Six Reasons I Loved Painting This Rose

The rose painting went to Kaweah Arts for the final hurrah before they close (reopening in March). This meant that I didn’t give it a clever name, just slapped it with “Rose”.

I loved painting this because:

  1. There were specific things to paint rather than vague landscape textures.
  2. It didn’t matter if I matched the color or the shapes precisely.
  3. It was small enough to finish quickly.
  4. The colors were different than in a landscape, my normal subject.
  5. It restored a bit of confidence in my ability to paint when I had so many incomplete pieces without answers as to how to make them look right.
  6. It is just pretty, really truly pretty.

Victory Tomatoes

My drawing of tomatoes is completed. Carrie Lewis asked for a paragraph of 100 words or less to accompany the drawing. Here is what I submitted.

Gardening feels like a war. We planted many tomatoes in an enclosed area, protected underneath from gophers, on all sides from deer, and over the top from birds*. We faithfully watered and fertilized all summer. Finally, in mid-October, we began getting tiny cherry tomatoes, many no more than 1/2” in diameter. Every tomato felt like a victory, so I took photos of them as proof that we had actually grown some food.

This was not for a competition. It is just a submission to Carrie’s magazine (digital rather than print) called CP Magic, which is all about colored pencil. Colored pencil is not my main medium, as you know, but Carrie is a friend, and I wanted to participate simply because sometimes it is fun to try different things.

*After I wrote this, I realized that we had left the tomatoes exposed to the birds. I meant to put mesh on top but just never got to it.

Happy Birthday, Trail Guy! (all those years are also a victory)

Suddenly Felt Like Drawing

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My friend Carrie Lewis is fully immersed in colored pencil. At the end of December, she put out a call to artists for their best colored pencil work from 2023. I realized that I had done none all year, but suddenly, I had an overwhelming desire to work in colored pencil. It might have been related to working on multiple paintings that felt too hard for me, wanting to do something easier.

After looking through my photos for something that I could easily complete in the one week remaining in 2023, I chose this photo of our little tomatoes. (Small garden, small crop, even smaller fruit).

I chose Strathmore 500 series Bristol vellum paper. (Won’t mean a thing to most of my readers, but it helps me remember in case Carrie wants to know). In looking at my extensive collection of colored pencils, I decided to keep things simple, so I chose Blackwing Colors, a set of 12. Yeppers, only 12 colors. (For a short time, they offered a set of 24, but as a never-early-adopter of anything, I missed it.)

First I drew the tomatoes. In keeping with the desire for simplicity, I didn’t draw all of the tomatoes in the photo, so it was ready for color very quickly.

To make the darker and shaded reds, I used purple and brown beneath the red. To brighten the red in some places, I used orange and pink beneath the red. I used many layers of red in both instances, keeping a very sharp point (on all the pencils).

It didn’t take long to for the red pencil to get used up. Of course, if the last 3 inches hadn’t been broken inside, I could have kept using it. I don’t remember dropping it, but I could have. New pencils are always a bit of a thrill. (Don’t tell me to get a life—this is my life and it’s a fine one!)

Better add the shadows so the ‘maters aren’t just floating. I used purple and brown, but I may try that silver pencil (or is it gray?) over the top to smooth it out. Later.

That was decent start. The daylight was running out and my feet were cold, but I did one more little thing before calling it a day: I smoothed and sharpened all the edges of the tomatoes.

What’s left: finish the background, correct the color on the stems, fill in tomato color more to get rid of the white specks, sign, and scan.

Painting Fruit Instead of the Golden Gate Bridge

I had a few unexpected hours available to paint and decided to not waste that time doing something useless like weeding or vacuuming or painting the Golden Gate Bridge (just your basic endless repetitive chore).

I worked on the commissioned oil painting, 6×18″ for my friend/customer to fit between 2 other fruit paintings in her kitchen. She saw the painting Citrus Row and requested the addition of pomegranates and persimmons but gave me the freedom to arrange and fill with whatever else I chose. Instead of adding those P fruits, I started a new painting.

She sent me this photo to show me where she wanted to put the painting.
Back wall first
The fruit on the far right is a fuyu persimmon, not a tomato. I don’t know why I started on the right side instead of the left, which is normal when I draw so that my hand doesn’t drag over the completed area.
This picture looks worse than the previous one because the paint was quite wet and the late afternoon light made it very reflective.
Incomplete: the table, stem on the pomelo, and the cap on the fuyu. and the edges and signature.

It is quite a thrill to be able to mix and use all these bright colors. Of course, having painted this at the end of the day’s light, it could look rather wrong when I see it in normal daylight.

Yeppers, the table needs work. The leaf on the tangerine is blending into the table. The shadowed part on the orange on the right isn’t right. The fuyu persimmon might need some color correction. The shade from the lemon on the pomelo looks like an outline. On and on and on it goes.

It’s a wonder that any paintings ever get finished.

Feeling Fruity Around Here

Feeling fruity around here lately. A month or 2 ago, I painted this to decorate a banquet for a citrus marketing outfit.

A friend who has bought more of my paintings than anyone else saw this. She said, “If it doesn’t sell at the event, I want it!”

I took the painting to her, and she said, “I’ve been thinking. . . could you change one of these to a pomegranate? And include both kinds of persimmons?”

I said, “Sure, I can do that!”

Then I brought it home, thought it over, and decided to do a new piece for her. I dug through my fruit photos, looking carefully at the lighting and angles. Then, unlike my normal approach, I drew it out.

This is going to be good—colorful and well planned.

The other fruit painting I recently painted as a gift, I did without any real planning. I just pantsed it, trying this and that with paint, having fun with color.

