Oak Grove Bridge | Cabin Art

Three Oil Paintings

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Today’s post is an update to several paintings in progress.

I carried this one outside to the sidewalk to photograph for you. That’s what the weird gray texture around the sides is. The leaves on one of the pomegranates need another layer, because they were an afterthought. And, when it is dry, it will photograph with more accurate colors. Still have to sign it.

What shall I title this oil painting?

This one is called “Sequoia Gigantea”. That was the name of the newspaper at Redwood High School, and I have never forgotten that it is the real name of what we euphemistically call “The Big Trees” around here. This is to keep them from being confused with the other Big Trees, the other redwoods, the Sequoia Sempervirens, AKA “coastal redwoods.

And the Oak Grove Bridge painting goes on and on and on. . . this time when I saw that the arch still wasn’t right, I adjusted the left side. Why is this so hard for me to paint?? With all the practice I’ve had, you’d think I could paint it with my eyes closed.

Wait. That wouldn’t work.

Paint it with one arm tied behind my back?

Never mind. It is hard, but I love the scene in reality, on paper and on the easel.

This post is brought to you courtesy of the Department of Redundancy Dept. because I keep painting the same scenes and subjects over and over and over and. . .

Field Trip up the Mineral King Road

One day while I was painting the Oak Grove Bridge, Trail Guy said he wanted to drive up the Mineral King Road and see how things looked. I put down my brushes and put on my boots.

All that muddy water obscured the boulders and rock formations that I have been struggling to decipher in the photos.

Through the windshield after the we reached the snow.

I got out of the truck to lock the hubs. Glad I wore those LLBean boots.

Lookout point after I locked those hubs. — Lookout Point after I locked those hubs.

We didn't make it very far. This is at the asphalt pile turnout. The snow was about 3" deep there. — We didn’t make it very far. This is at the asphalt pile turnout, maybe 10 miles from the bottom of the road. The snow was about 3″ deep there.

Trail Guy closed the lower gate. Bit of a slide there, but it is easy to drive around.

This is Squirrel Creek, near Lake Canyon, AKA Mitchell Ranch, AKA Sweet Ranch, AKA Way Station. It goes dry in many summers.

Mineral King Oak Grove Bridge

Simple

Painting the Oak Grove Bridge is anything but simple. After two more hours on the current oil painting of my favorite bridge, it looks like this:

I spend a ton of time sorting out the shapes under the bridge. No one really knows or cares if they are exactly right, so I’m not sure why I spend so much time on them. I think it is so everything will fit. What if I leave out an important rock?

The colors and textures don’t matter at this stage. I just concentrate on getting the proportions and angles right, and try to get close in values (the darks and lights).

Seeing those rocks and parts of water is tricky. The shrubs keep growing and obstructing the views. The water is reflective, so it appears as simply white in places on the photo.

I’ve stood on the bridge and stared at the rocks and water, and it seems completely different from what is in the photo. I might be a bit simple.

This doesn’t have to be perfect, just believable. I’ve drawn and painted the Oak Grove Bridge so many times that it seems I ought to be able to stop using photos. I can’t. It is possible that I am a bit simple.

Since I find this destructive creature perpetually amusing, I must be a bit simple.

commission oil painting Oak Grove Bridge oil paintings

On the Easels

Samson is eager to participate. He is the opposite of helpful. I have commissioned oil paintings to do, and no one requested Samson’s paw prints.

All the colors look different in the bright morning sunlight.

Good progress today on the hill behind, the sycamore bark, the background trees and the wood on the shed. It will need about 3 more layers of ever-increasing detail. Leaves on the trees will improve this painting, hiding awkward spaces. When in doubt, add a leaf. (Ask Adam and Eve about this.)

The Sequoia tree paintings are finished and drying. The 2 upper paintings look overexposed because of the bright light coming in the window, not because I painted them with wimpy colors. (I know you were dying to know but are too polite to comment.)

This painting of the Oak Grove Bridge has been waiting patiently for some attention for almost a month while I painted another mural in the museum and attended to a whole mess of administrative tasks.

Now the background above the bridge is looking good. It might even be finished. When I began the background below the bridge, I had to readjust the arches. That’s fine; I have plenty of practice. It is part of the fun of painting the Oak Grove Bridge.

At the end of the day it is dark outside and dark in the painting workshop. That, and the Ott light, accounts for the bluish coloring to this photo.

commission oil painting Oak Grove Bridge

Two Oil Painting Commissions

When there is work to be done, I’d rather get it done than postpone it. Someone has described people like me as “precrastinators” rather than procrastinators.

Commission #1 – Kaweah Colony blacksmith shop

This mess on canvas is becoming the Kaweah Colony’s blacksmith shop. The background doesn’t show in the photo, so I went to the site where it used to be until the flood of 1997 took it out. The camera battery was dead, so I drew the shape of the background hill on tissue paper laid over the photo.

The customer requested autumn coloring. I’ll figure it out. . . layer by layer.

Commission #2 – Oak Grove Bridge

Some folks bought this painting of the Oak Grove Bridge as a gift. #1576 Oak Grove Bridge XVI

They decided they want one for themselves, so I am painting another one. This is the painting on the cover of the sold out 2017 calendar. I saved one for myself, something I haven’t always done in the past. Good thing, because it is helping me, along with the photo, of course.

Save

commission oil painting Oak Grove Bridge oil paintings

2017 Calendar Coming Soon

Like it or not, 2017 is coming in a few months. Why wouldn’t one like it? Because one may have not gotten used to 2016 yet. Why would one like it? Because a new calendar is coming.

The Bridges of Tulare County

This idea came from the show that celebrated 100 years of the National Parks. I realized that my art is heavy in the subject of bridges, because they combine the best of scenery with architecture.

