Four Little Poppies

“Four Little Poppies” sounds like the title of a book I loved as a kid called “Five Little Peppers (and How They Grew). It’s sort of a given that a California artist would paint California poppies.

This little 4×4” oil painting of poppies needed something more, so I added blue.

poppy oil painting

It wasn’t enough, so I added 3 more paintings.

4 poppy oil paintings



Now there are three four little poppy oil paintings, each 4×4″. They are $30/each (plus tax, welcome to California, leave your dollars here). All four together can be had for $100 (plus tax, see the previous snide remark.) One sold over the weekend, and I can’t remember which it was! Never mind. All sold. I can paint more if you wanted them but hesitated. 

Did you know that California is called “The Golden State” because of the poppies on the hillsides? That might be a myth. The hills turn golden in the summer when the grasses dry up from the abundance of sunshine (and lack of water.), so perhaps that is the reason for the descriptive title.

Scanned and Ready!

Here are my latest oil paintings of Central California fruits and landscapes, dry, signed, dry again, scanned, varnished and ready to sell!

1555 Pomegranates #48
Pomegranates #48, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×10, $125
1556 Honeymoon Cabin XXIII
Honeymoon Cabin XXIII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55
1558 Sawtooth XVII
Sawtooth XVII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, NFS
1559 Farewell Gap IXX
Farewell Gap IXX, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55
1562 Peach III
Peach III, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55
1561 Persimmon IX
Persimmon IX, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55

To buy any of these paintings, use the contact button under About The Artist in the menu bar above.

Crazy talk?

Shows are coming this month, I’m painting with hyper-focus, and there is some crazy talk going around. With the shows coming this month, these little oil paintings are almost ready to be sold. They are finished, signed and drying. When dry, I will scan, varnish and then price them.

oil paintings

Five down, 8 or 9 to go. 5 plus 8 equals 13,  but I might need a couple more. 8 or 9 or 10 to go.

About the pricing stage: I am getting messages from many places which sound like crazy talk to me that my oil paintings are severely underpriced. Not only are they severely underpriced, but if I double or triple the prices, my sales will increase.

Does that sound like crazy talk to you??

Where are these folks with big money who are just hanging out, waiting to pay me more??

Crazy talk.

Yes, I Still Oil Paint

Thanks for asking. Were you wondering if all I do is fund-raise, read and tile?

I squoze a little painting in. Thirteen little paintings, actually. There are shows in November, craft fairs and bazaars and boutiques, all requiring that I have things to sell.

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Not finished.

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Finished, not signed,

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Finished, not signed, and too wet to photograph well. All that shine looks messy!IMG_1829

Even looks messy when I step back.

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Added blue to an existing poppy. Looks so good I started 3 more!

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Liked the fruits for my friend so much that I began 2 more, incorporating some blue, of course.

I need to learn if adding blue makes paintings more appealing.

When these are finished, signed and dry, I’ll scan them and show them on the blog. There are 13 in progress, in spite of only showing you 7 here.

“Squoze” – did it make you smile like the word “liberry” did last week?

 

Turning Leaves

A few years ago I began painting autumn leaves. Because I often couldn’t decide which way they looked best, I would turn them around and around as I decided which end to put the hanger on and where to sign.

“Turning Leaves” seemed to be the perfect title for the subject. Sometimes I just amaze myself with my cleverness. I try not to laugh too loudly at my own jokes, but sometimes I have to repeat them because people don’t laugh hard enough. Sometimes they even look a bit baffled.

TURNING LEAVES – GET IT?? HAHAHAHAHA

Excuse me. Got carried away there.

New turning leaves this year:

1551 Turning Leaf IIXX
Turning Leaf IIXX, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax
1550 Turning Leaf XVII
Turning Leaf XVII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

These match a Turning Leaf from a year ago:

1437 Turning Leaf XIV
Turning Leaf XIV, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

The title “Turning Leaf” doesn’t have the double meaning with these, because the stem gives the direction away.

Now I can’t decide if they are dogwood leaves or persimmon leaves!

 

 

Three Rivers is Bear Country

One afternoon I was painting in the workshop. Trail Guy stopped his work on the house to rest a bit. What am I working on?

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Another Kaweah Post Office, because it is my policy to always have one ready to go. Pomegranates because they are beautiful to paint and sell well.

Trail Guy reported a bear sighting. So, I went to investigate. They are so fascinating to watch – something about their size or furriness or proportions or way of moving or something. Here, you can see for yourself. If you want to see a bear any day of the week in Three Rivers, you can just go driving around and find one! Truly!

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Okay, bear break over – back to work. Get painting again, Central California Artist in Bear Country.

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Kaweah Post Offices

The eBay painting went to a very happy lady!

Kaweah P.O.

Chuck’s painting progressed quickly.

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This is a photograph of it while it was drying. Hang on, Chuck, it’s coming soon!

My Favorite Customer bought this painting and I split the sale with the Kaweah Post Office fund.

1293 KPO VII

Several friends gave cash toward the project. Some of them received a package of these cards. (The others didn’t receive cards because I was caught by surprise and didn’t have them with me.)

pencil KPO

Something just occurred to me as I think about this project: EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO CONTRIBUTED IS NOT FROM THREE RIVERS!!

Isn’t that amazing? That may be part of what has blown me away – so many people from other places have a soft place in their hearts for the Three Rivers landmark of the Kaweah Post Office.

 

Spare Canvas, Stray Fruit

Oops.

Yesterday’s “Fruity” blog post had an UFO – unidentified object.

It was a pear.

You probably knew that. But, I showed you a hint of it in progress and then left the more observant reader wondering why I was ignoring it.

When I special ordered those thick canvases for the commissioned oil paintings of fruit, they came in prepackaged quantities. There was a spare one, so I painted the pear.

An artist never knows when a customer will say, “Sure, I’ll take that one too.” An artist needs to be prepared for such contingencies.

Thus, a stray piece of fruit. . .

Pear

It is wet, so you will have to tilt your head to see it correctly.

I bet you figured that out too.

If you would like to own this little fruit painting, contact me with the button “Contact the Artist” under the drop down “About The Artist” tab above. It is 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas ready to hang without a frame, $55 plus tax.

 

Fruity

Remember seeing these commissioned oil paintings in progress?

1546 Orange 124

1547 Grapes VIII

1548 Pom 47

The customer was very happy and asked for more!

Remember these three commissioned oil paintings?

1545 Orange #123

1544 Pomegranate #46

1543 Lemon #19

This customer was also very happy and asked for more!

Here they are in their infancy.

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commissioned oil paintings

And here they are finished: detailed to the nth degree, signed, scanned, and now with varnish drying!

Peach Plum Tammie's Plum

 

As a Central California artist, I have access to wonderful fresh fruit. Every one of these was painted from photos that I took while the fruit was on the tree or of fruit that came from a friend’s packing house.