I like it, and so does the recipient. Yeah, yeah, it probably would have been better to plan it. Sometimes I just rebel.

P.S. Good thing I painted a new one because the original, Citrus Row, sold at CACHE’s Holiday Fair!

Perfect Fall Day in Three Rivers

Thanksgiving was a perfect fall day in Three Rivers. We went for a walk to take in the clear air and last hurrah of autumn colors.

My flowering pear tree was a champion this year.

Finally, a reminder for you (and for me, since I don’t get to keep endlessly lollygagging around). Besides, you might like going to Exeter tonight, to their annual city-wide party! I won’t be there but other artists will be at CACHE and all the stores in town will be open and there will be eats and treats. I am a stay-at-home-after-dark-wet-blanket kind of non-party person. But I wasn’t always, and this is a very fun event.

P.S. The commenting part of the blog has been misbehaving but comments are coming through anyway. So to those of you who soldiered through, thank you!

Finishing a Plein Air Drawing

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Plein air means “on location”. Last summer I sat by the stream in Mineral King with a set of 12 colored pencils to see if I could complete a drawing on location.

Not a chance. 

My friend Carrie Lewis posted the project on her blog, and recently someone asked if I would complete the drawing.

Since nothing is pressing right now, I decided to finish the drawing in the studio, but this time using the entire set of 120 colored pencils (Polychromos by Faber Castell)

I’ll just show you the photo, then all seven progressive scans, minus any jibber jabber. (But you can ask me questions in the comments, if you want to know anything specific about the process.)

I am finished and the drawing is done. (Did you know that people aren’t supposed to be “done”?)

This is Vandever, the right half of Farewell Gap in Mineral King, as seen by the Honeymoon Cabin from the gnarly juniper.

Make me an offer! The highest bidder (if not too insulting) before March 31 will be considered. The unframed drawing is approximately 6×8″.

 

New Cards

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you learned that I have some new cards for sale, and this post will be a refresher for you.

What do you do when it rains day after day?

Besides being a looky-loo at all the flowing water around Three Rivers, apparently I sit around designing and ordering new cards. Then I fold and package them, in three different assortments.

Bigger than my normal little notecards, these glossy cards are 4-3/4 x 7-1/2″, a package of 4 cards with envelopes for $20.

Three assortments:

  1. Tulare County: Citrus Cove, Citrus & the Sierra, Farewell Gap at Dusk, Honeymoon Cabin (1 each of 4 pictures, with envelopes)
  2. Citrus Groves: Citrus Cove, Citrus & the Sierra (2 each of 2 pictures, with envelopes)
  3. Mineral King: Farewell Gap at Dusk, Honeymoon cabin (2 each of 2 pictures, with envelopes)

If you order, I will pay the postage.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

I also put together packages that have four cards with envelopes, all the same design. This is NOT on the website, so if you have a particular favorite and would like a package of just that design, let me know via email or phone or old fashioned mail or catch me somewhere in Three Rivers. Same price.

Primarily Speaking


The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. I paint with 2 versions of each of these three colors plus white.

Some say white is the absence of color, some say it is the sum of all color, some claim it is not a color. Doesn’t matter – it is impossible to mix colors without it.

The primaries keep appearing in my life. Early in my painting career, I took half a semester of painting at College of the Sequoias. We were given the assignment to copy one of the old masters. I chose Vermeer, and later realized the primaries figured in large in the painting.

I liked painting this so much that I painted another one.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11x14"
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Our next assignment was a still life, and I brought these items. Still life paintings usually consist of things like a vase, a lemon, a rose, and maybe a skull. No thanks.

primaries

I noticed these gas cans while walking through a town in Alaska.

My flower pots often end up with primary colors without planning. Now I do it on purpose, but it used to just happen subconsciously.

Recently, the primaries plus white appeared in my yard. Apparently in addition to liking the primary colors, we like to sit.

2023 calendars, Mineral King HIKES, all sold out.

Experimenting with Alien Pencils

As a professional artist, it is important to keep my work consistent and to meet deadlines. This doesn’t leave much room for experimenting, something that I view as a luxury for hobbyists. Hobbyists can do anything they choose, whatever inspires them, no deadlines, no need for a signature look (called a “voice” in Art Speak).


A number of years ago, a drawing student/friend gave me a super generous gift of some pencils that I had never heard of. “Graphitint” by Derwent are water soluble pencils, described as having “a hint of earthy color”, but are neither graphite nor colored pencils. After making a chart to see what this “hint of earthy color” looked like, I tried a bit of water on the swatches, drew a small picture, decided it was hideous, and just put it all away.

Recently my friend Carrie Lewis asked me to write another article for her digital magazine, Colored Pencil Magic. At first I told her that I had already written everything I knew about colored pencils. Then I remembered my Graphitints, right there in my stack of colored pencil boxes and tins.

I couldn’t very well write an article stating I had tried them ten years ago and then shoved them aside. 

So, I decided to learn more about these alien pencils. I chose a photo to work from and started another chart to pick the right colors and get a feel for them.

What alien creatures – soft like 6B graphite, but still different than colored pencils. I thought back to a great drawing teacher I’d had who only let us use 6B pencils, keeping a super sharp point. That gave me the confidence to dive in here. After all, it’s only paper, and I do know how to draw.

It was enjoyable, because I listened to Peggy Rowe read from her book Vacuuming in the Nude and Other Ways to Get Attention, (on her son’s blog “The Way I Heard It”). And it was enjoyable because I love to draw, even with alien pencils.

Enough. Many layers, like colored pencils. Lots of ad libbing, along with severe editing, and this little 5×7″ drawing with alien pencils was finished.