Let’s start with the signature. This indicates that I am finished with a painting, although I can be convinced to return to it later if something needs fixing up, something that I didn’t notice earlier.

Now, to the new paintings. As normal, I studied my photos, messed with a few on Photoshop Jr. in order to blend several images of the same scene into a more perfect version (if one ignores all the sloppy photoshop seams), looked at the available canvases and chose sizes.

The first one is a 10×10 scene of a trail, not a road. I’m tired of struggling with roads. At the time of these four new starts, I have 2 paintings with unsatisfactory roads holding up the completion. Roadwork is often an obstacle to progress, don’t you think?

This might be easy for a few folks to recognize, although I’ve never painted this view before. Getting the shapes right was tricky, because I blended several photos together, so after messing with the shapes for awhile, I realized that the sky would be an easy step forward.

I’ve never painted this scene before either, and yet I am boldly marching forth on a 16×20 canvas, which is quite huge for me. It will have a stormy sky, in case you are wondering why it is grayish.

Finally, here is one that is probably going to be the most difficult. The size is 10×20″, and once again, it is a scene I haven’t attempted before. I drew the general shapes first. It felt too hard, with many of the shapes fuzzy in the distance, morphing into the next shapes, looking enough alike to confound me each time I looked at the photo.

Baby steps. Just get some color down, Central California Artist—it ain’t rocket surgery!

Sky. I can paint sky without too many worries.

Some days painting feels very difficult. If my feet didn’t already hurt, I might be tempted to go find a job as a waitress, a cafeteria worker, or maybe as a checker in a grocery store. HOWEVER, I feel a calling, a responsibility, almost a sense of urgency to paint the prettiest places in Tulare County before I am too old or they are all gone.

LOOK AT MY YARD RIGHT NOW!! (Those are flowering quince.)