Yesterday I doubted whether anyone would be interested in oil paintings of Kaweah Lake, which led to an email correspondence with a friend who has a friend who just might be interested. I sent this photo to her of the most recent (and only) painting I have of Lake Kaweah, Kaweah Lake, or as we say around here, “The Lake”.
While looking for my photo of The Lake, I realized that I’ve painted it quite a few times. Why didn’t I remember? Because I have so many other subjects crowding it out of the limited space in my top-of-mind memory.
P. S. It’s official – Lake Kaweah, not Kaweah Lake. Thank you SD!
This past summer I painted plein air (on location) in Mineral King for the first time in about a dozen years. The results were mixed; I wasn’t fully satisfied with 2 of the paintings.
So, I put them back on the easels last month and tightened up the details. Can you see the difference?
BeforeAfter – Crowley Cabin, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125BeforeAfter – Empire and Cabins, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, sold
There are always more things I could have done. (Time for me to stop looking at these.) And be assured, they always look better in person.
If these recently completed paintings are dry enough, I will bring them to the Holiday Bazaar on Saturday, November 23, at the Three Rivers Memorial Building, 10-4. Paintings ALWAYS look better in person – come see for yourself!
Below the Dam, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×10″, $125 (Worry not – I signed it after this photo was taken).
The Old Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, 18×36″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1200
Fruits We Love, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $150
Sequoia Trees, Big & Tall, 18×36″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1200
When your Central California artist is undecided, she practices something called “productive procrastination”. Yardening for a friend, making yogurt, running errands, visiting with a far-away friend through the wonders of technology, reporting 10 robocalls to the Do Not Call Registry Complaint page, and then I saw Tucker outside the kitchen door. He is so shy and has been avoiding me for several months, so when he came to visit, I had to go sit outside with him for awhile.
All this fiddling around gave me a chance to ponder an idea, so I finally headed to the painting studio to try it.
Can you guess my idea?
The 2 pomelos were too close in size and placed in a manner that did not please me.
I liked it enough to sign it (after I took this photo for you). I also added a bit more orange to the green oranges. (Oranges require cold nights to turn orange; it is the sunshine that provides the sweetness. If the weather turns warm after oranges have turned, they can turn back to green, called “regreening”. You’re welcome, because I know you were wondering.)
Now the 2nd side of the path to the studio door is planted.
Digging in the dirt was my reward for getting that painting finished. (Trail Guy helped because there is a lot of decomposed granite that is actually so composed that it is hard to get a shovel through.)
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Feeling confident because of success with the previous painting, I tackled this one. It was too flat, and there was nothing to look at in the scene. Being there in the spring is wonderful, but I don’t have the skill to make it look so good in a 2-dimensional format.
A friend said that if I was an impressionistic painter, this would be considered finished. If she saw it in person, she’d probably change her mind, because the old picture is coming through a bit. Besides, it was the end of the day and I was painting with a lamp instead of daylight.
“Indecision” sounds a lot like “indigestion” which sounds a bit like “indigent” which means “poor enough to need help from others”.
These paintings might be poor enough to need help from others. I can’t decide if they are finished, if there is a way to improve them, or if they just need to be painted over with something else.
I like it, then I doubt my own opinion, then I decide to just sign it and be finished, but I can’t because something unknwon is holding me back. I can’t decide.
This was my first plein air painting in Mineral King this summer. I hid in the trees so no one would watch me flail around. Does it need more light on the edge of the larger red fir? Maybe wildflowers in the foreground would solve whatever it is that makes me not love this painting. Maybe it needs to be detailed, the way I normally paint. I can’t decide.
There was no good place to stand on the bridge so I was off to the side, and had to be careful each time I stepped back to not trip or step into traffic. I’ve painted this cabin scene so many times before, but never from this angle, and never with this lack of detail. Does it need more detail? I can’t decide.
This was painted in my front yard shortly after I returned from the plein air painting workshop in Georgia. I think it is boring, in spite of being the best time of year. Is it boring or is it just that “familiarity breeds contempt”? I can’t decide.
This is how the same scene looks now. This photo is definitely boring, but Three Rivers is still the best place to live in Tulare County. No indecision in that department!
