There are a lot of orange paintings to get done, dried, scanned, and distributed to two different places. Let’s go!
Four down, two to go.
Altogether now, “These will look better after they are dry and always look better in person”.
There is a marketing outfit for citrus, at least I think it is for marketing purposes. They have bought many pieces of orange-themed art from me through the years and are a pleasure to deal with.
Their annual banquet is coming up, and someone in the office asked me to lend them orange-themed art to decorate the lobby leading to the banquet room.
My 30+ years of experience tells me that my art won’t sell there. When the artist isn’t present and people are simply mingling, art does not sell itself. I am not invited to the banquet, and most likely I would decline the invitation. I have run out of the internal fire to schmooze and chit-chat in a loud room with the hopes of making connections that may or may not turn into work, and doing it in the town 30+ miles away at night when I am ready to park my patoot with a book and some knitting.
But this organization has been good to me, so if they want to borrow some art, my response is, “Certainly! How many pieces would you like?”
I took inventory and found 8 available pieces (one has to be borrowed from a gallery which is never open on the day when I am down the hill, but I will figure it out somehow). These are all similar scenes, and I decided that eight is not enough.
Here is a sample piece of my normal citrus scenes:
And here is what I need to paint, title, scan, and deliver DRY in time for the event:
This is a 10×10″ and a 6×18″, both a little different from my regular orange still-life paintings. Those regular ones sell steadily, but I bet most of the attendees to the banquet will have seen, bought, or received one of these already.
Untitled Sequoia trees, 6×12″, oil paint on wrapped canvas, still wet, $125 plus tax.
There are actual spider webs on my easels after a summer off.
I didn’t take the summer off on purpose; there simply wasn’t any reason to add to inventory.
Now there are reasons to paint: the Holiday Bazaar will be November 18, St. Anthony Retreat has requested small paintings to sell in their gift shop, and the Mural Gallery in Exeter recently sold a few paintings.
These little beginnings await layers.
These sizes have been chosen, along with photos/subjects to paint. Most of the photos will be cropped or several images will be combined. I always feel the need to state this in case you think I am strictly following photos. I don’t have the ability to copy photos perfectly with those imperfect paintbrushes, and in The Art World, it isn’t considered a good thing to do that.
Sometimes I try anyway, so there. I am not in The Art World; I am your Central California artist, using oil paint to make art you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.
Yes, there is a pair of pumpkins begun behind the 2 lake photos. Yes, you have probably seen both of the Sequoia scenes painted by me before along with the 2 lake photos. Okay, fine, yes, the Alta Peak/Moro Rock too. Not a problem, because new people will be looking at the new paintings.
I used up the paint on my palette to get a first layer down on the canvas.
Then I took another photo of the 2 that I am now considering to be finished. I added a bit more detail to the foreground grass on the buffalo, titled “Ed’s Herd” (because the buffalo herd belongs to Ed) and added a bit more sky under the sunset-colored (NOT FIRE!!) clouds, finally signing that one.
After several months of no work (i.e. lovely free time at the cabin without deadlines or guilt), work is beginning to trickle back into my days.
First, a pencil commission. (I still love to draw.)
This was the little sketch for the customer to approve or amend.
She made a couple of suggestions, and I scribbled a few notes for further verification.
This is a house I visited. Actually, I visited the people there, but the house really stuck in my memory as very attractive. It will be quite fun to draw.
I worked on the herd of buffalo for the upcoming show at CACHE, called “A Bovine State of Mind”.
It might be finished, but I will wait to sign it until I am completely sure there is nothing left to improve.
I remembered that the Holiday Bazaar in Three Rivers is coming November 18, 2023. This is the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving. It is time to think about beefing up my inventory of smaller paintings for this annual boutique at the Remorial Building. (Remorial, liberry, prolly. . . bet you can translate these words).
Yep, messy, but the first layers always are.
It’s great to be producing art again, both with pencils and oil paints!
Let’s compare some oil paintings: a 2006 version reworked, a 2010 painted again, and a painting begun to its midpoint.
I painted this in 2006; my friend (let’s call him Craig, because that is his name) brought it back to me upon my request. I wanted to rework it so that I wouldn’t feel embarrassed for taking his money 17 years ago.
