(Happy Birthday, Melissa!)
Anyone remember the Little River Band? Does the song “Long Way There” do anything for you? I loved it in 1978, and I still do.
Many people think of “Long and Winding Road” when it comes to driving to Mineral King. That is probably a more accurate theme song, but I used up that title on a pencil drawing many years ago.
So “Long Way There” is the title of this series of paintings. The first time I painted the Mineral King Road, it looked like this:
I liked it a lot. A friend liked it too and commissioned me to repaint it in a much larger size than I was used to. It just flew out of my paintbrushes, and it may have been the first time I really felt as if I was painting, instead of struggling with paint.
When helping her move a few weeks ago, it surprised me to see that I still like the painting. That doesn’t always happen.
Because I was feeling so confident about this scene, I painted it again, just to have in inventory.
It didn’t sell. It didn’t sell. It didn’t sell.
So, I studied it carefully to see if I could figure out how to make it better. The usual things – brighter colors, more detail, higher contrast, cleaner edges – all seemed necessary.
Long Way There, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $250
I love the blue with the orange. (Yeppers, I’m a color junkie.)