Oil Painting Workshop

In the 24 years I’ve been teaching drawing lessons, I’ve never given lessons in December. But, some of my advanced students beg, plead and cajole until I cave in and give oil painting workshops during my “time off”. 

We start off with a little lesson in color, using the double primary palette. This means 2 yellows, 2 reds, 2 blues and white. The color at the far end is a mixture of the bluish red and the reddish blue, which becomes the color used for darkening. I used colored pencils to demonstrate this (I love to draw, you know!)Then it was time for everyone to squeeze out the paints. We spent about 1-1/2 hour just discussing and mixing colors. My method is to mix 3 levels of orange and green, dark, medium and light. Orange and green were needed because the subject matter was a California poppy.

First, I had them draw the general shape of the poppy on the canvas. Second, they painted the background. I didn’t take photos until the orange started going on.

A weird thing happened: I handed each participant 3 different photos, and each person chose the very same one, all without talking to each other or seeing the others’ choices! At the end of our session, this is where everyone was on their painting. 

On day #2 we will do the second layer and the detailing.

Growing a Poinsettia

Someone bought some cards of a poinsettia painting that I did about 8 or 9 years ago. (It looked fine as a 4×6″ image, back when I was first learning to paint. Be polite, okay?)

She liked it so much that she asked me to paint the same picture for her as an 8×10″ oil painting. 

Oh boy, another do-over!! This time I get to do a better job because I paint better and because the canvas is larger to accommodate more detail.

There wasn’t one photo that was my guide when I first painted this. I used several, simplifying the image as much as possible. This time I am using several photos again, but not simplifying the flower so much. This looks a little bit weak in color because the paint is wet and shiny. This is at the end of day #1.

In the next painting session it looks almost finished, but there is more layering, the center detail, edges, and finally. signing. (Then drying, scanning, varnishing, drying yet again). This was painting day #2.

You can see in the next photo that most of the painting looks weird and reflective, because it is wet and shiny. There are 4 petals that haven’t been re-layered. This was painting day #3.

At the end of the painting session, I hung it out in the workshop to begin drying. This one wasn’t in a huge rush to be delivered, so I didn’t want its messy wet self in the house.

Funny how it doesn’t look reflective here. That is because it has indirect light from the window rather than a lamp shining on it. That lamp helps me mix the colors right, but makes for poor photography.

And finally, this is the finished and scanned commissioned oil painting of a poinsettia. Color looks duller than in real life. I hate that. But, the real one is brilliant. Guess you’ll have to take my word for it.

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.