Just Another Workday

One day a week or so ago, I painted in the morning and drew in the afternoon. This is what it looked like:

Piper was needy. He is resting his little head on my arm, not biting me the way Samson did.
Felt compelled to paint this view again; 4 days later a friend/customer/collector emailed to ask if I had this view available; turns out he wants it to be 16×16″, not 6×6″. Good thing I have practiced this view many times.
This is a popular size and shape, so my last canvas of this size became Sawtooth #29.
Finished? Sawtooth definitely fits this shape of canvas nicely.

Then I moved into the studio. It was a sunny day, so I raised the blind and saw this:

Hi Mike, the carpenter (not to be confused with Michael, the Trail Guy)
Here is another drawing in progress for the 2019 calendar.
The plan is to put a little color into this drawing of oranges. Can’t be considered an authentic Tulare County artist unless I include oranges in my rotation of subjects.

And thus we conclude another workday in the life of this Central California artist.

Shedding Light on Some Lanterns

While participating at a boutique on a quaint little farm in Three Rivers in December of 2016, I photographed these lanterns:

Everything the farm couple touches is quaint, beautiful, pretty, attractive, and every other complimentary term I can think of. My intention was to paint the lanterns on a 6×18″ canvas.
I started the painting with high hopes. First layers are never anything to feel good about.

The second and third layers provided a little more confidence.

Then I got to refresh a mural in Exeter, prepare for and participate in a pencil show with 3 of my students, paint some Mineral King to sell in the summer, draw lots of water, do 2 more murals in some vacation rentals, teach a couple of drawing workshops, work, and more work, all of it challenging in a great way.

Meanwhile, the lantern oil painting just hung in the workshop, getting dusty. I took almost the entire month of July off work, and hiked, sought out new wildflowers, visited Hume Lake.

More Mineral King oil paintings were necessary on short notice, then I drew morempictures of water in pencil, some pencil drawing commissions came in, and suddenly it was time to prepare for the fall shows.

Still the lanterns waited for some attention.

What was this Central California artist going to do with those lanterns?

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you.

Birds Old and Sold

I got curious about how many hens and roosters I have painted, so here is a recap for us all to enjoy. I wonder how long this will be a popular subject. A friend had her kitchen decorated in hens and roosters in the ’70s, I think. She gave them away in the ’90s. And, here they are again. . . “We’re back. . .!”

M’s Hen – the first domestic fowl that I painted, a 6×6″.

This one is titled simply: “Fowl” and he appears to be in a foul mood..
Cleverly titled “Flock”, this one was cobbled together from multiple photos.
This is Dinnerbone, the first time I painted him.
Ethan’s Chickens, and I don’t remember the size. Probably 8×8″ in order to get the detail on both the birds.

Ethan’s Rooster – I wonder if it was Gumball or if it was Dinnerbone? I might have called him Top Dog. This one was 8×10″.

More Mineral King Painting Factory 4

Week One of Operation Mineral King Painting Factory felt successful. 7 of the 11 paintings are completed (except for drying, scanning and varnishing), and it seems possible to complete the remaining 4 (3 are large-ish) and maybe even make tracks on the other 2 on stand-by, all next week. (Prolly not. . . that is overly ambitious, given the way life often intrudes on my work plans.)

This painting really wanted to be detailed, so I began on the left side.
The right side is really looking sorry by contrast.
This detailing took FOUR HOURS!! Good thing I like it. I like to draw, because I definitely “drew” with my paintbrushes, something frowned upon by The Big Boys and Girls of Art. 

This painting was a challenge. It is a scene I haven’t painted before,  the view at the upper end of the Nature Trail as you enter the cabin area. 

This might be the best I can do with this one. Squishing a vertical scene into a square sort of works.
This one is also new to me in terms of painting. It is the view from Timber Gap.
This feels easy after working on the 6×18″ piece of a similar view.