It took awhile, but I found the original reference photograph. With limited (ahem, zero, actually) experience in painting scenery back then, I just did my best to match the somewhat gray and faded colors of the photo. I was successful in matching, which is one of the important lessons of learning to paint. However, now I like to substitute brighter colors.
Craig also asked me to repaint a 6×6″ scene that I had originally done in 2010. I was able to convince him to just trade me rather than keep 2 almost identical paintings.
Can you tell which is old and which is new? Probably not, so I’ll tell you: old is on the right, new on the left.
Then I decided to touch up the old so that I can sell it next year, assuming my places of commerce will be open and thriving again.
You probably can’t tell the difference in this photo. That’s okay, because I can and I know it is better now.
Finally, let’s look at a painting in its beginning ugly stages, and then enjoy it after it has been worked on a bit more.
I relayered the sky and clouds, worked on the trees, and began detailing the buffalo. (For some unknown reason, I worked from right to left on the herd, rather than my normal left to right.)
I love to draw with my paintbrushes.
This oil painting of the river is inching forward. Remember this?
Here is a day of (interrupted*) painting in steps.
*Quickety trip to the next mural site to learn the best method to transfer pattern to wall; phone call to spray varnish manufacturer to ask how to deal with the continually clogging nozzle; writing an endorsement for my mechanic’s upcoming website; asking some friends to do the same; phone-tagging and texting to make an appointment to show my paintings to a new vendor; several long phone discussions attempting to keep the wheels on a project that seems to be circling the drain (that’s called a “mixed metaphor”); photographing and scanning completed paintings. . . all part of the business of art.
Same playlist as before. Same poor singing (on my part). Same kind of day racing by*. New paintings.
I was feeling kind of proud of this one until two different people who saw it asked if it was wildfire.
I hate HATE HATE wildfire. (Am I being unclear here?)
After studying it, I added some blue to the bottom of the sunset-colored clouds and subdued the clouds a bit.
I relayered the distant hills, relayered the greenery, and then started all those rocks.
This will look better when you see it in person. It is intended for a show in 2024, so I may relayer everything several more times.
Then I painted some oranges for Exeter’s Mural Gallery.
Finally, I began a painting of my friend Ed’s buffalo herd in Missour-uh, as he pronounces his state. This one is for a show at CACHE in October, as is the painting of the three cattle you saw last week.
I wonder if rock music would cause me to paint faster?
Nah. Probably not a good idea to listen to things that I find irritating. (But I do love LIttle River Band—has anyone borrowed my CD and not returned it? —and like Toto, Kansas [or maybe it was Boston] and Don Henley.)
*How can all those sad country songs make me feel so happy? Because the music is wonderful!
This time I listened to Steven Wariner (always), Emmy Lou Harris (again), Vince Gill, Michael Martin Murphy (the album that has the Sons of the San Joaquin singing backup on one song), George Strait, and Clint Black. That was the Fastest Day Painting Ever.
This is the middle fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers, about 1/2 mile from my house/studio/three cats. The reference photos were taken from a favorite place for trespassing.
Recently while stuck inside on a very rainy day at the cabin, Trail Guy had to replace the batteries in the radio. That erased the saved stations, and as he was resetting them, he found two classic rock and one classic country station. We entertained ourselves for an evening by hopping around among the three stations, and I was shocked, “SHOCKED”, I say, to realize how many voices, introductions, and songs I not only recognized, but could sing (poorly) to.
I forgot how much I used to (and apparently still do) love country music. I don’t like the really old stuff and don’t know the new stuff, but the tunes from the ’70s and ’80s float my boat.
When we got home, I dug out a stack of my old CDs*, put them in my stereo (yeah, it is probably “old” too), and started painting while singing (poorly). Doesn’t this seem like an appropriate painting for country music? Here is the progression:
This is from a photo on top of Rocky Hill. At this time of writing, it is untitled.
*Steve Wariner (my absolute forever favorite), Emmy Lou Harris, Suzy Bogguss, Collin Raye, and Skip Ewing. (Only Steve Wariner showed up when Trail Guy and I were playing “Name That Tune”).
And you might be wondering about this: In the category of country, Trail Guy usually guessed Hank Williams Sr. or Johnny Cash, but he excelled at the rock station, whereas I thought most of those songs sounded alike with repetitious screaming guitars and scratchy yelling voices. (They didn’t play Toto or Little River Band, but they did play one Kansas—I love those tight harmonies.)