December Oranges

Did you know that navel oranges are harvested in December? If you are from Tulare County where the world’s best (and most) navel oranges are grown, you probably knew that.

My grandfather and dad were both orange growers. I am an orange painter.

A friend/neighbor called to say that her sister-in-law wanted an oil painting of oranges just like the one in her dad’s house. I asked for a photo of the painting so I would know how to make another one.  Obviously, these people have impeccable taste in artwork. After receiving this photo, I looked through my 963 photos of oil paintings, arranged by subject, and although I recently finished Orange #134, this old painting didn’t show up in my inventory. 

That’s okay. I have plenty of photos to work from. And if I am going to paint an 8×10 oil of oranges, I might as well do a second painting to have ready for the next orange art emergency.

This is how the orange paintings looked on day one of painting in December. (The 8×10 will probably be mailed while it is still a bit wet.)

At the end of the painting day, I put them in boxes to carry into the house and prop up over the wood stove so they will be ready for the second layer. 

(I painted a second and third layer without photographing the process.)

EPILOGUE: Finished and in the mail, right on schedule!

Fruits of My Labor

I had a peach. It didn’t sell. Now it is an orange.

I had some lanterns. I didn’t like painting them and didn’t want to finish. Now they are pomegranates.

Orange #131, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 including tax
Five Poms, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $160 including tax

Welcome to the land of fruits and nuts, where you can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Old Bridge, New Angle

The oil painting, Oak Grove Bridge XXII, sold. This means it is time to paint another view of my favorite bridge. I looked through my photos and found an angle I’ve never tried before.

Is it lunch yet??

Eggs and Potatoes

Happy Birthday, Phoebe!! (23? 23!!!)

These eggs sold.

Ethan’s Eggs, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

These eggs haven’t sold. 

Brown Egg, Blue Plate, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 inc. tax
Brown Egg, Blue Plate II, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 including tax

At a recent show, someone asked me about this painting, “Brown Egg, Blue Plate II”. “Is this a potato?”

Ahem. No, it isn’t. Guess it is time to rethink this painting. That blue plate was very difficult. I don’t want to waste it. How about a new egg color??

List of Activity

What a boring title – “List of Activity” – I’m sure that got people tripping over the Google to find this post. 

Not.

But it has been active around my studio and art business lately with sales of oil paintings and pencil drawing commissions.

Finished and sent to happy customer:

Sold:

Sketch approved and drawing begun:

Good Painting Day

You regular Blog Readers (thank you for reading and caring!) know that my favorite thing to do is drawing, not oil painting. So, when I have a good painting day, it needs to be marked, remarked, remembered, noticed and celebrated.

An oil painting has been hanging around for awhile. Both Trail Guy and I wonder why it hasn’t sold yet. . . I’ve named it, of course, but it hasn’t really become a pet. A few years ago I reworked it, knowing I could do a better job.

On my good painting day, I reworked it again. In this photo, it is the one on the bottom. I had planned to work on the painting on the top, but on impulse (WHAT?? I am not a very impulsive person – what happened??) I pulled it out of the studio and moved it into the painting workshop.

Then, I redid the background, which meant that some of the middle ground needed to be retouched. 

Do you see 2 photographs in the photo below? I used the upper one the first time and  the bottom one in the do-over. Maybe it hasn’t sold because the colors were overly brilliant and/or because it looked more like a telephoto-type photo instead of a realistic painting.

Since I live in Realville, it was time to bring the painting along. This was a good decision, because it attracted attention and good comments at the recent Perfect Gift Boutique when in the past it was just ignored (poor old thing. . .) Even being as non-objective about it as I am, I can see that it is better than before.

Long Way There, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $300 including sales tax in California (This is the Mineral King Road, just above Lookout Point.)

But what about the painting I had initially planned to work on? Got the sky and the back mountain ridges done (maybe) and the top of White Chief Peak begun. Looking good on a good painting day, and looking forward to moving forward in the painting!

Now that was some poor writing (used the words “looking”, “good”, “painting”, and “forward” twice each in the same sentence). Does this mean that a good painting day makes for a bad writing day?

