I got serious about working on this commissioned oil painting of the Kaweah Post Office in Three Rivers for a nice (and hopefully patient) lady from New Jersey.
Now, this is more like it. layers, details, contrast, texture. It needs to dry so I can paint the words on the signs – KAWEAH, POST OFFICE. The year established and the zip code are too small. The other words are sort of too small too, but I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I’ll probably end up tightening up other parts of the painting too. That’s usually how it goes.
So, I’ll just lift it off the easel, paint the edges, hang it up by the window, and then wipe the paint off my forearms. I always get paint on my forearms when I paint the edges of the canvas.
OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Would you just look at that!?!!
The wire is on the wrong side. The title on the back will be upside down too. I’ve only done this about 800 times so far.
My amazing friend Barbara grows lavender. She opens her lavender gardens (or is it a farm?) to the public each June when the lavender is at its peak. People can harvest bunches of lavender.
English lavender in bloom
The dates of this event are a little squishy, because the bloom is dependent on the weather.
This year, it is possibly Saturday June 15. This happens here in Three Rivers, and you just sort of have to pay attention to the paper and to people who might know.
Barbara and I like to collaborate on art projects. She had me paint lavenders on saltillo tiles for her garden and to sell during the Hidden Gardens Tour. These sold well, so I have painted more for her Lavender Harvest Event.
In addition, I have finished 2 new paintings based on her beautiful lavender. The hope was to have them printed into blank books to be useful as journals. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
Last summer, the Silver City Store sold a pile of paintings for me. This summer I am preparing in advance, so each time I stop by and see one is gone, I can put another in its place.
I had a stack ready to go, and then 2 of them sold. Nope, I don’t mind at all!
Vandever VI, oil on wrapped canvas, sold, sorry, but not really
Oak Grove Bridge X, oil on wrapped canvas, my favorite bridge, and I’m ready to paint it again soon!
It has been about 2 months since this California Artist did any oil painting. When I take a long hiatus*, I wonder if I will be able to paint any more.
I used to have that little niggling worry about drawing when several weeks would pass without my picking up a drawing pencil (unless I was using one to balance my checkbook).
Because the season of Mineral King is upon us, it is time for me to supply the Silver City Store with oil paintings to sell.
This happens in steps:
Inventory existing paintings
Make a list of subjects that should always be on hand and for sale
Go through photos
Choose photos to paint now and ones to paint later.
Write the titles and inventory numbers on the inventory list and backs of the canvases
Turn on the swamp cooler. Yes, in April. This gives me hope that we will have a shorter summer in terms of heat.
Find something to listen to while painting. If the internet is working, I can listen to podcasts online. If it isn’t, I can listen to the radio or to my iTunes music.
Wonder where Perkins is and if he’d like to hang out. Miss Zeke a little. Miss Kaweah a lot. Go back into the house for something or another thing.
Paint! Just do it! I just listened to a podcast on productivity that said if you find yourself procrastinating, there is a problem. OF COURSE there is a problem if you procrastinate – you won’t get the work done! Then there is the Steven Pressfield book called The War of Art in which he discusses something called “resistance”. I’ve listened to podcasts and read blogs about this.
Fix/finish those California poppy paintings I started 3 months ago.
Use the leftover paint on your palette to base-coat canvases for the next painting session.
Any questions?
*Hiatus means pause or gap in sequence. Why use a one-syllable word when there is a great three-syllable word to do the job?
A couple of oil paintings sold, so I moved them from their pages on the website to the Sold page. In the process, I realized that several paintings are not on the site that should be.
Kaweah River in Fall, 10×10″, $125
They won’t load. Technology confounds me once again. Just when I think I can manage my own website, I have to go running to the web designer.
Kaweah Post Office VII, 11×14″, $175
These are not brand new but they are among my newest paintings. You might remember seeing them awhile ago. But, should you want to buy them, technology might confound you too! So, here is another opportunity to see them.
