Category: Oil Paintings

Much of the spring and summer so far has been spent working on coloring books (or in Israel) instead of painting. Suddenly, painting Mineral King in oils has become my main focus.

It takes some teeth-gritting intensity and, word-of-the-year, oh-so-tired-of-it, intentionality to stay focused. There is a book to reproof, a coloring book to finish, and never mind about doing laundry by hand because the washer quit (not complaining – it is 28 years old), waiting for the phone repairman (studio phone is broken – has anyone been trying to call??), a coloring book to begin, and a website to keep current during all these sales. Oh, and an art show to prepare for!

But I am not stressed (she says with a twitch). I am painting, and paintings don’t look good if done under undue stress.

Yes, 2 of these are almost the same. I had a planning mishap. Not worried.

The one on the upper left is almost finished. The others are only just begun. They are 8×8″ and 8×10″ and will take longer than the 6×6″.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Just a little reminder to myself that I was in Israel. I’d show you a photo of me on a camel, but I looked fat.

THAT stresses me out!!

Feeling like a factory worker or a cog in a wheel, I mixed up some sky color oil paint so I could begin painting Mineral King. Five 6×6″ paintings, on the conveyer belt. (on the stereo, if you must know. Yes, I listen to a stereo that plays CDs. I drive a manual transmission, have a flip phone, and don’t own a microwave either.)

Okay, let’s get some other colors going. This is Farewell Gap, but not the classic scene we discussed on Monday.

(That’s the royal “we”, because as far as I know, it was a monologue rather than a dialogue.)

Oops. Forgot to photograph the in-between stages. These 2 paintings have just the first layer, and they’ll have to dry before I continue.

The morning sun hits that window with good intensity, so I propped them there. Meanwhile, the Oak Grove Bridge languishes in the background.

In the summer, the Silver City Store, 4 miles below Mineral King, sells original oil paintings for me. (For them too, because obviously they have to make money. Duh.)

The subject has to be Mineral King, (more duh, thank you Captain Obvious) and I paint the same scene over and over and over. Sometimes I paint Timber Gap, Sawtooth, or maybe a bridge or a trail. But most people just want this view, what I think of as the classic Mineral King scene:

It sells, I paint more. It sells again, I paint it again. Lucky you, if you bought it recently, because I’ve had lots of practice. This one is #20, but I didn’t always number my paintings, so I feel fairly confident in guessing that I’ve painted it 50 times. It’s on the doors of my painting studio, on the cover of the new coloring book (drawn in ink, not painted), and on the cover of The Cabins of Mineral King (in pencil, not oil paint).