Two Large (Not Too Large)

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

Large One

Remember this mess?

It’s getting incrementally better.

It seems as if the paint dries more slowly on Masonite board than on canvas. Of course, that could be the result of ongoing winterlike weather.

Large Two

What is this elongated canvas for??

It is for the sketch on the bottom!

Mr. Customer has a memory of seeing snow covered Sierra from Highway 198 on a brilliant day in January of 1969, a year similar to this year in precipitation amounts. We have been exchanging photographs and discussing ideas for several months, and he has decided on a 12×36″ painting. It is a pleasure to be painting more of my favorite scenery, the quintessential* Tulare County scene, for someone who appreciates it as much as I do!

*purest, most characteristic, ultimate

Odd Job Begun

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

My current odd job is simply a painting of a mountain landscape. The odd part is that I am painting it 16-3/8″ x 29-7/8″ on a piece of Masonite.

After Trail Guy cut it, I covered it with 5 or 6 coats of flat white housepaint, sanding between each layer for a smooth surface.

Meanwhile, I studied the two photos, provided by the customers.

Neither one is the right proportions. Each has its own good points, so I combined them into a rough sketch, the proportions of the window opening and board. This is what I sent to the customers for approval.

The customers were very happy, so I sketched it onto the board.

Then, I put a very thin first layer over the white primer.

When that is dry, I will continue layering, building up color, tightening up detail, until eventually I won’t be able to think of any way to make it better.

Then I’ll do the usual finishing steps: sign, photograph, varnish.

Because I know you want to know, all I know is that this is somewhere north of Lake Tahoe. 

Odd Job and Phooey

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. 

A woman contacted me via my connection with the Arts Consortium This is Tulare County’s designated arts council, an active and helpful group.

She had a request for a custom oil painting, which on the surface sounded normal. We began discussing via email, and eventually I learned the odd particulars of her job. She has a window in her home which looks out onto the neighbor’s wall, about 1 yard away. The window is a very specific measurement, and she would like a painting to exactly fill the space, 16-3/8 x 29-7/8″.

That is not a standard size. (Bet you already guessed that one.)

The customer, living in a city, has access to many businesses, such as a place that makes custom canvases.

Before she called the company, I remembered that when I first was learning to oil paint, I painted on Masonite, primed with many coats of flat white house paint. Back in 2006, I bought a sheet of 4×8′ Masonite (also called “panel board”), along with a table saw (which I put in the front passenger seat of Fernando*), and then Trail Guy cut the boards to the sizes that I requested. (Nope, I’m not risking my fingers on that machine.)

I looked through my scraps, but none were large enough to cut to size.

So, I took the pick-em-up truck to Vise-grip (AKA Visalia) to buy a sheet of Masonite, hoping I could buy a 1/2 sheet. At the least, I was hoping they’d be able to cut the full sheet into 4 pieces, but just in case they couldn’t, I left Fernando at home. 

Alas, the correct saw at the big box store was broken. So, I bought the giant sheet and some really helpful guy with a really foul mouth helped me load it after he saw me wrestling with it in the parking lot. (He was not an employee: remember this was a big box store, not known for helpfulness).

Trail Guy figured out how to cut it to the exact dimension.


Then, when he was figuring out where to store the excess, HE FOUND A SCRAP FROM BEFORE THAT WAS BIG ENOUGH!!

Phooey. 

*Fernando is my ’96 Honda Accord coupe. “Coupe” means two doors. You’re welcome. I try to expand people’s vocabularies here.

Enjoying Life Before the Storms

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

A day before the big storm, there was a brief time of sunshine. It lit up this germander, a drought tolerant shrub that looks great in spring and horrid in summer.

That evening, Jackson did not want to be put away. He decided to walk the other way and then attempt to catch his own dinner. I walked around the yard calling for him, and of course, he ignored me. However, I found him. Can you see his tail?

He was very intensely focused on some quail which feed around dusk, which is when we feed our cats.

Dude, I am watching you, and you are not going to catch a quail. 

He showed up at the front door looking for entry to the workshop where his dinner was waiting. Michael walked him over, and put him away for the night.