Because my self-imposed drawing quota for The Cabins of Wilsonia was met for February, I used the last week of the month to knock out a few oil paintings. Two are commissions, and the rest are to sell at the Three Rivers gallery Colors.
Here they are in progress:
Kind of nice to be working in color again. Smells funny, though.
“Loosiosity” is a word coined by my customer/student/friend Sara. Because it is one of those self-defining words, I’m guessing that you can figure it out.
This painting style is the polar opposite of “loosiosity”.
Sara commissioned me to paint a scene for her based on a piece of art she had seen and loved. I had a little photo of that art, but didn’t want to copy it. I changed several things, and painted it in my style, but following Sara’s request for loosiosity.
I THOUGHT I was painting loosely because it was definitely looser than my normal style.
After living with the piece for a few months, Sara told me it wasn’t as she had envisioned. She is very polite, and we are quite honest and straight-forward with one another. It is the sort of relationship I have with all my drawing students.
The way this California artist conducts business is until a commissioning customer is happy with the work, I don’t consider the piece to be finished.
Sara brought it to my studio, and together with our friend Lou, we reworked it. This time we studied the tiny photo and evaluated with differences. We discussed ways to mess it up, add color, soften edges, add texture, and in general, match the piece she had first seen.
Are you wondering why she didn’t just buy that piece she loved? (Great question, glad you asked. ) Because it was SOLD to someone else, of course!
Here is the before, when I originally thought I was finished:
Here it is after Sara and I and our friend Lou finished reworking it:
WOW! The differences barely show in these photos!
We messed up the horizon line, added brighter colors, changed textures and added longer lines (“sticks”?).
Lighting is different everywhere, and IT MATTERS. While we were working in the painting studio on an overcast day, it was tricky to see the correct colors. I finally opened up the doors so we could see it in daylight. Now, she will see it in her home.
I’m curious about what you, The Blog Reader, thinks about all this! I haven’t asked for comments for awhile, but I’d really love to hear your opinions about the process, my way of doing commissioned work, the before and after versions of “Sara’s Redtails”.
This should have a BUY NOW button, but my shopping cart isn’t working and I don’t know if the shopping cart on the website is the same as the shopping cart on the blog and after trying over and over to get it to work with those calendars, I would rather make a paragraph of excuses than try to put a Buy Now button here.
SO! you can use the “Contact the Artist” button if you would like to buy this painting and we can do a little business.
I know, I know. I’m not painting this year, EXCEPT when I have a commission to do. I think it is funny that on the very first working day of 2013 when I am supposed to have a laser-like focus on The Cabins of Wilsonia, there I am, at the easel!
Some people saw my painting “Big Tree II” at a gallery. They wanted it. They waited. It sold to someone else. They called and asked if I had another like it. I said no, but I could paint them another. They said yes.
So if they want one, I might as well paint two. That way, when one of my galleries calls to say a Sequoia tree painting has sold, I can immediately deliver another. “My galleries” sounds so pretentious, but you know what I mean, right?
It is the same theory as doubling a batch of cookies – IF you can restrain yourself from eating them all, you can put half in the freezer for the next cookie emergency.
I’m sure you all understand “Cookie Emergency”, right?
So, I have two photos of entire Sequoia Trees, and the two previous paintings for reference. If Big Tree II sold, it stands to reason that there was a Big Tree I, right?
Wow, paintings look scruffy at the beginning. But can you see the promise? Can you feel the forward motion? Is the excitement building?
I’ll let you know which one the people choose, and which one goes “in the freezer”. Or, perhaps I’ll offer it for sale on Daily Paintworks.
Now I’m going to draw awhile.
I ended three sentences with “right?” What manner of weird speech pattern is creeping in here?
You are probably thinking about Christmas shopping. If you are like me, the simpler the better. Not leaving home? The best way to shop! (I used catalogs for shopping long before they were considered normal.)
Here is an easy way to please someone on your list who loves Mineral King.
Honeymoon Cabin XI, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $50
