A Tree Grows in the Studio

The photo taken with the iPhone looks yellowish.
Pippin slept behind me while I painted. He is the sweetest of the 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and Jackson is intense, focused on whatever he wants (usually food).
Lots and lots of branches.
The rocks and grasses were a nice break from all those branches.

At the end of a painting day, the light in the studio photographs bluish. 

I just work here.

 

Tulare County’s Best

Mountains and citrus are two things that make Tulare County special. Having grown up in an orange grove (don’t worry, we lived in a house, and thank you for your concern) with an almost daily view of the mountains, this scene is one of my favorite things about living here. The combination is a regular source of inspiration for my art; although I don’t paint it very much, I want to. (It isn’t all that popular in Mineral King. . . fancy that!)

We* went looking for the same view in order to see the detail more clearly. Although we didn’t find the same exact viewpoint, the day was clear and I got enough information to complete the painting. 

Well, oops. Moro Rock was in the wrong place. It didn’t actually show in my original reference photo, so I just made it up. The lower one is the correct placement.

We’ve had snow in the high country, so I changed that most distant ridge to a snowy situation.

I think it is finished now. Time will tell. I might just keep getting ideas about how to improve it. I might not want to finish it. I might want to hang it in our dining area. 

Figuring out how to photograph these large paintings is a challenge.

*Trail Guy and I, not the royal “we” or a mouse in my pocket.

Chasing a View

This painting is still on the easel, waiting for more visual information so I can properly detail the distant hills and mountains.

Trail Guy and I went driving around, looking for the spot where the original photo was taken. We couldn’t figure it out, but found several that were close.

Castle Rocks appeared quite clearly, and although they aren’t in my painting, they could be.
There’s Alta Peak with the same next level of hills as in the photo.
Here’s Alta Peak with the same 2 next levels.
Never mind. I want to paint this as a new one.
And this wants to be painted too.

Although we didn’t find the same view (I was elevated above the grove – where was this??), I now have some helpful details and a whole bunch of new photos from which to work.

Another Big Tree

While I was in Georgia last spring, when people asked me where I was from, I was very specific and replied, “CENTRAL California; no one knows about us, no one cares, but we feed the world.” The unspoken part was “I am NOT from Los Angeles or The Bay Area, so assume nothing about me”.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (just a euphemism, don’t worry, I haven’t moved), I am thinking about what to paint on those large canvases.

As I think about my self-ascribed descriptor, “The Central California Artist”, I want to be painting things that truly represent Central California, specifically Tulare County.

Not only does Tulare County have the largest trees by volume (Sequoia Gigantea), we also have the largest of the American oak trees, our valley oaks (quercus lobata).

All-righty then!

Yikes. Gotta start somewhere. 

Don’t be afraid. I can do this!!

P.S. Did you get my 2019 calendar, “A Touch of Color”? This tree was Miss February. It was a horizontal rectangle, but the painting will be a square. I untangled the branches in the drawing so it will serve as a helpful guide in the painting.

Inching Along Layer by Layer

I’m guessing that I took the reference photo for this painting as a passenger in our pick-’em-truck as we returned home from a road trip when the Rough Fire was dwindling in 2015. I wish I knew where I was, because I’d like to take more photos of the same scene in various seasons and lights.

These giant oil paintings aren’t really too hard for me, but I do run into difficulties when my reference photos are smoky, blurry, from different angles, in differing light, or too small. A tiny blur in a picture becomes a large blur in a larger painting, so I NEED to know what I am painting in order for it to be believable.

Now I have to figure out what to put in the various ridges that will pass as believable texture.

Never mind. I’ll just work on the orange trees in the foreground.

I’ll keep dabbing, layering, and searching for this scene in real life. There is no deadline on this painting.

A Situation

A customer/friend bought a painting off my website. She requested that I paint in an animal so the size of the trees is truly evident.

OH NO! It already sold, and I didn’t take it off my website! 

