Variety in the Working Life of a Central California Artist

There you go, Search Engines. Hope you like that ridiculously long title.

I had a day of great variety, all of it interesting, all of it productive

  1. This book, Adventures in Boy Scouting, will soon be available as an ebook through Bookbaby. It took a lot of learning, and a lot of proofreading. The print version is available at the Three Rivers Mercantile, Three Rivers Historical Museum, and BookBaby.com. 
  2. After enjoying the nice fire in the house (in the wood stove—no need to be concerned) while proofreading (we had a few cold days), I moved to the painting workshop to do a bit of polishing on the Fiftieth Bouquet oil painting. “Polishing” here means making some small corrections. The roses, red bow, vase, coaster and background are not finished.
  3. I detailed the mountains and put a second layer on my favorite scene.

  4. Then I left the painting workshop and moved into the studio to finish a drawing. After scanning it, I sent it to the customer to get her approval before spray-fixing it and then adding color.

It was a good day of working on projects that are all presold. While it is fun to just paint and draw what I want, it is more satisfying to paint and draw for other people, particularly when they choose subjects that float my boat.

In case you have forgotten because I haven’t shouted this at you for awhile:

Using pencils, oil paint, and murals, I make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

 

Orange Groves in Oil Paint

These are several oil paintings of my current favorite subject: orange groves with foothills and mountains in the background. Looking at these (and showing them off) helps me regain my confidence as an artist after the tiny face show-down.

Citrus Cove (sold)

Looking East (sold)

Lemon Cove (sold)

Picking Time (10×10″, available, $150)

In the Orchard (sold)

If you have a hankering for a painting of this type of scene, I am available for commissions. Just tell me the size, which mountains you want visible in the background, and anything else you’d like in the painting. Then, I will put your project in the queue.

There. Seeing all those “sold” signs, and knowing there is a queue all helped repair the ding to my confidence after the face trouble.

 

 

 

Commissioned Pencil Drawing Begun

The orange grove commissioner (doesn’t that sound like a job title?) chose view A. 

She would like 2 drawings of the same scene, sort of. 

I asked if she wanted the mountains visible toward the north end of her view—Alta Peak, Moro Rock, Castle Rocks—or the mountains toward the south end of her view—Sawtooth, Homer’s Nose. 

She said one of each, beginning with the south end, so that if she changes her mind and decides on sketch B, C, or D, then she still has her first choice mountains.

Let ‘er rip, tater chip. (Or perhaps, “Gentlemen, start your engines”.)

First, the layout. What height for the distant mountains, where do the rows belong, get the hills right for Pete’s Sake!, where shall the main wind machine go…? Many little decisions, but not too much fussy detail in this landscape.

I looked at several photos of the mountains and foothills, enlarged Sawtooth from how it appeared in the photos provided by the customer, and tried to get in enough texture in the hills to be recognizable without actually counting boulders.

 

This is a combination of believable scribbling and very close scrutiny underneath a magnifying glass to make sure that no scribbling is actually noticeable… no loop-dee-loops or Ms & Ws (ems and double-yous look like rick-rack) or scritchy-scratchy lines are allowed to show. So the scribbling isn’t as random or casual as it sounds.

Never mind. This is how my drawing students and I talk about drawing. You might need to be present for a demonstration, or more likely, you wouldn’t care. Just be polite, ‘kay?

The bottom right corner will have closer leaves and oranges, with a touch of color.

I love these types of pictures—orange groves, foothills, mountains. 

Name That Painting

My current favorite subject for painting is classic Tulare County—citrus and mountains, two things I consider to be the best parts of living here.

Today I am asking for a little help. My most current painting is nameless, and I am out of ideas.

Would you like to name this painting for me?

Thanks! (You know it looks better in person, don’t you?)

Here are some ideas that were submitted in response to my emailed newsletter:

Here and There

The Elephant and the Orange

Beyond the Trees

Foothill Bounty

Sierra Oranges

Orange View

Oh Beautiful!

Before 50/50 bars

California’s Peaks and Navels

Spruce Road, East

On a Clear Day

Citrus and the Sierra 

Classic Tulare County

The Best of California

Last minute update: the painting was spoken for, the buyer chose the name, and then she measured her wall. Oops. It won’t fit. It is my fault for not publishing the size, 10×20″. It is now available, $375 (this includes sales tax if you live in California or shipping if you don’t), here on my website, or in all the usual ways such as seeing me in person, calling, emailing, etc.

 

An Orange Grove in Oil Paint

Poppies and oranges and orange groves and poppy fields: that’s what I paint in the winter and spring. (Unless I am painting Sawtooth).

Remember this? It was on the easel until the poppies started selling like hotcakes.

I finished 6 new small oil paintings of poppies, and was so pleased to have paint in the right colors left on the palette to finish this painting.

It is signed, but you can’t really tell in the last photo. After it dries, I will photograph it in good light for you (and my website and portfolio and records, etc.)

This type of painting really says Tulare County to me. Now it needs a title.

 

More Orange Groves in Pencil

I have two new pencil commissions, both of orange groves with foothills and mountains in the distance. 

I love this stuff! (Big happy face emoji could fit here but this is a blog, not a text, and we speak English here, not hieroglyphics).

Here are 4 ideas for the customer to choose from or develop into something else. Good thing she knows that I can draw.

She didn’t specify whether she prefers horizontal or vertical, nor did we establish which part of the mountains she prefers: Alta Peak with Castle Rocks or a bit farther south to show Sawtooth and Homer’s Nose.

She did say that she wanted a little bit of color.

You probably have a clear favorite but it is the customer’s opinion that will prevail.

Sisters in the Orange Grove

There has been a request for a print of this drawing. I will order 2, unless other people tell me that they would like them too. I don’t know the price, but it should be lin the neighborhood of $35-50 apiece. After I hear how many people are interested, I will ask the printer for a price. The original is 11×14″, but I could get them printed as 8×10″ instead. 

Interested?

Wednesday, March 23, 1:30 p.m. I have now ordered 5 prints; 3 are spoken for.

Pencil Oranges, Aiming for Perfection

It is time for me to really study this pencil commission. The pencil drawing needs to be perfect, because the next step is to spray it with a fixative, to prevent smearing when I add colored pencil to a few areas. 

Mr. Customer asked for clouds, so I decided some wispy types would add texture, variety, and interest without becoming too busy. Everything else is highly detailed, so the sky needs to be somewhat visually restful. 

All this remains to be inspected:

  1. The trees must look believable as they recede into the distance. 
  2. The ground needs to have texture, but not so much that it competes with the leaves.
  3. The closest branches need to have the largest leaves and fruit.
  4. The sky needs to be dark enough to show off the clouds, snow on Sawtooth, and the windmachine.
  5. The little girls have to be perfect. 

After I addressed all those items, I scanned the drawing, cleaned up the scanner messes (it ALWAYS leaves spots, and the paper color scans as gray), and emailed it to Mr. and Mrs. Customer for their final approval.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time, or as my dad used to say, “Time will tell”. Meanwhile, I will continue to. . .

. . . use pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art that you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.