is 10×10″ for $175 plus tax, about $190. The plan is to have a good inventory for this coming summer, but if you are interested in buying any of these paintings now, it can be arranged. Comment here or contact me with the contact button or email me or say something to Trail Guy if you see him at the Post Office or grocery store.

Planning Time

Each year in January, I evaluate the Mineral King paintings that sold over the summer. I make lists of sizes, subject matter, what sold, what didn’t sell. Then I plan what to paint for the next summer, choosing sizes, subject matter, and photos to work from.

Because there are many guests who return yearly to Silver City where my paintings sell, I have to be careful to vary the sizes and views, while maintaining a good inventory of the most popular subjects. The classic view of the Crowley Cabin with Farewell Gap in the background remains the top seller; the Honeymoon Cabin and Sawtooth are usually neck and neck for second place. After that, anything with water, and as long as I add wildflowers, any other subject usually sells.

The 6×18″ format has done very well, either horizontal or vertical. It is unusual and fits into squishy little spaces. 

Painting this time of year can be uncomfortable in the workshop. Trail Guy lights the heater, and then we shut the doors to keep the heat in. Sometimes the cats are on the wrong side of the door (whichever side they are on is usually the wrong side for them.)

Of course I had to start with my favorite subject, the Oak Grove Bridge.

The next largest size I’ll need this coming summer is 10×10″. These are small sizes for oil paintings if sold in a gallery; I am selling these in a store that caters to folks who travel light. Different locale, different clientele, so different sizele. (Sorry, that just fit there.)Good start to this season’s paintings. I’m cold, so I’ll go in the studio now where the heater is more effective and I can’t hear the neighbor’s dogs as loudly.

A Tree Grows in the Studio

The photo taken with the iPhone looks yellowish.
Pippin slept behind me while I painted. He is the sweetest of the 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and Jackson is intense, focused on whatever he wants (usually food).
Lots and lots of branches.
The rocks and grasses were a nice break from all those branches.

At the end of a painting day, the light in the studio photographs bluish. 

I just work here.

 

Valley Oak Tree

Valley Oak trees are part of life in Central California. Growing up, we saw them out in the middle of a cotton field, or centered in city streets that suddenly veered around one in an otherwise straight road. Now that I am a grown-up, I realize that these oak trees are special. They are the largest American oak, and the Latin name is quercus lobata.

No speakie Latin. Lobata sounds like “lobotomy”, which brings to mind One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Never mind.

After I mostly/sort of/might have finished the oil painting “Tulare County’s Best”, I taped my 2019 calendar to the top of the easel and began working on the oak tree again.

My pencil drawing of the oak up Yokohl Drive was Miss March 2019, not Miss February. Didn’t matter – the drawing is more helpful than the photo in untangling all the knotted up branches that are the signature of a quercus lobata.

Sure starts out dreadful but it is sort of fun to slap paint around without the pressure of Get It Right The First Time.

Don’t be scared. With enough layers and time, this will turn out. I just listened to a podcast where the interviewee said that time can make up for lack of skill. This means that no matter how weak my painting skills might be, if I paint slowly enough, I will get it right.

Tulare County’s Best

Mountains and citrus are two things that make Tulare County special. Having grown up in an orange grove (don’t worry, we lived in a house, and thank you for your concern) with an almost daily view of the mountains, this scene is one of my favorite things about living here. The combination is a regular source of inspiration for my art; although I don’t paint it very much, I want to. (It isn’t all that popular in Mineral King. . . fancy that!)

We* went looking for the same view in order to see the detail more clearly. Although we didn’t find the same exact viewpoint, the day was clear and I got enough information to complete the painting. 

Well, oops. Moro Rock was in the wrong place. It didn’t actually show in my original reference photo, so I just made it up. The lower one is the correct placement.

We’ve had snow in the high country, so I changed that most distant ridge to a snowy situation.

