Six Oil Paintings at Five Stages

I have oil paintings at every stage right now. All depict Tulare County places, because that is where your Central California artist resides. She is a Tulare County artist, perhaps more accurately known as a “regionalist from Quaintsville”.

Finished, scanned, ready to show and sell:

Big Oak, 11×14″
Olive Grove, 10×10″

Finished, changed my mind, made it better, now drying again:

Hard to compare fairly when the coloring is so different.

Barely begun:

Sold:

Sold, but I forgot to sign it, so I delivered it with a wet signature.

Newly painted to replace the sold poppies:

This one was photographed at the end of the day in low light as it was getting transported to the house for drying.

Recently (ish) Sold Paintings

Seeing a collection of paintings that has sold provides fuel to keep me painting during a season of slow sales. This is a season of producing; November-December was a season of selling.

Seven New Oil Paintings, Assembly-line Style

When Kaweah Arts closed in early January for a couple of months, I retrieved all my paintings. Kaweah Arts sold well for me in its three year span despite serious hardships: a plague, a fire, another fire, and a flood, each one leading to the closure of Sequoia National Park, which meant the flow of visitors to Three Rivers ceased. I went through my records of sales, and came up with a list of sizes and subjects that sold the best.

The average price was $145, and the most popular subject was sequoia trees, Sequoia gigantea, AKA redwoods (the common name) or “big trees” (local vernacular). Two other popular subjects were mountain range views and poppies.

I gathered seven blank canvases from 8×8″ ($100) up to 6×18″ ($165) and then went to my oh-so-lovely newly organized photo files. The efficiency. . .!

After pairing the photos with the right canvases, I then did some preliminary sketching. This isn’t something I normally do, but in the interest of painting quickly, this seemed like a prudent move. (Remember, I also need to produce 20-30 larger paintings for the solo show in October AND paint for the Silver City Store, which sells well for me in the summers when Mineral King is open to the public.)

Next, I did the boring tasks of assigning inventory numbers, and putting the hanging hardware on the back. (This is the sort of task that makes me wish I had an apprentice or an intern.)

All-righty, then! Let’s start with the assembly line style painting of the first layer to establish where colors will go and to cover the canvas.

Painting back to front means starting with the sky. The order of colors and placements doesn’t really matter at this stage, but it is wise to practice good habits whenever possible.
Green next, just using whatever is on the palette, but occasionally making dark/light adjustments.
Browns and oranges, same color family, plus yellow.

Looks like seven little messes that vaguely suggest what they will become, but with almost 18 years of oil painting, this is no longer alarming to me.

I hope you are not alarmed either. This is the most efficient way I know to paint, and these seven paintings will be finished, signed, dry, varnished, and scanned by the time Kaweah Arts reopens in March.

It’s all part of the business of art. (Just in case the Art World is checking in and judging my use of photos, let me explain that I took great care in composing those photos and have taken great care in cropping, blending, adjusting, and arranging the parts of each one of these paintings. So There, because working from photos is not wrong.)

Pictures, Photos, Snapshots, Oh My

33,170. That is how many photos are on my laptop.

I have 12 little drawers full of snapshots collected and used for pencil drawing over the last 37 years. These are in the studio.

I have a filing cabinet full of photos taken, organized and used for oil paintings and murals over the past 18 years. These are in the workshop where I paint. A filing cabinet with folders is not an ideal organizational situation for photos. It takes too long to find what I need, time that would be better spent actually painting.

What’s a Central California artist to do?

Sort, toss, refile, reorganize, of course. This is best done in the house. (Well, happy days, now I have photo messes in all my buildings.)

One of those little 6-drawer cabinets will fit in the workshop shelves. Looks as if those shelves could also use a makeover.

I might need both of those little 6-drawer cabinets in the painting workshop. The photos for drawing in the studio might end up in envelope boxes or shoeboxes.

It’s a long process to get all these actual photos on paper into the proper places, easily accessible, and ready for painting. Remember, it is not wrong to paint from photographs. That’s what studio artists do. (Except when they are trying to make up stuff, bumbling along on challenging paintings.)

Little Changes, New Start

These two paintings needed more work. (Doesn’t this look weird??)

One of my drawing students* pointed out that with the yellow only appearing at the lower 1/3 of the painting, the 2 different parts look like 2 different seasons. This is a case of needing to change reality. You can get away with odd things in a photo, but when an artist paints odd things, it looks as if she doesn’t know what she is doing.

Ahem. I may not know what I am doing.

I am so firmly grounded in reality that it brings discomfort to just randomly dab yellow among the evergreen foliage when I know good and well there is no yellow there. Instead, I just did a tiny bit of yellow in the distance at a height that ferns would be, if there were any ferns back there.

Is it enough? More will be revealed when it is dry enough to study without a shine, and dry enough to scan. For some inexplicable reason, I can often see problems in paintings better on my screen than in person. (This is probably the same oddity that prevents me from seeing problems in my pencil drawings until they are matted, framed, and sealed under glass.)

This painting had an unnatural looking curved branch over the road from the left. I erased it, but then it looked unbalanced and even more unnatural.

I added branches, reworked others, and added bark texture to the trees I hadn’t gotten to yet.

It would be a bit of a “Where’s Waldo?” situation to see all the minor changes. Maybe I better stop boring you with all these minor steps until I have decided it is finished.

On my list of paintings to do for the October 2024 solo show at CACHE is an 11×14 of Dry Creek Road. I have these two photos, both of which have elements that are striking. I decided to combine them, just making it up in the most believable manner possible.