I can’t find the original photo so have to work off the photo of the sold painting. It is always best to start with the original, but sometimes stuff just can’t be helped.

Pippin was happy to have me in his house. He lets me borrow it for a painting workshop.
Hey, is that a bear??
Here it is with a bear this time. When it dries, I will scan it and it will look better than this semi-reflective photo while it is wet.

Dry enough, scanned, heading to the Post Office today!

Inching Along the Big One

How does one keep coming up with appealing titles for the same topic?

One doesn’t.

This painting is too tall to reach the top when the easel is on the table, so I set it up on the platform of the painting workshop with the doors open.
Trail Guy helped me find and retrieve my big painting easel, which he had stored out of sight and out of reach. It is a simple streamlined design and doesn’t take up much space.
This is S L O W.
Now it is at the “Best-Viewed-From-The-Back-of-a-Fast-Horse” stage.
I bet the oil painting of a Giant Sequoia on the easel has already taken longer than this mural in acrylics took. Of course, using a 1-1/2″ brush instead of a 3/8″ makes a difference, but I can’t figure out how to use a fatter brush and get results that aren’t cringe-worthy in oils.

When I begin to put the details in, I’ll stop moaning about the pace. It helps to listen to a book on CD, and I’ve got a good one going right now. One of Us by Tawni O’Dell is still good on CD #2. Time will tell (that’s what my Dad used to say instead of “more will be revealed”).

Odd Job

As an artist with a lengthy reputation of reliability and skill in the same county for several decades, I get asked to do many odd things in the name of art. It is just part of the business of art.

Some friends have a painting of Mineral King by a long-deceased relative, someone who wasn’t very familiar with Mineral King. They didn’t like something about it, and asked me if I could change it. I enjoy challenges like this, so I said yes. The back of the painting is signed with the year 1964.

What’s wrong with this picture?
My friends’ beef with the painting is the scary face in the rock.
The lump on Farewell Gap really bothered me.
Little Red Riding Hood is seriously out of proportion; the upper body is too big for the lower body.
Scary face gone!
Lumpectomy performed on the right flank of West Florence (and Bearskin added to Vandever).
Now Little Red Riding Hood will be able to hike better.

Mucho Bettero. My friends reassured me that Great Aunt Whose-it won’t haunt me for messing with her painting. Someday in the future, someone may retouch my paintings, and to them I say, “Go for it!”

Recently Completed

See? I have been working, despite the all the travelogue posts. (It takes more days to show and tell about a trip than the trip actually lasted).

“First Granddaughter” (no, not mine!), 8×10″, pencil, private collection
Mineral King Alpenglow, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, private collection

Plein Air at Home

We interrupt this travelogue to bring you more examples of practicing and putting to use the skills I learned in Georgia.

Certainly not finished by my standards.

The Kaweah Post Office was awful. I spent more time on it in the painting studio.

Better. The colors didn’t photograph very true. And would you believe I lost 2 palette knives while I worked on this by the side of the road? How annoying.

The next time, I set up inside the painting workshop with the giant doors open up to the outside. This one turned out a bit better than the P.O.

This is my view out the big doors.
It started out in the usual scary manner.
Color helps.
Am I finished? Who can say except Laurel, and she isn’t here. Looks kind of messy to me.

Finally, in preparation for an upcoming exhibit called “Seascapes”, I went through my photos of beach scenes and chose one to try in the plein air method. This means painting quickly, front to back, dark to light, and finishing in one session. Have you ever heard of someone doing plein air painting from a photo? I haven’t.

The blocking in stage.
Beginning with color in the front. I love blues and blue-greens.
I liked working on this one.
I incorporated my own techniques for getting things more accurate. I wonder if Laurel would be banging her head against the wall at my rebellious ways.

This one was completed while listening to Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty get interviewed by Donald Miller. He talked a lot about having fun, and I had fun while painting this. Will I have the courage to enter this in “Seascapes”? More will be revealed.