Crazy talk?

Shows are coming this month, I’m painting with hyper-focus, and there is some crazy talk going around. With the shows coming this month, these little oil paintings are almost ready to be sold. They are finished, signed and drying. When dry, I will scan, varnish and then price them.

oil paintings

Five down, 8 or 9 to go. 5 plus 8 equals 13,  but I might need a couple more. 8 or 9 or 10 to go.

About the pricing stage: I am getting messages from many places which sound like crazy talk to me that my oil paintings are severely underpriced. Not only are they severely underpriced, but if I double or triple the prices, my sales will increase.

Does that sound like crazy talk to you??

Where are these folks with big money who are just hanging out, waiting to pay me more??

Crazy talk.

Yes, I Still Oil Paint

Thanks for asking. Were you wondering if all I do is fund-raise, read and tile?

I squoze a little painting in. Thirteen little paintings, actually. There are shows in November, craft fairs and bazaars and boutiques, all requiring that I have things to sell.

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Not finished.

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Finished, not signed,

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Finished, not signed, and too wet to photograph well. All that shine looks messy!IMG_1829

Even looks messy when I step back.

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Added blue to an existing poppy. Looks so good I started 3 more!

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Liked the fruits for my friend so much that I began 2 more, incorporating some blue, of course.

I need to learn if adding blue makes paintings more appealing.

When these are finished, signed and dry, I’ll scan them and show them on the blog. There are 13 in progress, in spite of only showing you 7 here.

“Squoze” – did it make you smile like the word “liberry” did last week?

 

Turning Leaves

A few years ago I began painting autumn leaves. Because I often couldn’t decide which way they looked best, I would turn them around and around as I decided which end to put the hanger on and where to sign.

“Turning Leaves” seemed to be the perfect title for the subject. Sometimes I just amaze myself with my cleverness. I try not to laugh too loudly at my own jokes, but sometimes I have to repeat them because people don’t laugh hard enough. Sometimes they even look a bit baffled.

TURNING LEAVES – GET IT?? HAHAHAHAHA

Excuse me. Got carried away there.

New turning leaves this year:

1551 Turning Leaf IIXX
Turning Leaf IIXX, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax
1550 Turning Leaf XVII
Turning Leaf XVII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

These match a Turning Leaf from a year ago:

1437 Turning Leaf XIV
Turning Leaf XIV, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

The title “Turning Leaf” doesn’t have the double meaning with these, because the stem gives the direction away.

Now I can’t decide if they are dogwood leaves or persimmon leaves!

 

 

Three Rivers is Bear Country

One afternoon I was painting in the workshop. Trail Guy stopped his work on the house to rest a bit. What am I working on?

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Another Kaweah Post Office, because it is my policy to always have one ready to go. Pomegranates because they are beautiful to paint and sell well.

Trail Guy reported a bear sighting. So, I went to investigate. They are so fascinating to watch – something about their size or furriness or proportions or way of moving or something. Here, you can see for yourself. If you want to see a bear any day of the week in Three Rivers, you can just go driving around and find one! Truly!

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Okay, bear break over – back to work. Get painting again, Central California Artist in Bear Country.

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Kaweah Post Offices

The eBay painting went to a very happy lady!

Kaweah P.O.

Chuck’s painting progressed quickly.

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This is a photograph of it while it was drying. Hang on, Chuck, it’s coming soon!

My Favorite Customer bought this painting and I split the sale with the Kaweah Post Office fund.

1293 KPO VII

Several friends gave cash toward the project. Some of them received a package of these cards. (The others didn’t receive cards because I was caught by surprise and didn’t have them with me.)

pencil KPO

Something just occurred to me as I think about this project: EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO CONTRIBUTED IS NOT FROM THREE RIVERS!!

Isn’t that amazing? That may be part of what has blown me away – so many people from other places have a soft place in their hearts for the Three Rivers landmark of the Kaweah Post Office.

 

Spare Canvas, Stray Fruit

Oops.

Yesterday’s “Fruity” blog post had an UFO – unidentified object.

It was a pear.

You probably knew that. But, I showed you a hint of it in progress and then left the more observant reader wondering why I was ignoring it.

When I special ordered those thick canvases for the commissioned oil paintings of fruit, they came in prepackaged quantities. There was a spare one, so I painted the pear.

