Mineral King Wildflowers 2

Let’s try this again with Mineral King wildflower painting #2.

Mineral King Wildflowers 2, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

I wonder if I show a painting a day if people will stop reading my blog, or if I will sell paintings. 

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

Mineral King Wildflowers

I finished 8 little oil paintings of Mineral King wildflowers and realized that every single photo I chose to paint from was from the same trail. Well, duh. That trail, the Franklin/Farewell Gap trail, is always the best place to find reliable wildflowers. There are other places that are off-trail, but I don’t want to put that type of information on the World Wide Web.

Okay, time for painting #1, titled “Mineral King Wildflowers 1” (Clever, I know.)

6×6″, $60, oil on wrapped canvas, ready to hang

 

Completed Wildflower Paintings

Sort of completed. There is always waiting to dry, scanning, titling, adding to the website, varnishing, more waiting to dry, and sometimes packaging and shipping. . .

Well, would you just look at that?

Every one of these paintings shows Timber Gap.

Why??

Because the best place for wildflowers in Mineral King is up the Franklin/Farewell Gap trail, which is across the valley from Timber Gap. 

There are other places with good wildflowers, but this is our favorite. (“Our” refers to Trail Guy and your Central California artist.)

Now is a good time to remind you of my book. (The museum remains closed for the time being and Silver City isn’t planning to open until June 5.)

 

100 page paperback, flowers in photos, common names only, lots of chatty commentary, $20 including tax.
Available here
Also available at the Three Rivers Historical Museum, Silver City Store, from me if I put them in my car, or Amazon.

Commissioned Mineral King Oil Painting

You saw this photo of the beginnings of a commissioned Mineral King oil painting.

Here is the reference photo for the little cabin.

The customer wanted it to be in a vertical format, and I suggested making Farewell Gap more dominant. She approved of that first sketch on the canvas, so I began painting.

This was a combination of the familiar and the fake with the goal of believability.

When this dries, I’ll start “drawing” with my paintbrush. Adding details to the cabin will be particularly enjoyable, because you may recall that I love to draw.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Eleven

This is the final part of our Pencil Reminiscing series. This last set of pencil notecards is Mineral King again. This one was done near the end of the last century, after I figured out how to handle the textures of landscape views. I don’t remember where this set falls in the sequence of notecard sets, but it seems fitting to conclude this series of posts with Mineral King.

These views still look the same today. Well, not TODAY, but last summer, and hopefully the summer of 2020, after all the snow melts.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Ten

Somewhere along the path of creating notecard packages, I did a set of Mineral King scenes, a mini-set of four instead of five, without the identifying label. Instead, I inserted a photocopy of what was inside.

Judging from the quality of the background landscaping, this was still early in the sequence of notecard sets.

The old Ranger Station was from a postcard; the others were from my photos, so they were current at the time (and still look almost the same).

I think these were tied up with raffia, oh so very elegantly rustic.

Planning Time

Each year in January, I evaluate the Mineral King paintings that sold over the summer. I make lists of sizes, subject matter, what sold, what didn’t sell. Then I plan what to paint for the next summer, choosing sizes, subject matter, and photos to work from.

Because there are many guests who return yearly to Silver City where my paintings sell, I have to be careful to vary the sizes and views, while maintaining a good inventory of the most popular subjects. The classic view of the Crowley Cabin with Farewell Gap in the background remains the top seller; the Honeymoon Cabin and Sawtooth are usually neck and neck for second place. After that, anything with water, and as long as I add wildflowers, any other subject usually sells.

The 6×18″ format has done very well, either horizontal or vertical. It is unusual and fits into squishy little spaces. 

Painting this time of year can be uncomfortable in the workshop. Trail Guy lights the heater, and then we shut the doors to keep the heat in. Sometimes the cats are on the wrong side of the door (whichever side they are on is usually the wrong side for them.)

Of course I had to start with my favorite subject, the Oak Grove Bridge.

The next largest size I’ll need this coming summer is 10×10″. These are small sizes for oil paintings if sold in a gallery; I am selling these in a store that caters to folks who travel light. Different locale, different clientele, so different sizele. (Sorry, that just fit there.)Good start to this season’s paintings. I’m cold, so I’ll go in the studio now where the heater is more effective and I can’t hear the neighbor’s dogs as loudly.

Painting Big

Painting big in oils is harder than painting big on a mural. Not sure why just yet, but not giving up either.

This painting sat for a week or so at this stage.
The smallest tree in the main central clump of trees is there in real life, but it adds nothing. Looking at the painting for a week helped me see this. Now it is gone from the painting.
I was looking at several photos and couldn’t figure out which was my main reference. So, I asked Trail Guy which lighting situation he preferred, and for him, it was a “no brainer”. That helped me stop jumping from this angle to that one and back again. Then I covered the canvas with a first layer so almost no white space remains.

There are many hours remaining to complete this painting. I am the Central California artist, my specialty is Mineral King, and I can do this! (a little pep talk to myself.) Maybe if I think hard enough about this, I’ll figure out what is so difficult and then find a way through.

Going Bigger

In the post “Eight Things I Learned in October”, #3 said, “It is time to think about painting larger.”

Doing rather than just talking is something I value, so. . .

. . .I began a larger painting, and am slowly coming to understand the reason it feels necessary. Most of my paintings are 12×16″ and smaller, with a handful of 18×24″; this is fine for the art and craft fairs, but not so fine if I ever want to get into galleries. Do I? Not sure, but it can’t hurt to be prepared. (What I’d really like is for the hoped-for boutique motel to come to Three Rivers and buy my paintings!)

Here we go – 18×36″, practically a mural in my world.
Working from a previous version of the same scene, 6×18″, on my laptop screen.
The proportions of 18×36″ are different than the 6×18″, so I am struggling a bit with placement and sizes. I can do this!! (One would hope so, since I have painted the scene about 3 or 4 dozen times).
Looks as if we will be on this for awhile.

I need a bit more gratification, a quicker sense of accomplishment. First, I’ll go outside and enjoy some fall colors, try to get a sense of something other than “OH NO WHAT HAVE I BEGUN?”

Tomorrow you will see my quick fix to fulfill the need to complete something.

More Mineral King in the Studio

I’ve been looking forward to painting in the painting studio/workshop for a few weeks. Going to Sandy Eggo, working on the mural, time in Mineral King – all good things, but still things that prevented painting in the studio. Life is a series of choices and consequences.

Almost finished.
Drying on the table beneath its companion commissioned Mineral King oil paintings.