Life is full of unanswered questions.This thing looks okay but it smells funny.

Realville, Not Maybeland

I have referred to myself as “A Realist from Quaintsville”, but most of the time I am more of a realist from Realville, because Tulare County isn’t really all that quaint. Really.

This definition means not living in a dreamworld, a place of what-if, maybe and perhaps. This sounds like “What if I put more time into it, maybe I can fix this oil painting, perhaps it will sell. . . ”

The bald truth about this lantern oil painting is that I don’t like any of these things: working on it, trying to see detail that is ambiguous, and attempting to make paintbrushes behave like pencils. More time probably won’t fix anything, make me like it, or cause it to sell, because it has been in a time-out for 7 months, and none of these things have changed.

I’m 58 and I don’t have to finish this if I don’t want. So there.

Sometimes it is good to just act on a decision instead of waiting to be sure. I’m sure I don’t want to paint this, because I’ve been waiting to work on it for 7 months, hoping I might be able to turn it into an appealing painting.

Reality is that I like painting pomegranates, can actually see the detail, know how to paint them, and know they will sell.

The business of art requires frequent reality checks, and remembering to live in Realville rather than Maybeland.

I’d really enjoy drawing the lanterns, but am not convinced that this would be a good use of my time. Pencil drawings are my strongest artwork, but the reality is that oil paintings sell better.

Realville is where I live.

In and Out

Happy Birthday, Shirley, Connie and Hailey!!

What do I mean by “in and out”?

These paintingsare now IN my inventory.

“Flock”, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $150 + tax
“Dinnerbone”, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 plus tax.

This painting is now OUT of my inventory. (Does that make it outventory?)

WHAT?? Are you telling me I have to paint my favorite bridge again??

It will be Oak Grove Bridge XXIII. That means #23, although I have painted it more times than that – I didn’t begin numbering them right away, and then I lost track for awhile and may have used a number twice, so who really knows?

Square? Vertical? Horizontal? Small or medium? I have the large one hanging in my dining room, but am willing to sell it. Maybe.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

More Sawtooth Paintings Completed

Sawtooth Peak is the third most popular Mineral King subject that I oil paint. (First is the classic view of Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin and second is the Honeymoon Cabin.)

This is a 6×6″ painting, donated to Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery for their annual fund raiser art auction.
This is a wedding gift, a 10×10″ oil painting for a former drawing student who shall remain nameless until after the wedding, although I may choose to protect the identity afterward too. It is good to be careful on the World Wide Web.

And remember the previous two Sawtooth paintings? This place is just filthy with Sawtooth; no wonder I go a little rogue from time to time and paint chickens.

Two + Two + Two On the Easels

Two + two + two? What is that weird Central California artist talking about this time?

Last Monday, I worked on six oil paintings, two of which ones needed touching up. While at the backyard boutique, I saw some areas in a painting that could stand a bit of improvement. When I got home, I saw another painting that needed a boost.

So I painted some diagonal black stripes in it.

JUST KIDDING! Those are shadows from the window pane dividers. But I did some color and light correction on this painting. (The other one needs to dry before I rescan it.)

Then I finished two oil paintings of Sawtooth, one to give as a gift and the other to give as a donation. Wait. That’s a gift too. But, it is an asked-for gift, so I don’t know if it counts as a gift. Where’s my dictionary? What does “gift” actually mean?

Never mind. Here are the paintings before I finished them. They need to dry before getting scanned.

Then, I gave some thought to whether I’d be able to finish any paintings before the next event, The Perfect Gift Boutique, on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week. I decided to begin two new paintings. My oil paintings start out so messy-looking that I wondered if this was a good decision. I did a sketch to see if these 2 photos could be blended onto a 6×18″ canvas. Still looks terrible.

Okay, I get it now. 

Looking more hopeful in spite of needing more work. In fact, it is looking so hopeful that I began another of the same subject.Even upside down, you can probably tell what this is. 

See? two + two + two = six oil painting projects, three different types. Two fixes, two Sawtooths, two poultry. Fowl. Chickens. Birds.

P.S. There are also two unfinished oil paintings just hanging around, collecting spider webs.