An artist never knows when a customer will say, “Sure, I’ll take that one too.” An artist needs to be prepared for such contingencies.

Thus, a stray piece of fruit. . .

Pear

It is wet, so you will have to tilt your head to see it correctly.

I bet you figured that out too.

If you would like to own this little fruit painting, contact me with the button “Contact the Artist” under the drop down “About The Artist” tab above. It is 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas ready to hang without a frame, $55 plus tax.

 

Fruity

Remember seeing these commissioned oil paintings in progress?

1546 Orange 124

1547 Grapes VIII

1548 Pom 47

The customer was very happy and asked for more!

Remember these three commissioned oil paintings?

1545 Orange #123

1544 Pomegranate #46

1543 Lemon #19

This customer was also very happy and asked for more!

Here they are in their infancy.

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commissioned oil paintings

And here they are finished: detailed to the nth degree, signed, scanned, and now with varnish drying!

Peach Plum Tammie's Plum

 

As a Central California artist, I have access to wonderful fresh fruit. Every one of these was painted from photos that I took while the fruit was on the tree or of fruit that came from a friend’s packing house. 

One More Look at Adding Blue

To continue yesterday’s dissatisfying post about color, here is an aspen painting before I added blue: 1530 Aspens n:c

Here it is afterward:

1530 Aspens
Aspens, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, sold

Ahem. Why is it that I can repair photos quite well using Photoshop Elements but cannot get the same painting to scan the same way 2 times in a row?

Who cares? I have real work to do!

A Conversation About Color

A friend is learning about art, practicing diligently at watercolor, taking workshops and painting with a group in her town. She also reads about art, and has been kind enough to spend time with me, discussing various art related topics.

She told me about a book called “Breakfast at Sotheby’s: An A-Z of the Art World” by Philip Hook. Not only did she read it, she took notes. AND, she shared them with me!

Two main points interested me in our conversation about color.

1. In Breakfast at Sotheby’s, her notes say this: “Red and blue are the most important colors in modernist art.” (I’ll have to look up the definition of “modernist”. . . always something to be learned around here. . .)

2. One of her instructors believes that all paintings should have some cerulean blue. This is a lighter blue, leaning toward turquoise that I use when I mix colors. (I only use the primaries plus white to make all my colors with a few exceptions.)

While my friend and I sat together in my studio discussing color, we looked around together at the paintings hanging on my walls. We discovered 2 that had neither blue nor red. So, in a spirit of experimentation and adventure, I added some.

Artichoke before: arti 1309

Artichoke after: 1309 Artichoke

Now that is an unfair comparison. The scans turned out differently, although the size is supposed to be the same it is not, and I guess you’ll just have to see the painting in person. I promise that I didn’t mess with the greens. I did mess with the color and exposure on the computer, trying to get the 2 to match, but something just isn’t working.

Never mind. Have a nice day. Thanks for stopping by and making it to the end of this post. Perhaps I should just get to the easels and finish the Kaweah Post Office.

 

Kaweah Post Office Fundraising

The Kaweah Post Office is one of our only landmark structures in Three Rivers. I am working to help meet the insurance deductible to rebuild it because a big limb from a valley oak tree smashed the roof. (We are quite rural – perhaps a bear was in the tree eating acorns and caused the limb to break . . . I wasn’t there, but it could have happened that way!)

There is an auction on eBay to sell my painting of the Post Office; I will split the proceeds with them. (I gotta earn something here, dear readers – selling art is how I make my living!) It ends tomorrow, Friday, October 9, at noon. See it by clicking this link.

A nice man named Chuck told me he wants to participate with $200, but he just doesn’t shop on eBay. No worries, Chuck. I understand those types of boundaries, because I don’t play on Facebook.

So, I offered to repaint it for him for $100 and give $100 to the Post Office (that size normally sells for $150.)

Chuck upped his donation to $150 to the Post Office, so I got busy immediately. Here is how it looked after the first session on the canvas.

Kaweah P.O.

Normally, I don’t draw the image in pencil first. Instead, I block it out with my paint brush and correct the proportions with each successive layer of paint.

Because I will show Chuck a photo of the progress once a week on this blog, I wanted it to look better at each stage than paintings usually do. If he saw my normal sloppy way of beginning, he might get scared and withdraw his offer!

Thank you, Chuck (and don’t be scared!)