I like this!
This one needed a sky do-over. I think I last worked on it in low light. It is better, but this was photographed in low light, so hard to say.
This one is finished, and is so fun to photograph in front of its larger brother.
Why not photograph the new Sawtooth in front of the muralized one?
And I think this one can be considered finished.

That was a productive 4 days of painting. 

More Mineral King Painting Factory 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MELINDA!! (now entering the S-words)

This is the third day of Mineral King Oil Painting Factory. 

This one was drying, taking up valuable easel space.
These three needed attention.
Here they are with the photos on top that I’ll use, hoping that somehow seeing them there will make me a better painter.
WHO IS THIS???
Piper, how did you convince your brother to come out of hiding??
Tuxedo sat there briefly, tiptoed around a bit, heard a noise and returned to the hole. I’ve been thinking that Ansel would be a good name for a black and white cat.
Back to work, feeling happy because perhaps I will have 2 cats after all.
Feeling happy makes for good painting, maybe. When this is finished and dry, I’ll compare it to the earlier ones (unless they have all sold).
Sawtooth. I thought I could set it aside, and then I realized that the telephone pole could use some foliage.
Here is the popular 6×18″ size.
Same, but better
Just kept adding detail, layer after layer, until it seemed as if I was just lifting off what just got laid on.
At the end of the day, I feel tired of standing, staring, squinting and painting. That makes it a good time to do some loose base coats, since my ability to focus has diminished after about 6 hours of painting.

This whole idea of being a painting factory has its good points and its not so good ones. Have you noticed that applies to almost every single thing in life?

The good: Getting things finished well in advance of a deadline is a good way to do business, and focusing on the same subjects and colors over and over should be honing my skills.

The not so good: Focusing to this degree is tiring, I might be boring my readers, and OH NO WHAT IF THEY DON’T SELL BECAUSE I HAVE SATURATED THE MARKET??

Besides these 11 paintings in progress, there are 2 more that have been on stand-by for months – my favorite bridge and Eagle Lake. 

I’ll think about all that another day.

P.S. Tony was thrilled with his goose, the black and white cat is definitely gone, and the 6×18 painting has sold.

More Mineral King Painting Factory

Are you just bowled over by the clever titles to my blog posts? Some days I just about put myself to sleep with the repetition in titles, but there is always something new to post for you to see and read.

This one only had a tiny mark on it during the last painting session. It will need aspen branches and leaves in the foreground to make it more identifiable as the upper end of The Nature Trail in Mineral King.
These 2 blank canvases were waiting for me; I forgot to start them on the day when I began the other 9 paintings. Forgot! Right there on the table and I FORGOT??
Surprahz, surprahz, surprahz, as Gomer Pyle used to say. This is Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin.
Now here’s a real surprise – Piper is becoming comfortable. The tuxedoed brother was still in hiding at the time I wrote this post. (Update on tuxedoed brother cat: he ran away.)
He looks both scrawny and confident.
This is an entirely new format for a Honeymoon Cabin painting.
I add the next layer with better attention to color and detail, working from back to front and left to right.
At the end of the painting day (and decent light), Piper was still hanging out with me. And you can see that the color of light is distinctly different at this time than when I began.

Three California Poppy Oil Paintings

It has been ten years since we had that spectacular poppy season in Three Rivers. I still find them when I walk and in in my yard, but never since have we had them in such abundance.

While I was conducting the private oil painting workshop, I painted two poppy paintings. It is good to be available to the students, but no good to just hover.

I was pleased with them until I saw them in better light in the workshop. Then I saw that they needed another layer or two, and the shapes weren’t quite right. Since I had the colors mixed and another canvas ready to go, I decided to throw in a third poppy.

When they were finished, I realized they still needed reshaping. 

When that was finished and dry, I scanned them and realized they still needed another layer on the reshaped edges.

Easy little paintings, no trouble at all, just slam them out, piece of cake, no problem.

Fall down laughing. 