There aren’t very many picturesque bridges here in the fly-over country of California, AKA Central California. Thus, some of the bridges appear more than once.

The calendar includes oil paintings, pencil drawings, and one colored pencil drawing. My favorite, the Oak Grove bridge, shows up many times. It is my calendar and I don’t have to be fair and balanced. (I hope you share my bias.)

With all the work on coloring books this year and not too much time to draw or paint, I contemplated not bothering with a calendar. Then 3 different people asked me what my calendar was going to be this year, and that’s all it took to convince me to make one.

Some of these you may have seen before, and others are new, specifically created for the calendar.

The Bridges of Tulare County, 2017 calendar – not yet ready to be ordered, but coming soon.

Oak Grove Bridge Tulare county Tulare County art

Reminding You of the Beauty of Tulare County

Do you know why I write this blog?

It is because I want to remind us all that there is beauty here in Tulare County. Sometimes I have to put myself out into that beauty and even take my Big Girl Camera with me to get great photos so I can do my job of reminding you of the beauty of Tulare County.

The wildflowers along the lower 6.5 miles of the Mineral King Road are abundant and beautiful. There really aren’t very many places to pull over, so just drive slowly and soak it up. Better yet, have someone else drive, and you can just gawk.

This is spice bush, and it is in bloom right next to the Oak Grove Bridge.There is good water flowing beneath the bridge. This is the upstream view.

This is leaning over the bridge looking downstream. There was a pickup parked on the bridge with rafting stuff. The people were actually rafting down there! I have no idea how they got the raft down to the water or how they got into the thing without having one foot in and one foot out when it shot down some treacherous rapid.

Leaning out over the bridge is all the risk I care to take here.

This is the first time I have noticed the rock work propping up the road over there. STAY PUT, little rocks.

We did a little trespassing to get this view. Now you don’t have to. I don’t know if there is enough color here – just greens and browns, with that little place of blue in the water. The wildflowers are just too small. Maybe I could put some in the foreground, in spite of the fact that there are none there. . .? Time will tell. I still haven’t finished the 24×30″ painting that has been on my easel since January or February! Too busy being out in the beauty of Tulare County to be recording it in paint right now.

Oak Grove Bridge Three Rivers Tulare county

Another Bridge Oil Painting in Progress

That is another Oak Grove Bridge oil painting in progress, but there is a character limit on the title.

This is the 24×30″ painting, also without a deadline. It has the same goal as the 11×14″ painting: make it the best possible no matter how long it takes.

Instead of figuring out the exact size and shapes as I paint, I first drew this on the canvas, using a pencil, ruler, calculator and straight edge. Painting this is hard enough without bumbling along with the proportions.

Very little difference between this and the previous photo, but after studying it awhile, I saw a slight addition. Can you?

Have I done anything new besides move the photo?? It looks less squishy than the first version. I worked on the bridge. That’s me – civil engineer with a paint brush.

This is going to take a very long time. It is a little bit above my ability. The overly bright colors are fun, and may influence the final painting. They are a way to get layers and shapes on canvas while using up paint from my palette.

Oak Grove Bridge oil paintings

Oak Grove Bridge Painting in Progress

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Gordon!

Scroll to the bottom of this post for an update on The Bridge’s future.

As I work on this 11×14″ oil painting of The Oak Grove Bridge, I am thankful that there is no deadline. The idea is to take as long as necessary to make the painting as good as possible. And the hope is that in another 2 years (or maybe less), I’ll be saying “That old thing? Oh my, I paint so much better now!”

The cliffs on the left, the rocks beneath, and the shrubs on the right, AND the bridge railing are all challenging.

Cliffs, rocks, and shrubs looking better. The railing will have to wait.

Is this improved? hard to see, hard to say.

The railing is better, the rocks are better, and the ones that aren’t so hot? Cover with branches and leaves!

This might be the most difficult corner. Too ambiguous.

Any improvement now? Keep layering, keep looking for ways to improve and finish. Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up.

At a meeting on February 8, we learned that there are 3 alternatives for making The Oak Grove Bridge safe. Tearing it down is not on the list. The three alternatives will be explained at another meeting on February 23, 6 p.m. at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. After public input, which DOES affect the outcome, a choice will be made.

Oak Grove Bridge oil paintings

Research is an Artist Word for a Field Trip

“Research” is a word that used to bring to mind libraries with stacks of books and the microfiche machine. Now it means Google.

In the case of this Central California artist, it means a field trip.

I drove the 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road and spent some time walking around the bridge, climbing into areas that I avoid in the summer because I have a healthy fear of rattlesnakes.

Oak Grove Bridge

Lots of rain so far this winter means a decent flow beneath the bridge. I really want to see it if we get a flood-like storm!

Water or root-beer?

It’s difficult to get a photo of it from a straight-on angle. The shrubs and trees keep growing and obstructing the view.

This is the most common angle that I paint.

I’ve never taken this angle before. I think it would be a weird painting.

Sometimes the last support and the abutment visually overlap in my paintings and I get confused by all the shapes.

Might as well take a strange angle of the other side. One never knows what might be helpful.

I think the “T” is for Tulare County. I also needed to see what the detailed shape of this post is, because it is always too small to show in my other paintings. This time, in the 24×30″ painting, it just might matter.

Remember, February 8 at 6 p.m. at the Three Rivers Veterans’ Memorial Building, the Tulare Co. planning commission is holding a meeting about the bridge’s future.

Oak Grove Bridge Tulare county

Tag: Oak Grove Bridge

Commission #1 – Kaweah Colony blacksmith shop

Commission #2 – Oak Grove Bridge

The Bridges of Tulare County