I decided this one is finished, except for all the busy extras like painting the edges, adding a wire to the back, titling, photographing, drying, entering into inventory, on and on and on.
18×36, Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, oil on wrapped canvas, price not yet determined because I never paint this big and haven’t done the math yet. (Want to make me an offer?? “Special deal, for you only, today! No JCPenney junk!”, as spoken by a vendor to me in Tijuana back in the 1980s.)
I started another one, this time 24×24″.
Any guesses? Good luck. It’s upside down.
The most difficult part about this one will be making this scene look as beautiful to the viewer as it always looks to me. I don’t remember where I took the photo, but I think of it as the best of Tulare County.
I painted it 8×10″ last April in the loosey-goosey plein air style. Even that unfamiliar painting style didn’t wreck the scene for me.
. . . and a diversion–redoing the plants outside the studio.
I worked on this painting for a few hours.
Pippin dozed on the shelf behind me while I painted.
Look out the window behind Pippin–all the rosemary is gone. It has been there since I first poked clippings in the ground when the little shed was being remodeled into a studio in 2001. I wanted it to drape over the wall, and besides, it was free. But plantings get old.
I clipped it way back, soaked the ground, and then Trail Guy dug out the stumps and roots and prepped the soil for the new plants.
3 kinds of Texas Rangers, 2 kinds of grevellia, and some lemon geranium clippings.
I went back to painting.
This time Tucker took up a position behind me on the cat shelf.
The planting was inspired by time with my neighbor working in her yard and learning about plants together, the continued good weather this fall, and the upcoming First Saturday Three Rivers, December 7, when I will have my studio open to the public for the first time in well over a year.
This is close to being finished. A little more detailing, painting the edges, signing it, stick-a-fork-in—it’s done (except for drying, wiring the back, photographing it, varnishing, entering into inventory, putting on the website).
Getting there–big sigh of relief. Now I get to return to the Mineral King Honeymoon Cabin, the other giant oil painting on the easels that is challenging both my confidence and my skills.
P.S. One of Us, by Tawni O’Dell, a book on CD was good all the way to the end. Excellent readers, and it helped me want to keep painting.
How does one keep coming up with appealing titles for the same topic?
One doesn’t.
This painting is too tall to reach the top when the easel is on the table, so I set it up on the platform of the painting workshop with the doors open.
Trail Guy helped me find and retrieve my big painting easel, which he had stored out of sight and out of reach. It is a simple streamlined design and doesn’t take up much space.
This is S L O W.
Now it is at the “Best-Viewed-From-The-Back-of-a-Fast-Horse” stage.
I bet the oil painting of a Giant Sequoia on the easel has already taken longer than this mural in acrylics took. Of course, using a 1-1/2″ brush instead of a 3/8″ makes a difference, but I can’t figure out how to use a fatter brush and get results that aren’t cringe-worthy in oils.
When I begin to put the details in, I’ll stop moaning about the pace. It helps to listen to a book on CD, and I’ve got a good one going right now. One of Us by Tawni O’Dell is still good on CD #2. Time will tell (that’s what my Dad used to say instead of “more will be revealed”).
Yeppers, trying to figure out how to paint big is occupying my time and mind these days. As I struggled with the Mineral King Honeymoon Cabin and got stuck again, I decided to start another big painting.
Sure. That makes sense. If something is hard, do it more. Practice makes perfect. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. But wait! Mrs. Kline taught us in 4th grade to “Never trouble trouble ’til trouble troubles you”.
Never mind.
Let’s try a simpler, more forgiving subject.
Bet you can guess what this will be. (The little circle is a wooden knob on the end of a pull chain for a lamp in the ceiling. You are welcome. I could feel you wondering about it.)
I could barely reach the top of the canvas so I rested it against the easel on the table instead of securing it inside the easel.
This looks like a good beginning.
Painting Giant Sequoias big makes sense. One day there will be a fancy “boutique motel” in Three Rivers which will be clamoring for large paintings by local artists of local subjects, and I will be ready!
P. S. It’s official – Lake Kaweah, not Kaweah Lake. Thank you SD!