I think it is finished now. Time will tell. I might just keep getting ideas about how to improve it. I might not want to finish it. I might want to hang it in our dining area. 

Figuring out how to photograph these large paintings is a challenge.

*Trail Guy and I, not the royal “we” or a mouse in my pocket.

Chasing a View

This painting is still on the easel, waiting for more visual information so I can properly detail the distant hills and mountains.

Trail Guy and I went driving around, looking for the spot where the original photo was taken. We couldn’t figure it out, but found several that were close.

Castle Rocks appeared quite clearly, and although they aren’t in my painting, they could be.
There’s Alta Peak with the same next level of hills as in the photo.
Here’s Alta Peak with the same 2 next levels.
Never mind. I want to paint this as a new one.
And this wants to be painted too.

Although we didn’t find the same view (I was elevated above the grove – where was this??), I now have some helpful details and a whole bunch of new photos from which to work.

Another Big Tree

While I was in Georgia last spring, when people asked me where I was from, I was very specific and replied, “CENTRAL California; no one knows about us, no one cares, but we feed the world.” The unspoken part was “I am NOT from Los Angeles or The Bay Area, so assume nothing about me”.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (just a euphemism, don’t worry, I haven’t moved), I am thinking about what to paint on those large canvases.

As I think about my self-ascribed descriptor, “The Central California Artist”, I want to be painting things that truly represent Central California, specifically Tulare County.

Not only does Tulare County have the largest trees by volume (Sequoia Gigantea), we also have the largest of the American oak trees, our valley oaks (quercus lobata).

All-righty then!

Yikes. Gotta start somewhere. 

Don’t be afraid. I can do this!!

P.S. Did you get my 2019 calendar, “A Touch of Color”? This tree was Miss February. It was a horizontal rectangle, but the painting will be a square. I untangled the branches in the drawing so it will serve as a helpful guide in the painting.

Inching Along Layer by Layer

I’m guessing that I took the reference photo for this painting as a passenger in our pick-’em-truck as we returned home from a road trip when the Rough Fire was dwindling in 2015. I wish I knew where I was, because I’d like to take more photos of the same scene in various seasons and lights.

These giant oil paintings aren’t really too hard for me, but I do run into difficulties when my reference photos are smoky, blurry, from different angles, in differing light, or too small. A tiny blur in a picture becomes a large blur in a larger painting, so I NEED to know what I am painting in order for it to be believable.

Now I have to figure out what to put in the various ridges that will pass as believable texture.

Never mind. I’ll just work on the orange trees in the foreground.

I’ll keep dabbing, layering, and searching for this scene in real life. There is no deadline on this painting.

The Juniper Everyone Loves

A friend/customer requested an 8×8″ oil painting of the juniper tree on the trail to White Chief in Mineral King. Everyone* loves this tree. I even talked to someone who said she performed a wedding beneath the tree several years ago. I’ve painted this tree several times, different sizes and different shapes.

 

This is not the same one but it is on the same trail. It doesn’t have quite the same visual impact. Besides, it is on a steeper section of the trail and not quite as visible.

Here is the sixth time in steps:

Every time I paint this, I am determined that it will be The Best Juniper Painting I Have Ever Done.

*I know not “everyone” loves it; not “everyone” has seen it. Besides, maybe we love it because it gives us an excuse to stop on the the steepest trail in Mineral King.

A Situation

A customer/friend bought a painting off my website. She requested that I paint in an animal so the size of the trees is truly evident.

OH NO! It already sold, and I didn’t take it off my website! 

I can’t find the original photo so have to work off the photo of the sold painting. It is always best to start with the original, but sometimes stuff just can’t be helped.

Pippin was happy to have me in his house. He lets me borrow it for a painting workshop.
Hey, is that a bear??
Here it is with a bear this time. When it dries, I will scan it and it will look better than this semi-reflective photo while it is wet.

Dry enough, scanned, heading to the Post Office today!