This messy stage feels hopeful. I wonder if anyone will like this made up scene. Guessing what might sell, combining that with what really calls out to be painted, deciding the right sizes of canvas to match with the scenes—these all fall under the business of art.

*I sincerely appreciate this sort of input. It helps me and also reassures me that my students are learning (probably know more about art in general than I do) and that they are not afraid to speak the truth.

More Thought Required

This painting is So Difficult. I continue to engage in mental and artist gymnastics in hopes of making it good enough to sign.

This is where I last left you, in the saga of Can I Actually Finish This?

I found a painting by Bierstadt that had light and clouds and mountains in the distance; briefly I deluded myself by thinking I could copy his technique. Then I saw a poster with rays of light coming through redwood trees, advertising Kings Canyon National Park, and briefly deluded myself into thinking rays of sunlight would look good here.

Using either of those ideas would be the art version of “duplicitous language”. It is inspirational to look at other people’s brilliant art, but copying would look contrived, pieced together, and derivative (meaning obviously stolen). There must be a way to be influenced by others without actually copying.

Next I spent time looking through the 30,000+ photos on my laptop, hoping that if I found the original photos that a solution would come.

I FOUND THE PHOTOS! These were taken up North Fork Drive in Three Rivers back in 2010, I think, but now I can’t remember the exact month or the year. (Gimme a break here—33, 224 photos!)

These aren’t really very much help. Look at the overhead canopy of leaves, the somewhat disconnected branches, the skinny trunks. It is the light and shadow that make this a nice photo, but I cannot duplicate what is here convincingly.

I kept studying the painting, wondering what was wrong with the trees. I’ve thickened the trunks and begun adding bark, so what’s wrong here? Maybe it is that one curving from the left over the road that looks phony-baloney. You can get away with weird stuff in photos, but if you copy it in your art, you will look ignorant.

Better, but not believable yet.
I added more bark texture while contemplating the next move.

It was time to study some real trees, so I took photos of different oak trees while out walking.

This will require more thought, more experimentation.

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)

Quickety Update on Calendars (and a Little More)

Please excuse this interruption in your day.

1. The 2024 Mineral King calendar is still available. At the time of this post, there are 8 left, available through my website or if you email or call me. The Three Rivers Historical Museum no longer has any.

2. I spent 1-1/2 hours on the phone with Apple today to learn why blog subscribers using MacMail or AppleMail cannot see the photos in my blog posts that come to their email. (A few can, but WHY??) No answers came other than that I now need to spend an interminable length of time on the phone with the host of my website. Later. Today’s session used all my reserves for bad hold music and helpers who cannot help.

3. The new painting of fruit is in its home and is just right for the location.

4. The Native Voices exhibit at the Three Rivers Museum looks fabulous!

And that’s all. Just didn’t want you to miss out if you need a calendar.

Thank you—Inconclusive Conclusions

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME YESTERDAY TO TELL ME WHAT THEY SEE AND DON’T SEE IN THE EMAIL BLOG NOTIFICATIONS!!

Please excuse me for shouting. I am so touched by your responses and willingness to help.

In my attempt to see a pattern about who can and who cannot see photos in the email notifications, I learned this:

  1. Mac laptop – some can see the photos, some cannot
  2. Mac desktop – some can, some can’t
  3. iPhone – some can, some can’t
  4. iPad – some can, some can’t
  5. Android phone – all can see the photos
  6. Non-Mac desktop – all can see the photos

There must be some settings that we don’t understand on our iPhones, MacBooks, Mac desktops, and iPads. Now I might have to dig around on settings for Mac mail on every device they manufacture.

This hurts my apple-shaped heart. At least I know it isn’t a problem with my blog (using WordPress.org) or the subscription form.

One more thing: I sent out the blog post and left for the day. All your wonderful comments arrived, but I wasn’t at my computer to approve them. So, if you commented and wondered if it “went through”, it did, and once I approved it, it appeared.

You deserve a beautiful picture as a thank you for making it to the end of this post. (I hope you get to see it!)

Sequoias in Winter, 16×20″, oil on wrapped canvas

(I didn’t put the price because I don’t want you to think I am thanking you by trying to sell you something.)

Requesting Help From My Subscribers

My blog has a technical problem that I have been ignoring because it just seems impossible to solve. Today, I am giving it a try.

I am specifically addressing those of you who get notifications of blog posts in their email. Many of you think you are reading my blog when you are actually reading an email with the blog post in it, because you subscribed. (THANK YOU!) Almost everyone who reads my blog in their email cannot see the photos.

I have not been able to figure out why subscribers aren’t getting the photos in the emails. I no longer have a web designer; there is someone who helps me if I am in a pinch, such as getting hacked, but she has forty-eleven other jobs, and my website is not on the top of her list.

So, I have begun the unpleasant and distasteful task of trying to figure this out. Since most of my subscribers are even less techie than I am, this may not be possible. I might snatch myself bald or scream a little bit and then quit, but here is my first attempt.

Pippin is the most compliant of our 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and comical; Jackson is unfriendly and demanding.

If you are willing, please email or comment to let me know two things:

  1. Can you see the picture in this email notification?
  2. What device are you using? I need to know what brand (Apple or HP or . . .?) and what kind of thing it is (laptop, desktop, tablet, iPad, cell phone, etc.)

P.S. If you want to see the photos, you need to click on the title of the blog post as it appears when you open the email. It will take you to my actual blog on the internet where you can read the post and see the pictures. (The blog is a page on my website, www.cabinart.net) You can do this if you want to see Pippin in this post, but first, please answer my two questions above.

THANK YOU!!