The next day was so intensely green and my leaning tree was in full bloom. (It’s a flowering pear, one of the earliest trees to bloom and one of the last to hold its color in the fall.)

Eventually I made it into the workshop (the cats’ safe place at night) to get a little painting done.

The first one is called Below Terminus Dam. I love this view in spite of it not having snow-covered peaks in the distance. Some years there are poppies on the distant hills; it is too soon to know this year because we are having a real winter.

This is the commissioned piece, now finished. (The right side looks darker because I am casting a shadow on it.)

This is the painting that was giving me trouble. I’ve decided that it is finished now.

This concludes today’s post about your Central California artist enjoying spring, her recalcitrant cat, her yard, and painting her favorite Tulare County scenes. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

 

Slowly Painting While Loving Early Spring

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. These photos are from March 2, a brilliant and cold day.

A friend and I went for a walk. (This was before the big rains.) I realized that while this first photo is normal to us, it is probably peculiar to other folks. These boulders get moved to block parking spaces when Edison closes its beaches on busy weekends. This method of closing a parking area is probably unusual; I think it is innovative.

The river is flowing steadily but isn’t high because nothing above was melting yet.

The snow was sooooo low.

But the daffodils were bright, in spite of being slightly splattered with mud.

Enough. Get to work, Central California Artist!

This oil painting, an 11×14″ commission is coming together. No matter how difficult these seem at the beginning, if I don’t give up, eventually they get done in a believable manner.

“Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up” —good advice from Winston Churchill.

Rescuing A Ranch House Painting

The ranch house painting was stressful. it was a manageable project, but definitely pushing the limits of my abilities.

The Difficulties

Some photos, even though they are clear and have good detail and light, just don’t have the right information. This one had giant up-close tree branches that were making shadows, but looked disproportionate. The deck off to the right was confusing and hidden by trees that didn’t look good enough to paint because they were too big. The customer requested grazing deer. The canvas proportions didn’t match the photo, but cropping would eliminate the important front steps.

On top of that, there was the looming deadline. Trail Guy asked me why I didn’t charge a rush fee, and then I remembered: it wasn’t a rush until 2 weeks of my working time were stolen by a virus.

What’s a Central California painter to do?

The Solutions

Technology to the rescue: I used Photoshop Junior to size and place the deer on top of the painting (on my laptop, not on the actual painting). The result is a little too disturbing to show you, because the deer photos are in sharp contrast to the mushy looking painting and I don’t want you to join Team Doubt (of which I serve as captain).

Those steps, ugh. When in doubt, I resort to drawing with my paintbrush, a big no-no in The Art World, but I am painting for real people, those who “may not know art but know what they like”. (My kind of peeps)

Those steps, better now.

The deer challenge begun, according to my results with Photoshop Junior.

Hey, Bucky!

Those distant deer.

While I was painting distant deer, there were close deer on the other side of the window.

Okay, this will work.

The deer need brighter stronger colors. And there needs to be some grass blades softening the harshness of those all-important front steps. 

I think I am going to be able to sign this one without too much future embarrassment. (There is usually embarrassment about earlier work if one is growing in one’s skill.)

Check here Mineral King HIKES 2023 to see if any 2023 calendars are remaining,

Barn Painting Rescue

This commissioned oil painting was causing undue stress. First it was a dark and murky ranch house, then it became a barn, then the barn was in the wrong place, and pretty soon, I was doubting my ability to do the painting at all. I finally resorted to measuring, comparing my proportions to the photo, and using this neato tool to get the angles exactly right. 

Finally, I was able to begin the detailing that I love so much.

The sky needs another layer, there are more trees to put in, the grass needs a bit more detailing, and then there will be grazing cattle. 

I’ll show you the yellow ranch house rescue tomorrow.

You might still be able to order a 2023 calendar but they might be gone by now. (There were 3 left yesterday.) Unless I see you in person, it won’t arrive before Christmas. HOWEVER, it will arrive before January. Mineral King HIKES 2023

 

Fixing and Finessing

The customer requested grazing deer on the lawn. I tried.Placing and sizing the deer was just a guess, and after contemplating things, I decided they were just too small to be that close to the front. So, some grass grew over them. When the grass is dry, I will try again.