FINALLY, they are finished. I think.

Poppy #51, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100 plus tax
Poppy #52, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100 plus tax
Poppy #53, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×8″, $100 plus tax

The More I Paint. . .

 . . . the more paintings sell.

One Sawtooth, one Honeymoon Cabin, one White Chief, three of the most popular scene of Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin, and one of just Farewell Gap minus the Crowley cabin. 6×6″ is the most popular size.  

Keep painting, Central California Artist Who Specializes in Mineral King.

Random Roundup

  1. We got rain and snow and clear bright days.
    Three Rivers, as it looks in my neighborhood.

  2. I painted 3 poppies, thinking they would be quick and easy. Fall down laughing. I have had to reshape and reshape and relayer and wait and relayer yet again and on and on and on. . . this is just one of the three poppies that will not cooperate.
  3. I started painting a bear. During our Bear Autumn of 2015, I got a few photos. This is probably the dude who tore battens off the side of my studio while seeking acorns.
  4. After much calculation, I figured out how many more Mineral King paintings are needed, which subjects and which sizes. This is based on numbers sold in previous summers, popularity of subjects, and women’s intuition. Time will tell if I have chosen correctly. (I can always paint roosters over the tops of the ones that don’t sell.)I chose the sizes, paired the canvases with the photos, assigned inventory numbers, titled the pieces, attached the hanging hardware to the backs, and primed the canvases. 
  5. The web designer said there is progress being made. Sounds as if I have hours and hours of computer work ahead as I load up all my art (NOT paying someone else to do this!)
  6. March First Saturday in Three Rivers at Anne Lang’s was better than both January and February combined. Some fine folks were waiting for me to arrive (Hi D & B & R & A!!), a friend bought my lunch (T/U, GE!!), and a friend stopped by for a long overdue visit (Hi CHO!). Of course, sales made the day particularly happy, and I did more coloring in the Heart of Ag coloring book, along with lots of explaining to people how to layer with a minimalist box of Black Wing Colors.

And thus we conclude a random roundup of the business of art, as defined by me. I wonder how other artists go about their business? On artists blogs, they all sound so professionally successful, discussing plein air outings (oh shut up, that is so hard and I don’t know how and I am a studio artist and if I am outside it will be to hike, walk, prune or pull weeds), or packaging up things to deliver to galleries (galleries, schmalleries – this is Tulare County), or showing off big deal sales to a local hospital or courthouse or university (Hunh? those places spend money on art, big money on originals?? Not in Tulare County), or fancy commissions (I paint wooden geese and or draw barns), or shows in nice places (I do them in Art Centers without plumbing, the local Remorial Building, or in people’s stores or backyards).

HaHa. I live in Tulare County and they don’t. 

Oops. Sold two more Mineral King paintings recently so I may need to recalculate! Customers keep depleting my inventory. . . what’s an artist to do except keep painting??

Birdland, Third Day

Who knew that birds would show up in such numbers in my art business??

My friend’s husband, Tony, asked if I could paint a wooden goose for him. A what, Tony? A goose! He didn’t specify type, so I had to consult The Google for ideas. I told him it will be a Canada Goose (yes, it is Canada Goose, not “Canadian Goose”) and that I hope it will look so realistic that someone might try to shoot it. This could fall into the category of Odd Jobs, and when I show you how it is coming along, that’s how I’ll classify it.

Meanwhile, the birds go on. . .

4 new chickens, a bear and a reflection scene
The great blue heron and the rooster are drying together in peace, no one flapping or crowing.
The quail and hen are drying together too, but they are all crooked so you’ll have to wait until they are dry enough to be scanned in order to have a proper view and full appreciation of their beauty.
This rooster and another hen as they appeared after layer #2.

Meanwhile, I am sorely lacking in quail photos. Those little guys are shy and busy. They show up outside the windows when the light is low, so it takes about a dozen photos to find one that might be paintable.