I removed the top step in the foreground because they just looked too “heavy” (big, taking too much space, competing with the house), and changed the color of the concrete. 

I added more branches on the left and grew the tree on the right.

Then the branches on the left sprouted leaves.

Next, the barn. In order to get the right proportions and angles, I worked on this upside down

I used the sky to shape the barn. 

I was mechanically following the photo without thinking about placement, and then I realized that it was too far forward on the canvas. Look at it and you’ll see what I mean.

So, beep-beep, back the barn up. 

Now this has to dry so I can recoat the sky, add some clouds, work on the background hills, and start making the barn look as if it is there to stay. Oh, and then add grazing cattle. I hope I can make them the right size in the right locations.

This calendar might be the right size for your location.

A very small handful of 2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

Too Hard to See, Too Hard For Me

I told my customer that with a dark, blurry, murky photo that was lacking in detail, I would have to make a dark, blurry murky painting that is lacking in detail, and that’s not a technique I have mastered.

So she sent me a photo of a barn and asked if I could paint it instead.

YES I CAN!

Excuse me for shouting. What a relief! 

She also asked if I could add some grazing deer to the house painting. I was so relieved and happy about the barn that I said yes, in spite of not knowing what size they should be. People don’t know that artists don’t automatically know these things. The size is based on where they are placed, and now that I look at the beginnings here on the screen, I can see that these are looking small, like Little Bucky.

I also started adding in the branches that frame the house. It’s a shame to cover up those perfect clouds, but without those leafy limbs, the shadows don’t make sense. Those deer will need to be completely redone. At least the messed up deck on the right of the house is coming together, as are the details on the doors and windows. I don’t like the stairs or the rocks, but it could be the distorted colors on the screen that makes them look like periwinkle slabs. 

This dark and murky mess is going to become a barn.

Pippin doesn’t understand all the commotion. 

Never mind, he’ll just perch in the window and keep hoping that treats appear soon.

The paint was wet on the canvas and I had a bit of difficulty covering over the previous day’s mess.

So, I got it this far, then carried it into the house to dry more so I can continue. There will be cattle grazing in this one. 

I think this will turn out okay. Eventually.

And eventually, nay, SOON, I will run out of 2023 calendars.

Very few 2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

 

Inching Toward Order (I Think I Can)

The process of oil painting begins in a total mess, and each successive layer is I more inch toward order. 

I had two 10×20″ commissioned oil paintings of ranch houses, one from a fairly clear photo, and the other from a dark photo of murky edges and shapes. Unfortunately, that second ranch house is no longer in existence, so I had to just work with what has been provided.

It was a little bit too hard, so I began with the easier one.

First, you can see the beginning mess, along with my reference photo on the laptop (although it isn’t clear, and since I didn’t take the photo, I don’t feel free to show it here).

It was a cold wet day, so all the doors were closed to the painting workshop. This was upsetting to Jackson and to Tucker, who is very nervous about the fan which blows heat up to the easels. Jackson asked to come in, and then he kept biting me on the backside. I finally sat with him on my lap for a bit, explaining to him that I wasn’t in the workshop to feed him treats. This was hard for him to understand, so eventually he asked to go outside. AGAIN.

Sky first, because it is the farthest piece and also the easiest. I have to ease into these giant difficult paintings, reminding myself that an elephant gets eaten just one bite at a time.

For some reason, I was struggling with window placement and size, so I flipped the painting upside down to help me see the proportions more accurately.

Right side up helps me see if I got things right. That light and shadow on the house is what makes this a good subject to paint.

Those front steps are quite interesting, very custom to this basic house. The big lawn is also important.

Now it needs to go into the house to dry so that the next layer of detail doesn’t just smear all to kingdom come. (How’s that for a weird saying?)

This needs a leafy branch shading the upper left side, another leafy tree shading the upper right side, details on the windows, the door, the steps leading to the door, the planting bed on the front of the house, and an almost indiscernible mess of a pergola and patio area to the right of the house.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . .

What I CAN DO FOR SURE, is send you a 2023 calendar.

 Five 2023 Calendars Left, Available Here, $20 inc. tax.